Also not sure how true this is. AFAIK there are many western academic scholars of Buddhism who don't engage in Buddhist practices, I'm thinking of Richard Gombrich who has criticised meditation as self-centring and at odds with helping others.
This isn't true of Gombrich specifically, but the Western tendency to view Buddhist practice as revolving entirely around meditation, with various optional add-ons depending on the type of Buddhism, is another bête noire of mine. It's probably one that's beyond the scope of this thread, though.