Well OF COURSE people in the Middle East are human beings.

I find it unbelievable that anybody would assume otherwise.

That said, courses in language, history, and culture are simply invaluable. They do help make us real to each other. I do think we dehumanize "the other" and we do it within our own culture let alone to people from overseas.

However, isn't there a problem when Middle Eastern Studies courses are politicized and/or used as an excuse to attack and demonize Israel or misrepresent Zionism?

The people of Israel are human as well,though this simple fact seems to be overlooked all too often. Therefore, the study of minorities in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia should ALSO be encouraged.

How many people know much, if anything, about Sephardic, Mizrachi and Yemenite history, art, music and culture? Yet a majority of Israeli Jews are descended from these indigenous Middle Eastern Jews, as well as others from Iran and Central Asia. Their history long predates Islam or the rise of Arab power in the region.

Nevertheless Israel is seen merely as a Western colonialist/imperlialist project, and Zionism, in a sort of circular logic, as an incorporation and reflection of antisemitism.

So the language itself is being blurred - the English language - in cases where the term "antisemitism" is being warped to mean "anti-Arab" and Zionism is portrayed as an evil. This can't be seen as anything other than an attempt to harm Israel and mitigate or undercut studies of Arab or Muslim misojudaism, as Wikipedia was calling their article on Arab antisemitism for awhile. Yet the claim will also be made that this can't possibly be antisemitic!

Joseph Massad himself walks a thin line - assuming a careful scholarly stance all the while - read this:

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/720/op63.htm

It seems to me this goes way beyond language, culture and history - it's politics. And one must ask: what is the desired end game here?

In any case, the history and art history of Kurds, Turks, Armenians, Assyrians, Maronites, Copts, Berbers - so many others - in a lifetime a person could hope to scratch the surface perhaps. And how far back should we go? I think of course, millenia - but then I guess this makes one an "orientalist":)

sophia,

thank you for your reply. i too find it unbelievable that anyone else would assume otherwise.

i am laurel ackerson, was quoted in this blog entry, and ask that you and mr. solomon allow me to make an important clarification.

first let me give my sincere congratulations to professor massad for the trilling award for his book.

second. i really *do* know that people in the middle east ARE human. however, the portion of the article from which i was quoted was an interview terribly reported and has since been corrected (see below).

words like "human" and "ignorant" were used totally out of context and factual information erroneously printed. i would chalk this up to poor notetaking and a probably overworked reporter... at least i hope that was all it is.

i know that probably no one really cares about what i have to say but since you commented on a very important matter - humanization of the Other - i do feel that making the clarification is not only important but essential.

the info has been corrected in the article and now looks like this.

"Laurel Ackerson, a 40-year-old General Studies student who came to MEALAC from a job as a legal secretary in California, said she wanted definitive answers about the Middle East, information she wasn't getting from the media or other sources.

Ackerson hopes to study Arabic in Yemen this summer, but, despite the fact that upon graduation she will be more than $120,000 in debt, she refuses to entertain the notion of working for the government. "It feels to me like I'd be selling my soul...to work for the government would be unfair to the people I'm studying. Especially because of the tenor of what's going on in the country right now."

She credits MEALAC courses on Islam and Arab society with "opening up a part of the world I felt like I'd never be able to touch."

thank you for granting me the opportunity to attempt to clear the record. i am grateful to columbia university, the MEALAC department, and its faculty for allowing me the opportunity to be a part of it. seeing the interview printed as it originally was printed simply broke my heart.

sincerely,
laurel ackerson

Laurel, on the contrary - I certainly care what you have to say and am glad for the feedback and the clarification, and am positive that other readers will appreciate your letter as well.