What Do Middle East "Experts" Say About The Muslim Riots?

The following by Cinnamon Stillwell is reposted here with permission:

Profs on Mideast Turmoil:
Blame America, Israel, and Free Speech

by Cinnamon Stillwell
FrontPage Magazine
October 5, 2012

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/cinnamon-stillwell/profs-on-mideast-turmoil-blame-america-israel-and-free-speech/

http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/12637

In the wake of the al-Qaeda attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11, 2012, the seizure of the American embassy in Cairo, Egypt, and the ensuing anti-American protests and riots throughout the Middle East—the latter ostensibly over an anti-Islam YouTube film trailer that originated in the U.S. months earlier—what do Middle East scholars have to say about the turmoil in the region?

As self-styled supporters of "academic freedom," are they rushing to defend First Amendment rights instead of kowtowing to Muslim religious sensibilities? Are they denouncing the prospect of self-censorship rather than pushing YouTube to pull the "offending" video by claiming that it constitutes "hate speech?" Are they standing up for religious freedom instead of encouraging Americans to adhere to Sharia law-driven prohibitions on blasphemy? Are they putting aside their anti-Western biases and laying blame where it belongs instead of on America and Israel?

If the following quotes from Middle East studies academics are any indication, the answer to all those questions would be a resounding No!

Let's take a look at what these "experts" have to say.

Arlene Kushner On The Spread Of Anti-US Riots In The Muslim World

From Arlene Kushner:

September 19, 2012

An Avalanche

What I am referring to is the barrage of material coming into my in-box from readers, much of it connected to the issues of the attacks on US installations abroad, the dangers of radical Islam and Obama's take on all of this.

The first thing I note is that I do not do rumors, nor am I likely to share information what "might be true" but is not corroborated or is highly speculative. Thus, I will not be talking about what US Ambassador to Libya John Stevens may have done or what may have been done to him before he was killed.  Right now, at least, I will not go there, and perhaps never.

In line with the issue of unsubstantiated rumor, I want to mention an e-mail that is making the rounds of the Internet and has now been sent to me more times than I care to count. This is ostensibly written by someone whose brother is a minister living in Jerusalem and sees multiple signs that Israel is about to go to war.  Perhaps, indeed, we will hit Iran, but this letter is a hoax, as a close examination of its claims makes clear. Please, if you come into possession of it, do not pass it on.  It serves no good purpose.

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What I do want to mention -- which I passed by yesterday in making the case for the failings of the Obama foreign policy -- is that the anti-US riots have spread in the Muslim world past the original Egyptian and Libyan embassies: