Donor cancels Islamic chair for Temple (terror link)

Philadephia Inquirer ^ | 1/05/08 | Kathy Boccella

[Kid Shelleen]

Last spring, an Islamic group came to Temple University with an extremely generous offer: $1.5 million for an endowed chair in Islamic studies to honor religion professor Mahmoud Ayoub. But after months of talks, the deal fell apart when trustees and others raised concerns about the donor, the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), ---snip--- David Horowitz, head of the Los Angeles-based Freedom Center, called IIIT "Islamo-fascists" and "part of a jihad against the West."

[driftdiver]

Some very basic research shows many sources linking this group to radical islam. Their site is almost devoid of information about them or their members.

Good for the University to refuse this money.

[MaestroLC]

IIIT was eager to work with the school because of its association with Ayoub and former professor Ismail Al-Faruqi, who founded Temple's Islamic studies program and was a cofounder of IIIT, Luque said. The chair was to be named for Al-Faruqi.

Frontpage, 2003:

Ismail Al-Faruqi, a Palestinian immigrant who founded the International Institute of Islamic Thought and taught for many years at Temple University in Philadelphia, was also the first contemporary theorist of the Islamic Caliphate of America. He declared in 1983 that “nothing could be greater than this youthful, vigorous, and rich continent [North America] turning away from its past evil and marching forward under the banner of Allahu Akbar.”

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

"They did not want a chair of Islamic studies funded by a Muslim [terrorist front] organization," said Ayoub, a blind, 69-year-old Islamic and interreligious scholar who was to be the first occupant of the chair.

Corrected...

[freeangel]

More likely the deal fell apart because the curtain came up for the public to see what kind of liberal thinking (or stupidity) emanates from many universities.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

‘zackly.