12-14-2005, 02:23 AM
Excerpts from today's Boston Globe news item:
Saudi Donates $20m to Harvard
<b>Money will fund Islamic studies</b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> December 13, 2005
A Saudi Arabian prince who is one of the world's richest people is giving $20 million to Harvard to establish a university-wide program in Islamic studies, Harvard officials said yesterday.
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, whose net worth was estimated by Forbes magazine this year as $23.7 billion, is also donating $20 million to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., to promote Muslim-Christian dialogue and understanding.
The Harvard gift, which officials said was one of the 25 largest in the university's history, will pay for four new senior professors, one of whom will hold an endowed chair named for Prince Alwaleed. It will also provide start-up funding for a project to preserve and digitize significant Islamic documents that are in Harvard's possession and make them available on the Internet.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, in which 15 of the 19 attackers were Saudis, <b>Alwaleed tried to donate $10 million to the Twin Towers Fund for victims. Former New York City mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani rejected the gift </b>because of an accompanying press release in which Alwaleed urged the United States to reexamine its Middle East policies ''and adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause."
Gifts to Harvard from wealthy Arabs also have been controversial in the post-9/11 environment.
<b>Donations during the 1990s to the schools of law and design from relatives of Osama bin Laden were criticized after 9/11.</b> But the money had no known ties to bin Laden or terrorism, and Harvard kept the gifts. Last year, Harvard Divinity School returned a $2.5 million gift from the president of the United Arab Emirates because of the president's ties to an Arab League think tank with alleged anti-American and anti-Jewish leanings.
But problems with the Alwaleed donation do not seem probable. The prince, who is a nephew of Saudi King Abdullah, is widely known for his pro-American views and for his major investments in the United States.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Note that Harvard also has what many call as the one of most bigoted and anti-hindu Indology department .. accoding to renowed expert Prof. Komerath
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Harvard is a fine university, but not in teaching Hinduism or Indian History. Harvardâs Hinduism and Indology teaching appears to be comparable in intent and level of scholarship to the teaching of Christianity at the ârenowned scholarâ Sheikh Osama bin Ladenâs Binori Madarssa in Pakistan.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Saudi Donates $20m to Harvard
<b>Money will fund Islamic studies</b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> December 13, 2005
A Saudi Arabian prince who is one of the world's richest people is giving $20 million to Harvard to establish a university-wide program in Islamic studies, Harvard officials said yesterday.
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, whose net worth was estimated by Forbes magazine this year as $23.7 billion, is also donating $20 million to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., to promote Muslim-Christian dialogue and understanding.
The Harvard gift, which officials said was one of the 25 largest in the university's history, will pay for four new senior professors, one of whom will hold an endowed chair named for Prince Alwaleed. It will also provide start-up funding for a project to preserve and digitize significant Islamic documents that are in Harvard's possession and make them available on the Internet.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, in which 15 of the 19 attackers were Saudis, <b>Alwaleed tried to donate $10 million to the Twin Towers Fund for victims. Former New York City mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani rejected the gift </b>because of an accompanying press release in which Alwaleed urged the United States to reexamine its Middle East policies ''and adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause."
Gifts to Harvard from wealthy Arabs also have been controversial in the post-9/11 environment.
<b>Donations during the 1990s to the schools of law and design from relatives of Osama bin Laden were criticized after 9/11.</b> But the money had no known ties to bin Laden or terrorism, and Harvard kept the gifts. Last year, Harvard Divinity School returned a $2.5 million gift from the president of the United Arab Emirates because of the president's ties to an Arab League think tank with alleged anti-American and anti-Jewish leanings.
But problems with the Alwaleed donation do not seem probable. The prince, who is a nephew of Saudi King Abdullah, is widely known for his pro-American views and for his major investments in the United States.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Note that Harvard also has what many call as the one of most bigoted and anti-hindu Indology department .. accoding to renowed expert Prof. Komerath
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Harvard is a fine university, but not in teaching Hinduism or Indian History. Harvardâs Hinduism and Indology teaching appears to be comparable in intent and level of scholarship to the teaching of Christianity at the ârenowned scholarâ Sheikh Osama bin Ladenâs Binori Madarssa in Pakistan.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->