Saudi Prince Gives Millions to Harvard and Georgetown (for Islamic Studies Departments)

Harvard University and Georgetown University each announced yesterday that they had received $20 million donations from Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, a Saudi businessman and member of the Saudi royal family, to finance Islamic studies.

Harvard said it would create a universitywide program on Islamic studies, recruit new faculty members in the field, provide more support for graduate students and convert rare Islamic textual sources into digital formats to make them widely available.

"For a university with global aspirations, it is critical that Harvard have a strong program on Islam that is worldwide and interdisciplinary in scope," said Steven E. Hyman, Harvard's provost, who will coordinate adopting the new program.

Georgetown said it would use the gift - the second-largest it has ever received - to expand its Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, which is part of its Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. It said it would rename the center the H.R.H. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.

(probably this guy gave to pakistani charities as well.)

South Asia
Dec 6, 2005

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

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.

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 jiha

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