The Currant Status of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies in the USA

Mazin Salah Motabagani (Faculty of Education, Saudi Arabia)

The Currant Status of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies in the USA

In 1990 the US government has issued the National Security Education Program (NSEP) in which it allocated a certain amount of funds to support grants to study foreign languages particularly Arabic. These grants were conditioned by serving different national agencies inwhich the intelligence service comes first. This was subject of debate and criticism from the academic circles in the United States. Nevertheless, it seems that the US government went

a head with this project. The number of students applying for this grant has increased by 50%.

The area studies field has been witnessing in changes since early 1990s. One of these changes the improvement in the representation of Middle Eastern issues the annual Middle East Studies association conference by allowing more sessions on the Arab World conducted by Arab and Muslim scholars.

However, the study of Islam may not have changed due greatly to being represented in religious studies departments. These departments were not exposed to the outsiders.

However, Muslim scholars were rarely appointed to teach Islam.

Since its inception, The Middle Eastern Studies have suffered many shortcomings and serious defects. Of these defects is the lack of original sources and balanced representation of text books and reading materials required of the students.

The events of September 11, 2001 brought many changes to the field of Middle Eastern studies in the USA universities. Academic freedom became under severe attack from various groups first of which is the Zionist lobby, the neo-conservatives and the main

philanthropic organizations as depicted in the book edited by Professor Beshara Domani about "academic freedom. However, the USA academia has not been silent in the face of the loss of freedom,but the task is great and the chances of success may be limited. The field of Middle Eastern studies in not everything in the area studies since there are many other aspects of these studies beside the “Arab-Israeli conflict. The representation of other

Islamic issues such as the Islamic movements or the strive for Democracy in the Arab and Islamic World is another important issue.

This search will look into the development that have taken place in the field of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies since the early 1990s by studying of latest publications on this matter such as Martin Kramer book "Ivory Towers on Sand, Academic Freedom and Civil rights in Peril: targeting of Arabs and Muslims. The search will also focus on the syllabi of different courses whether on Middle Eastern issues or Islamic. I am aware that there is a vast reservoir of material on these issues. The search would also try to be abreast of the activities in the Arabic and Islamic studies such as; publications, conferences, appointments of teaching staff and grants given to graduate and under graduate students.

This study will rely firstly on recent publications on this field. Secondly, the search will obtain important data on courses and syllabi from the internet. The search will try to conduct a field

trip to some American universities to have a first hand knowledge of these studies