The American Prospect covers the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association, “a normally obscure academic enclave that, for obvious reasons, found itself under a bit more of a spotlight than usual this year”, now laboring under a cloud from conservative criticism for not predicting the terrorist attacks led by flagbearer Martin Kramer’s new book Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America.

Kramer’s basic thesis — which he repeated in a scathing Wall Street Journal opinion piece that appeared, with exquisite timing, just days before the conference — was simple. According to his bill of indictment, Middle Eastern scholars have adopted a knee-jerk, leftist “third worldism.” They have failed America by consistently downplaying the threat of radical Islamic movements, and by criticizing U.S. foreign policy in Israel and throughout the entire region.

“This very sick discipline,” wrote Kramer in his Wall Street Journal article, “did nothing to prepare America for the encounter with Muslim extremism, and . . . can’t contribute anything to America’s defense.” Martin’s salvo unleashed a wave of similar expressions of disgust from the usual suspects on the right, such as The Weekly Standard and National Review, who lambasted the scholars for not predicting the World Trade Center attacks.