Cambridge and Edinburgh universities today announced plans to open new research centres for Islamic studies.
The centres are being funded to the tune of £16 million by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, chairman of the Kingdom Foundation.
The announcement comes in the context of Anthony Glees’s forthcoming report for the CSC on the disproportionate amount of influence Saudi and Muslim organisations held a over UK universities, including Cambridge and Edinburgh, due to their lavish donations.
Glees, director of Brunel University's Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, found that eight UK universities have accepted more than £233.5 million from Saudi and Muslim sources since 1995. The majority of this money has gone to Islamic study centres, who Glees found often gave a biased view of Islam and largely propagated anti-Western viewpoints.
The HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies, which will be based in Cambridge, and the Edinburgh based Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, say they aim to raise awareness of Islam and Muslims in Britain. The centres will run a series of research programmes, conferences, lectures and summer schools.
Comments (1)
This is just an extension of the domestic Saudi royal family-Wahhabi pay-off into the UK. The stench of intellectual corruption is everywhere on these deals. And all sanctioned by the illogical concept of "moderate Wahhabism". How easy the subversion process is proving to be.........
Posted by anthony norman | May 12, 2008 12:47 AM
Posted on May 12, 2008 00:47