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$40M to Spread Islam in US Colleges (Prince giving $40M to Harvard and Georgetown!)
Little Green Footballs ^ | 12/13/05

Posted on 12/13/2005 6:48:30 AM PST by areafiftyone

$40M to Spread Islam in US Colleges

Four years after September 11, the Saudi prince whose poisoned gift was turned down by Rudy Giuliani is handing over $40M to Harvard and Georgetown Universities. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

BOSTON - A Saudi prince believed to be the wealthiest businessman in the Muslim world has donated $40 million for Harvard and Georgetown to expand their Islamic studies programs, the schools announced Monday.

Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, who gave $20 million to each university, is a nephew of the late King Fahd and worth upward of $20 billion, according to Forbes magazine, which ranked him fifth on its 2005 list of the world’s billionaires.

Harvard and Georgetown officials said they will use the gifts to add faculty and scholarships and expand their Islamic studies curricula.

“Bridging the understanding between East and West is important for peace and tolerance,” Prince Alwaleed said in a statement issued by both schools.

Harvard, which is naming its newly created program after Alwaleed, already has more than two dozen faculty researching or teaching in the field of Islamic studies.

“This program will enable us to recruit additional faculty of the highest caliber, adding to our strong team of professors who are focusing on this important area of scholarship,” Harvard President Lawrence Summers said in a statement.

Georgetown will use the gift, the second-largest in its history, to expand its Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. The center, which was founded in 1993, also will be renamed after Alwaleed.



TOPICS: Politics
KEYWORDS: aliwalidbintalal; georgetownu; harvard; highereducation; islamicstudies

1 posted on 12/13/2005 6:48:31 AM PST by areafiftyone
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To: areafiftyone

I'm sure when they expand their islamic studies departments that they will focus on teaching the truth about islam. (sarcasm off)


2 posted on 12/13/2005 7:01:06 AM PST by RouxStir (Peaceful Muslim?.....The Ultimate Oxymoron.)
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To: areafiftyone

Until they open the Christian Studies Center at King Abdul-Aziz Univeristy in Riyadh, they should tell the Prince and his money to get stuffed! Harvard has an endowment in the hundreds of millions, maybe in the billions. They sure don't need the money!


3 posted on 12/13/2005 7:17:55 AM PST by Rummyfan
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To: areafiftyone

(Probabaly this guy was a big contributor to pak relief as well.)

US on the scent of terror money in Pakistan
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - Beyond the tragedy of more than 70,000 lives being lost in the October 8 earthquake that devastated large sections of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, the disaster alerted US intelligence to the fact that the financial conduits that feed militancy and terror remain very much intact.

At very short notice, millions of dollars poured into the coffers of the jihadi group Jamaatut Dawa (formerly Lashkar-i-Taiba), allowing it to immediately take over relief operations in Kashmir while the Pakistan government dallied.

As a direct consequence of this realization, the US Central





Intelligence Agency (CIA) once again prevailed on Islamabad to launch an offensive against al-Qaeda-linked foreign elements sheltering in the country, notably in the North and South Waziristan tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan.

Over the past few years, invariably under US pressure, Pakistan has undertaken similar offensives, with varying degrees of success, beyond whipping up tribal animosity by sending troops into the semi-autonomous regions.

In the latest initiative, according to security contacts who spoke to Asia Times Online, the US insisted that Pakistan authorities conduct across-the-board checks and arrests, while simultaneously US operatives would go after specific targets in an effort to search out illicit financial arteries.

One Pakistan move involves Ghazi Abdul Rasheed and Maulana Abdul Aziz of the famous Lal Masjid Islamabad. They issued a controversial religious edict during one of the previous operations in South Waziristan calling on people not to pray at the funerals of Pakistan Army personnel killed in action in the area. The two religious leaders have had their movements restricted.

On the US side, they appear to have scored a hit with the elimination of al-Qaeda number three, Hamza Rabia, in North Waziristan, apparently through missiles fired from a CIA drone. However, the body has not been found and al-Qaeda has denied that he is dead.

During the latest crackdown, the activities of the Jamaatut Dawa are also under the spotlight.

A high-level Washington-based source told Asia Times Online:
"Like prayers, zakat [compulsory charity - 2.5% of an individuals's annual reserves/savings in Sunni Islam and 5% among Shi'ites] and pilgrimage, jihad is also an integral part of the Muslim faith, that is why there is a trend that those Muslim philanthropists who build mosques, seminaries and donate money to Islamic relief operators also send money to those they view as mujahideen. That is the reason decision-makers in Washington are convinced that those who contribute money to Islamic groups in Kashmir are also involved in supporting the resistance in Iraq and Afghanistan."

The current operations in Pakistan are being supervised and controlled by US intelligence. The role of the Pakistani forces is to do the supporting "donkey work".

A case study
Dr Dawood Qasmi, a graduate of the Dow Medical College in the port city of Karachi, works at the National Institute of Child Health in the same city. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is in hot pursuit of him.

His father, brother and two nephews were arrested, and the women of his family were threatened with arrest if Dawood did not give himself up. However, a hue and cry raised in the media forced government agencies to release the men and lay off the women.

Dawood is a former commander of the banned Laskhar-i-Taiba in Sindh province. His role was to recruit civilians to join the Kashmiri movement. He was closely associated with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Kashmir cell. The ISI provided him with ample funds to recruit youths, beside giving him expensive vehicles and armed guards. Laskhar-i-Taiba was one of the most active militant groups in Kashmir.

But post-September 11, 2001, events changed Dawood's life (Asia Times Online wrote a detailed account of his life Confessions of a failed jihadi , although he was not identified by name in the story).

Disillusioned, he gave up his activities with Laskhar and returned to his quiet life in the medical world.

"Dr Dawood Qasmi fully realized it [operations in Kashmir] was not a jihad but a Pakistan Army operation for which it was only using civilians as gun fodder. So he set himself aside. Initially he was working with an online medicine research firm and later on he joined the National Institute of Child Health," said his daughter, Dr Hania Dawood Qasmi of the Baqai Medical University in Karachi.

"Three months ago a colonel approached Dawood and tried to prepare him to work again for Laskhar, but Dawood refused. He said to me that he knew that as he had already been tracked by the FBI, an association with Laskhar was essential as it was the only way to get government protection. But he said that his conscience was not ready for him to become a Laskhar member again, as it would mean being an ISI proxy," Hania Dawood maintained.

Dawood was then left alone. But once the relief operation started in Kashmir, he was contacted by the Jamaatut Dawa to help as a doctor. He agreed, and was quickly provided with huge sums of money to purchase medicine and surgical equipment to be taken to Kashmir to establish mobile hospitals, and even an operating theater.

A week ago, as a result of the US-inspired campaign to track money sources, all senior police officials were asked to update their information on jihadis, especially those active in their areas. Dawood would probably not have been targeted, had not his friend from Laskhar days, Arif Qasmani, been involved.

Arif Qasmani was a part of a high-level November 14 meeting in Islamabad held to initiate a process for peace between the Afghan resistance and coalition forces led by the US. Apparently, Arif Qasmani spoke about Dawood and his involvement in the relief operations, and also about how he had quickly received cash.

Ears obviously pricked up. Soon after, a joint team of the FBI, the army and the police raided Dawood's home in the early hours of the morning, explained Hania Dawood, but her father was out.

"We were the ones who suffered from the hands of the police," said Dawood's 75-year-old father, Abdul Rauf. "They handcuffed me, my son and my grandson. They called us names and forced us to tell where Dr Dawood was. They threatened us that if we didn't tell them the whereabouts of Dr Dawood, they would humiliate all our family members and detain the women and humiliate them in front of our eyes. They did not properly feed us. I was the first person who was released because my health deteriorated."

Later, after the media got onto the case, all family members were released.

Dr Dawood Qasmi's whereabouts are still unknown.

Syed Saleem Shahzad, Bureau Chief, Pakistan Asia Times Online. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com

(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us for information on sales, syndication and republishing

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GL06Df01.html


4 posted on 12/13/2005 7:39:12 AM PST by ckilmer
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To: areafiftyone

Just another in a long list of reasons that I'll never support any of the Jesuit schools which I attended many years ago. Georgetown is actually not even known as a Catholic school even by many Catholics. That should embarass them, but I'm quite sure it doesn't.


5 posted on 12/13/2005 8:30:44 AM PST by Emmett McCarthy
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To: RouxStir

Don't you just love it. We in the West have to cater to the Moslem fanatics wishes but try having a Christian/Jewish donor give money for Western scholarship & teachings to a Saudi school and you'll have your head chopped off. Hypocrites.

Even Cyprus, with all her problems regarding the muslim jerks, has at least up kept highly venerated islamic sites such as the Hala Sultan Tekke - the third most important after Mecca and Medina. Its a shrine dedicated to the aunt and foster mother of Prophet Mohammed. On 1998, some 450 Turkish Cypriots crossed over to the Greek side of the Island for the first time since 1974 for a pilgrimage to Hala Sultan Tekke Mosque in Larnaca, on the southeastern coast, on the occasion of the Muslim religion festival of Kurban Bayram. Meanwhile the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, leader of all Orthodox Christians world wide, lives like a prisoner in Constantinopoli(Istanbul) and Agia Sofia, the "Mecca" or "Vatican" if you will, of the Orthodox Christian world, is STILL defiled by the Islamo freaks. Like I said, hypocrites.


6 posted on 12/13/2005 11:56:38 AM PST by apro
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To: Rummyfan

"Until they open the Christian Studies Center at King Abdul-Aziz Univeristy in Riyadh, they should tell the Prince and his money to get stuffed! Harvard has an endowment in the hundreds of millions, maybe in the billions. They sure don't need the money!"

Good point. Perhaps any alumni Freepers should contact the schools and state that they will actively work to stop alumni contributions to the school so long as the school accepts such donations from individuals who support slavery, violent religious intolerance and extreme gender discrimination, particularly, since the donation is to study a "religion" that promotes these trangressions.


7 posted on 12/13/2005 9:23:53 PM PST by RouxStir (Peaceful Muslim?.....The Ultimate Oxymoron.)
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To: areafiftyone

For the Saudis, this is really a "fundamental" business decision. For only $40 Million dollars they can buy their own safe house to store weapons and IEDs. From their new safe house they can easily attack and destroy Boston's $14 Billion dollar Big-Dig Central Artery project...


8 posted on 12/14/2005 1:43:50 AM PST by FDNYRHEROES (Liberals are not optimistic; they are delusional.)
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To: FDNYRHEROES
For the Saudis, this is really a "fundamental" business decision. For only $40 Million dollars they can buy their own safe house to store weapons and IEDs. From their new safe house they can easily attack and destroy Boston's $14 Billion dollar Big-Dig Central Artery project...

As far as Georgetown is concerned, I wonder if there are any targets of opportunity located nearby...

9 posted on 12/14/2005 1:46:58 AM PST by FDNYRHEROES (Liberals are not optimistic; they are delusional.)
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To: FDNYRHEROES
For the Saudis, this is really a "fundamental" business decision. For only $40 Million dollars they can buy their own safe house to store weapons and IEDs. From their new safe house they can easily attack and destroy Boston's $14 Billion dollar Big-Dig Central Artery project...

The good news is...The Patriots actually play in Foxboro...

10 posted on 12/14/2005 1:53:21 AM PST by FDNYRHEROES (Liberals are not optimistic; they are delusional.)
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