Americans for Peace Now mobilized opposition to the confirmation
of Kenneth Marcus as Assistant Secretary of Civil Rights in the Department of Education over concerns that he would use his position to suppress
free speech and intervene in curricula on college campuses. To our dismay, following his narrow confirmation by
the Senate, Marcus has done exactly that. In the latest instance, the Department of Education
ordered Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to develop a plan for remaking
their joint Middle East studies program in order to continue receiving federal funding. Among the alleged problems
raised was “a considerable emphasis placed on the understanding the positive aspects of Islam” in programming for
elementary and secondary school teachers and a lack of “similar focus on the positive aspects of Christianity,
Judaism, or any other religion of belief system in the Middle East.”