Columbia U. Releases Edward Said Chair Donors: Names Arab Government

Campus Watch ^ | 3-19-04 | Campus Watch

[FlyLow]

The recently established Edward Said Chair at Columbia has caused much controversy, in part because it is held by former PLO spokesman Rashid Khalidi and in part because the donors of the chair's estimated $4 million endowment have until now been kept secret.

As Campus Watch has reported, it is highly irregular for the identity of academic chair donors to be concealed. It is all the more alarming that a university, naming a chair for one political activist and then awarding it to another political activist, would then prevent the public from knowing who had funded the chair. Columbia University continued to refuse disclosure.

On Friday, March 12, 2004, Columbia's Office of Public Affairs finally released in print (not on its website) the full list of donors:

Yusef Abu Khadra Abdel Muhsen Al-Qattan Ramzi A. Dalloul Richard and Barbara Debs Richard B. Fisher Gordon Gray, Jr. Daoud Hanania Rita E. Hauser Walid H. Kattan Said T. Khory Munib R. Masri Morgan Capital & Energy Olayan Charitable Trust Hasib Sabbagh Kamal A. Shair Abdul Shakashir Abdul Majeed Shoman Jean Stein United Arab Emirates

With the list now public, it is clear why Columbia University preferred not to disclose the donors' identities. Columbia is already known for the lack of balance in Middle East studies. The list of donors to the Edward Said chair only confirms the problem.

Particularly worrisome is the presence of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) among the donors. As Martin Kramer has pointed out, the incumbent of the Said Chair has also been named the director of Columbia's Middle East Institute, a federally-subsidized National Resource Center for the Middle East, and as such administers over $1 million in U.S. government subsidies intended to improve national security. The conflict of interest is obvious.

Jonathan Calt Harris, managing editor of Campus Watch points out, "In brief, at Columbia right now, a political activist professor, paid in part by an Arab state, currently administers funds from the U.S. taxpayer, in part for the purpose of ‘outreach' to the public. Both Columbia alumni and taxpayers should find this shocking."

A previous UAE government donation to an American university has come under fire – the gift of $2.5 million in 2000 from Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan for a professorship at Harvard Divinity School (HDS). Rachel Fish, then a student at the Harvard Divinity School, showed the antisemitic activities of the UAE's Zayed Center for Coordination and Follow-Up. HDS President William Graham has promised an investigation.

[Paleo Conservative]

The recently established Edward Said Chair at Columbia has caused much controversy, in part because it is held by former PLO spokesman Rashid Khalidi and in part because the donors of the chair's estimated $4 million endowment have until now been kept secret.

[joesnuffy]

They 'pay the cost to be the boss'

[onedoug]

The Enemy Islamist Chair

[joesnuffy]

The strangulation of America continues...petrol dollars grease our leaders and facilitate the takeover of all our insitutions and media...
Wait till Ridley Scott's pro muslim anti-Christian movie hits the silver screed

[eyespysomething]

What movie is that?

[rmlew]

Thanks for pinging me.

Here is a more legible list of donors:
Yusef Abu Khadra
Abdel Muhsen Al-Qattan
Ramzi A. Dalloul
Richard and Barbara Debs
Richard B. Fisher
Gordon Gray, Jr.
Daoud Hanania
Rita E. Hauser
Walid H. Kattan
Said T. Khory
Munib R. Masri
Morgan Capital & Energy
Olayan Charitable Trust
Hasib Sabbagh
Kamal A. Shair
Abdul Shakashir
Abdul Majeed Shoman
Jean Stein
United Arab Emirates

[goldstategop]

The Professor Of Terror gets his own endowed chair... at Columbia U. Posthomously, of course.

[Piranha]

post-hummous-ly.

[rmlew]

Columbia ping

[Piranha]

Gordon Gray, Jr. is C. Boyden Gray's brother. Boyden Gray was counsel to President Bush 41.

[Piranha]

Did Harvard ever return the $2.5 million gift to its divinity school that was given by the President of the United Arab Emirates? There was controversy because Sheik Zayed, ruler of the United Arab Emirates, funds a think tank called the Zayed Center that disseminates
anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism throughout the Islamic world. For example, the center published a book claiming that the American government masterminded the Sept. 11 attacks. It also hosted notorious Holocaust deniers and featured a lecture by a Saudi professor who claimed that Jews use gentile blood for holiday pastries. The Los Angeles Times quoted the center director as saying the "Jews are the enemies of all nations."

http://mailman.io.com/pipermail/freemanlist/2003-October/001067.html

[wildbill]

As a Columbia College graduate (61)I think this is "another sorry mess the liberal academic establishment has gotten us into, Ollie."

[twigs]

Lots of ironies here. Said was an ENGLISH professor. He also wrote about the problem of one-sided Middle Eastern studies in American universities because of who funds them. He complained loudly and bitterly about it. Hmmm.

[Rodney King]

Thanks for the ping. I find it fascinating the way the left is in bed with people who beleive in clitorectimies (sp?) and killing women who have affairs. I guess they just have a common enemy in Capitalists and the Jews.

[rmlew]

If you are angry at the slide of Columbia into being a base for the fifth column, please join The Columbia Conservative Alumni Association.