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Friday, May 09, 2008

Saudis give UK universities $30m for Islamic studies

The proselytizing of Islam in Western universities continues:
Two of the country's best known universities are to set up research centres aimed at promoting a better understanding of Islam.

Cambridge and Edinburgh universities will share a £16m endowment from Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Abdulaziz al-Saud, a member of the Saudi Arabian royal family and chairman of the Kingdom Foundation – a charitable and philanthropic foundation set up to alleviate suffering around the world.

Both universities, members of the 20-strong Russell Group, which represents the leading research institutions, will set up study centres with the aim of fostering better understanding between the Muslim world and the West.

In Cambridge, the HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies will seek to develop a "constructive and critical awareness of the role of Islam in wider society". There will be research programmes on Islam in the UK and Europe and the portrayal of Islam in the media. Public lectures, conferences and summer schools will be organised to promote better understanding, with policy makers from both worlds invited to become visiting fellows at the centre.

Any chance that these research programs will be the slightest bit objective?

The Kingdom Foundation is specifically set up as a conduit for Islamic propaganda with a few dollars spent on Islamic-only charities, not to "alleviate suffering around the world." A short glance at where they spend their money shows that the foundation will give a couple of hundred thousand dollars to various Arab and Islamic causes, a pittance compared to the $30 million being spent on propaganda here and the $40 million spent at Harvard and Georgetown.

And as we've seen before, whenever Muslims claim to be interested in "fostering better understanding" or "dialogue" between Muslims and the West, they always mean propaganda, with no interest at all in Muslims understanding the West.