College Middle Eastern studies departments are broken — shut them down to end campus radicalism

Shut down the Middle Eastern studies departments in our universities. I was a student in one of these programs, and I say it plainly: shut them down.

A majority are corrupted and compromised. Through these departments, dozens of American college students have at best been indoctrinated to despise this country and whitewash the crimes of terrorists, and at worst pushed toward genuine radicalization and extremist plots.

These programs have been the soft underbelly through which universities quietly accept foreign money and, with it, foreign influence that dictates curriculum, hiring, admissions, scholarships and more. They serve as conduits that funnel cash into extracurricular groups, adding an extra layer of protection and plausible deniability while financing the encampments and harassment campaigns that have erupted on campus in recent years.

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This influence has been seeping into our institutions for more than two decades, but it has become brazen precisely because there have been few, if any, consequences. As someone who has had a front‑row seat to the jihadification of American academia, this is where much of it begins. Shut it down.

The rot is no longer theoretical. It has names, funding streams and institutional addresses. At Columbia University, Mahmood Mamdani, father of New York City’s mayor-elect, has been criticized for presenting Israel as a purely colonial project while downplaying the terrorism of groups such as Hamas, shaping how students in African and Middle Eastern studies understand the region.

At Oberlin College, Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, a former Iranian diplomat, has faced allegations that he helped cover up the Iran regime’s mass executions in the 1980s and has spoken of Hamas "resistance" in ways that minimize its terrorism.

And at Princeton University, Seyed Hossein Mousavian, another former Iran regime official, has been accused of echoing the talking points of Tehran while appearing to legitimize Hamas and Hezbollah in public remarks, all under the banner of Middle East security studies.

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When the person shaping course offerings, speakers and graduate funding openly aligns with a brutal authoritarian regime, why should anyone be surprised when students emerge hostile to Israel, sympathetic to designated terror groups and convinced America is the villain of the story?

The money behind this intellectual capture is staggering. Saudi Arabia has poured tens of millions into specific Middle East and Islamic studies hubs, from the King Fahd Center in Arkansas to Alwaleed-bin-Talal–branded programs at Harvard and Georgetown that fund chairs, research and student programming focused on Islam and the Middle East. 

According to a 2022 report by the National Association of Scholars, a higher education think tank, Qatar has become one of the largest foreign donors to U.S. higher education since 2001, with several billion dollars routed through branch campuses and partnerships that shape what is taught about the Middle East on both Doha and U.S. soil.

This is not philanthropy in the abstract; it is targeted influence over who gets hired, what gets researched, and which narratives about Israel, Jews and the West are elevated or suppressed.

And the results? Radical faculty and radicalized students. Faculty at some Middle East and related programs have been exposed praising Hamas "resistance," excusing the massacre of Israeli civilians, or sharing propaganda from Iran‑aligned outlets, even as they hold positions of authority over vulnerable undergraduates and graduate funding.

Students trained in these environments helped lead last year’s encampments, where Jewish students reported being blocked from parts of campus, screamed at with slurs, and told to "go back to Poland" or "you have no right to exist."

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At multiple universities, antisemitic incidents — from vandalized Hillel buildings to threats and assaults — spiked in the wake of these protests, which were often organized or intellectually anchored by the Middle East–linked faculty and student groups that draw their energy from these departments.

Until universities can prove that Middle Eastern studies programs are not serving as soft‑power arms of foreign regimes and incubators of campus antisemitism, the burden should not rest on Jewish students to endure more hate while administrators "review policies."

Departments whose endowments originate in Riyadh or Doha, whose leadership defends Tehran’s proxies, and whose graduates populate encampments where Jews are hounded and excluded, have forfeited any claim to automatic trust. Shut them down. Audit every dollar, every visiting scholar, every syllabus, every fellowship pipeline, and every formal tie to foreign governments and their fronts.

If a program can be rebuilt on transparent, domestic funding with staff who reject terrorism and antisemitism outright, reopen it under strict oversight. If not, then let the serious study of the Middle East live under disciplines that still remember the difference between scholarship and indoctrination — and between academic freedom and openly enabling hatred of Jews. Until then, shut it down.