Georgetown’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies may distribute biased materials, according to an article published in an online Jewish news service on Oct. 23.
The article was one of a four-part series by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about bias in teaching schoolchildren about the Middle East. According to the article, universities nationwide are misusing government funds to promote a pro-Arab viewpoint.
Zeina Seikaly, outreach coordinator for the CCAS, is mentioned by name in two articles of the series.
The CCAS is a National Resource Center under the Higher Education Act’s Title VI program, which aims to produce experts in foreign language and cultural studies of world regions important in international affairs for future government service.
University studies centers that qualify for National Resource Center status receive federal grants to fund their programming and research and to coordinate outreach programs to share their research with the broader community.
The programs include teacher-training seminars and the publication of supplementary teaching materials for K-12 education.
The JTA pointed to ties between the CCAS and Dar al Islam, a non-profit Islamic organization based in New Mexico, to demonstrate the bias in the Center’s outreach materials. According to the JTA, Seikaly prints Dar al Islam publications and invites the organization’s associates to lecture at Georgetown.
The article goes on to claim that a publication entitled “The Arab World in the Classroom” that was distributed to teachers at a training seminar last year was printed in connection with Saudi Aramco World.
But Seikaly maintains that the accusations are groundless.
Although Seikaly did work as assistant director at Dar al Islam for two summers in 1996 and 1997. Although she did this while working part-time at the CCAS, she said there is no connection between the religious organization and Georgetown’s Arab Studies Center.
“CCAS is not affiliated with Dar al Islam,” she said. “I did this work independently.”
Furthermore, Seikaly said, the only Saudi role in the publication handed out at the seminar came from the pictures that Saudi Aramco provided for it.
Sandra Stotsky of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a District of Columbia-based education think tank, believes that academic advisory boards should oversee Middle East studies centers that receive Title VI funds to ensure objectivity and transparency.
“There should be very serious strings attached to these centers in terms of how taxpayer money is spent,” she said.
The House of Representatives has a proposal in place for the creation of an International Higher Education Advisory Board as part of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, due for decision by the end of the year.
Georgetown is opposing the House plan, citing the complications that such increased bureaucracy would bring.
“National Resource Centers need to reflect a balance of perspectives in their activities, but they should not be constrained by another layer of oversight that is viewed by many as aimed at discouraging a free and open exchange of ideas critical to a full understanding of political, social, and cultural circumstances in sensitive regions,” University President John J. DeGioia wrote in an August letter to Georgetown alumni in the House of Representatives, urging them to reject the Advisory Board’s proposal.
