Events: Neocon meeting on Middle East had seige mentality

When the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa, or Asmea, held its inaugural meeting here last weekend, the siege mentality felt by its members—many of whom are conservative researchers—was palpable.

Even the group's renowned co-founder, Bernard Lewis, sounded a note of desolation about the state of Middle East studies in his keynote address at the meeting. Freedom to study and write on the topic of Islam, said Mr. Lewis, a professor emeritus of Near Eastern studies at Princeton University, was under assault by a Cerberus of "postmodernism," "political correctness," and "multiculturalism" in academe.Read the rest of the story here.