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The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., United States is an academic center "distinguished by its emphasis on study of the contemporary Arab world and its rigorous Arabic language training." [1] Part of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, CCAS was founded in 1975; scholars Hanna Batatu and Hisham Sharabi were part of its founding.
The initial money for the center came from the U.S. government as well as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman; [2] [3] shortly afterwards, Libya donated $750,000 for to endow a chair that went to historian Hisham Sharabai, a close associate of Yasser Arafat. [2] [3] [4] In total, the CCAS received more than $4 million from Arab governments in the first five years of its existence. [3] A further $275,000 of the center's founding donations came from American corporations with business ties to the Middle East. [4] A further $50,000 had been donated by the government of Iraq, but this was returned by the University's president at the time, Rev. Timothy J. Healy; in response, Sharabi, a member of the CCAS, called him a "Jesuit Zionist." [5]
The Center is funded by the university, by grants, and by private donors including the governments of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, and Libya, as well as corporations with business interests in the Middle East; more than two-thirds of the center's money comes from Arab governments. [2] [4] [6] Since 1997, CCAS has served as the core of Georgetown University's National Resource Center on the Middle East and North Africa, funded by a Title VI grant from the US Department of Education. In addition, the Center hosts endowed chairs from Oman, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, along with a chair in Human Development. [7] [8]
In 2019, Congressman Denver Riggleman wrote to the Department of Education seeking a review of federal funding for the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies; he also raised questions about the possible conflicts of interests arising from the presence of officials of foreign governments on its board of advisors. [1] [5] [7] Its board of advisors includes representatives of the governments of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. [6]
CCAS offers an MA degree in Arab Studies as well as certificates in Arab Studies to undergraduates and graduate students. CCAS' MA program also has joint degrees with the Law School. MA in Arab Studies students can also get certificates in a number of other programs including International Business Diplomacy and Refugee and Humanitarian Emergencies.
Previous directors of the CCAS have included Michael C. Hudson, [9] Barbara Stowasser, Ibrahim Ibrahim, and Rochelle Davis. The current director is Joseph Sassoon. [10]
Hinduism has been found in the Middle East since the mid-19th century. Millions of members of the Indian diaspora, of different religions, reside and work in Arab states of the Persian Gulf; many of them are Hindu. Many came due to the migration of Indians and Nepalese expatriates and employees to the area around the Persian Gulf.
Middle Eastern studies is a name given to a number of academic programs associated with the study of the history, culture, politics, economies, and geography of the Middle East, an area that is generally interpreted to cover a range of nations including Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen. It is considered a form of area studies, taking an overtly interdisciplinary approach to the study of a region. In this sense Middle Eastern studies is a far broader and less traditional field than classical Islamic studies.
The Middle East and North Africa is a geographic region whose countries are often referred to by the acronym MENA. It is also known as WANA, SWANA, or NAWA, which alternatively refers to the Middle East as West Asia or as Southwest Asia; this is another way to reference the geographical region, instead of using the more common political terminology.
South Arabia is a historical region that consists of the southern region of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia, mainly centered in what is now the Republic of Yemen, yet it has also historically included Najran, Jizan, Al-Bahah, and 'Asir, which are presently in Saudi Arabia, and the Dhofar of present-day Oman.
The Arab states of the Persian Gulf refers to a group of Arab states which border the Persian Gulf. There are seven member states of the Arab League in the region: Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Yemen is bound to the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, based on history and culture.
Al Buraimi Governorate is one of the 11 governorates of Oman. Until October 2006, the area was part of Ad Dhahirah Region. At this time, the new governorate was created from the Wilayats (Provinces) of Al Buraymi and Mahdah. A third wilayat, As-Sunaynah, was created from parts of the two. Sayyid Saud bin Hilal bin Hamad al-Busaidi has been governor since 2020.
Islam is historically divided into two major sects, Sunni and Shia Islam, each with its own sub-sects. Large numbers of Shia Arab Muslims live in some Arab countries including Lebanon, Yemen, Bahrain, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, the UAE, and Qatar. Shia Muslims are a numerical majority in Iraq and Bahrain. Approximately 35% of the population in Yemen and half of the Muslims in Lebanon are Shia Muslims. There is also a very large population of Shia Muslims living in the Persian Gulf countries especially in Saudi Arabia. An estimated 5–10% of citizens in Saudi Arabia are Shia Muslims, most of whom are adherents to Twelver Shia Islam. Twelvers are predominantly represented by the Baharna community living in the Eastern Province, with the largest concentrations in Qatif, and half the population in al-Hasa. In addition there is a small Twelver Shia minority in Medina. Sizable and Isma'ili communities also live in Najran along the border with Yemen. Saudi Arabia officially follows Wahhabism, a strict, recently established sect of Sunni Islam. There is little freedom of religion between the different sects even whilst all of the population are Muslims. Smaller Shia groups are present in Egypt and Jordan. Despite the heavy presence of Shia Muslims in some Arab countries, particularly among the population of the Persian Gulf Arab countries, they have been treated poorly throughout history. For both historical and political reasons, Shi'a Arabs have fared relative poorly in much of the Arab world, and the topic of Shi‘ism and Shia groups is one of the most sensitive issues for the Sunni elite.
Joseph Albert Kéchichian is a political scientist.
Fawaz A. Gerges is a Lebanese-American academic and author with expertise on the Middle East, U.S. foreign policy, international relations, Al Qaeda, and relations between the Islamic and Western worlds.
Bangladeshis in the Middle East, form the largest part of the worldwide Bangladeshi diaspora. Although Bangladesh only came into existence in 1971, the land of East Bengal which is today Bangladesh has strong ties to the Middle East. Out of the 13 Million Bangladeshis abroad approximately 8 million live within the Middle East, with 2.5 million in Saudi Arabia and a 1 million of them in the United Arab Emirates. Bangladeshis who come to the Middle East are primarily guest workers or day labourers. Bangladesh is one of the largest labour suppliers to Saudi Arabia. In 2007, Bangladeshi workers obtained the biggest share, with 23.50 per cent of the 1.5 million Saudi Arabia visas issued.
The Palestine Center is an independent educational program based in Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C. Their focus is on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and other Middle East issues.
Hisham Sharabi was Professor Emeritus of History and Umar al-Mukhtar Chair of Arab Culture at Georgetown University, where he was a specialist in European intellectual history and social thought. He died of cancer at the American University of Beirut hospital on January 13, 2005.
Arab News is an English-language daily newspaper published in Saudi Arabia. It is published from Riyadh. The target audiences of the paper, which is published in broadsheet format, are businessmen, executives and diplomats.
The Palestinian Centre for the Study of Nonviolence (PCSN) was founded in 1983 by Mubarak Awad, a Palestinian-American psychologist, and an advocate of nonviolent resistance.
Michael Craig Hudson was an American political scientist, the director of the Middle East Institute and professor of political science at the National University of Singapore. He was also professor emeritus at Georgetown University, where he was professor of international relations since 1979 and Saif Ghobash Professor of Arab Studies since 1980 in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. While at Georgetown, Hudson served as director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies intermittently for over twenty years, most recently from 2007 to 2010.
The Arab Barometer is a nonpartisan research network that provides insight into the social, political, and economic attitudes and values of ordinary citizens across the Arab world. It has been conducting public opinion surveys in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) since 2006. It is the largest repository of publicly available data on the views of men and women in the MENA region. The project has conducted more than 70,000 interviews over five waves of surveys across 15 countries in MENA since 2006. The project is organized through a partnership between Princeton University, the University of Michigan, and regional partners across the Middle East and North Africa. The project is governed by a Steering Committee including academics and researchers from MENA and the United States.
Islamic Republic of Iran and Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan share a long but complicated relationship which has, at times, been tense and unstable. Jordan has an embassy in Tehran.
Susan L. Ziadeh is a member of the Middle East Institute’s Board of Governors who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Qatar from 2011 to 2014. Her rank was as a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor.
The Saudi Arabia–United Arab Emirates border is 457 km (284 mi) in length and runs from the Persian Gulf coast in the west to the tripoint with Oman in the east.
Jihad Al-Khazen is a Palestinian journalist and writer with Lebanese citizenship. He previously held posts as the editor-in-chief of The Daily Star in Beirut, Arab News in Jeddah, Middle East and Life in London.
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