Advocacy, the Academy, and Mushy Thinking

Ethnic and religious advocacy groups’ reports are not known for their academic rigor or careful sourcing—-those qualities are neither part of their mission nor their goals. Their aims are, understandably, more narrow and self-serving.

Academic centers at universities, on the other hand, ought not to be in the business of hyperbole and exaggeration, especially in the sensitive field of racial and ethnic advocacy. And yet, last week an academic unit of the University of California, Berkeley—-the” title=”Council on American Islamic Relations” target=”_blank”>Council on American Islamic Relations just issued its first annual report on Islamophobia in the United States,