Commentary “Social Change and the Global Middle East,” a Jan. 20 webinar sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania’s Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy, made clear that the discredited talking points that ensnared the West in the “Arab Spring” uprisings continue to proliferate at elite academic institutions. Participants failed to note either the intimate connection between non-violent political Islamic groups and terrorists during and following the “Arab Spring,” or the Islamist goal of reviving the Caliphate. Such disinformation—standard fare in Middle East studies—gives those entering government service a false view of who Islamists are and what they’re about, which harms America’s relations with Muslim nations, whose governments and people know better. It also results in what many in those countries say is an elitism formed out of ignorance instead of knowledge. This has led U.S. policymakers to back terrorists and to turn a blind eye to non-violent political …