Friday, December 30, 2005
Before taking a combined $40 million in Wahhabi money from Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, Harvard and Georgetown actually had to campaign for the money.
Here's an excerpt from a New York Times magazine interview with the Prince (the link is pay only). Best part: Questioning why the Prince doesn't use some of that cash to educate Saudi kids with tolerance for Christians and Jews.:
Big Imam on Campus by Deborah Solomon
I don't have control, and I don't want control. Period. They approached us with a proposal. Harvard, Georgetown, University of Chicago, University of Michigan and several of the Ivy Leagues.
But your investment company, Kingdom Holding, invited the schools to submit the proposal, didn't it?
Whom else did you approach? Please. Keep the other universities out. I'd rather not embarrass them. The two winners were Georgetown and Harvard.
Since you're said to be worth more than $20 billion, with major holdings in Four Seasons Hotels, Saks Fifth Avenue and Murdoch's News Corporation, why not give an unrestricted gift instead of such a narrowly focused one?
The gift is unrestricted!
No, it's not. It has to be spent on Islamic studies. Georgetown is renaming a center after you, and Harvard is naming a program after you.
Well, sure! The studies that concern me and fit my overall global vision - they're Islamic studies. As you know, ever since 9/11, we have been trying to bridge the gap between West and East.
By the way, my check was taken to the bank and cashed. The problem was with my statement. I accepted that. Subject closed.
Subject reopened. The money was returned to you. Have you told Harvard, as you told the City of New York, that the U.S. needs to "adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause"?
Let me tell you my position. We need to have good relations between the Arab world and Israel. When I sold my Plaza Hotel in New York, it was sold to Elad, which is an Israeli company.
Doing business with the citizens of a country is not the same thing as believing in that country's right to exist.
We are doing so many things to bridge the gap between Christianity and Islam and Judaism. For example, at my hotel in Paris, George V, you are going to find the Christian Bible, the Jewish Bible and the Islamic Koran in each single room.
That's a wonderful idea, but a luxury hotel in Paris is a long way from Saudi Arabia, where you could surely spend more money on Judeo-Christian studies.
Look. You have to understand that the population of Saudi Arabia has zero Christians.
That's the point. Why shouldn't you should spend your millions educating your own students before you educate kids at Harvard?
Obviously, it could be something we are contemplating...
you could surely spend more money on Judeo-Christian studies.
Look. You have to understand that the population of Saudi Arabia has zero Christians.
A most revealing interview, as it reveals varies assumptions and provokes various expectations. The Prince conceives (1) that his grants are meant to further his his particular religion, rather than "study" it Western-style, that (2) he thinks the primary purpose of such grants is to serve the co-religious population where these Centers are located, and (3) he prefers these things to accurately educating Saudis about other religions.