U.S.Congressman Asks Georgetown University About $20M Donated By Saudi Prince

Wolf to Georgetown: Detail Use of Saudi Millions
The Investigative Project
A U.S. congressman is asking Georgetown University about its academic scrutiny of Saudi Arabia and its use of $20 million donated by a Saudi prince in 2005.
U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) wrote to Georgetown President John DeGioia Thursday, saying he was concerned about how the money was being spent at the university’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. Of particular concern, Wolf said, was the university’s role in training current and prospective U.S. foreign service personnel.
“The Saudi government continues to permit textbooks to contain inflammatory language about other religions,” Wolf wrote. “Restrictions on civil society and political activists continue to be pervasive. No changes have been made to the underlying legal authority relating to non-Muslim worship that the Saudis have relied on to enforce these rules. The Saudis have cleansed their own country of religious liberties by severely restricting public religious expression to their interpretation and enforcement of wahhabism.”
Wolf’s letter seeks assurances the Georgetown center “maintains the impartiality and integrity of scholarship that befits so distinguished a university as Georgetown.” He then asks whether:

“the center has produced any analysis critical of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for example, in the fields of human rights, religious freedom, freedom of expression, women’s rights, minority rights, protection for foreign workers, due process and the rule of law.”

· “the center has examined Saudi links to extremism and terrorism, including the relationship between Saudi public education and the Kingdom-supported clerical establishment, on the one hand, and the rise of anti-American attitudes, extremism and violence in the Muslim world, on the other.”

· “the center has examined or produced any critical study of the controversial religious textbooks produced by the government of Saudi Arabia that have been cited by the State Department, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and non-governmental groups for propagating extreme intolerance.”

· “any of the Saudi-sourced finds have been used in the training, briefing or education of those going into or currently employed by the U.S. government.

Harvard University also received $20 million from Prince Alwaleed bin Talal but that is not addressed in the letter. Wolf is the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on State-Foreign Operations and is co-Chair of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus.
The answer to his questions likely will be no, said Martin Kramer, former director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University and a fellow at Harvard and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Prince Alwaleed’s money wasn’t designed to stop academic scrutiny of Saudi Arabian society and policies, Kramer said. The Georgetown center wasn’t doing that anyway. Rather, “It’s a move to change the subject [and say the roots of terrorism lie elsewhere]. For the Saudis after 9/11, changing the subject is important.”
snippet…..
Among the many examples cited was this, from a sixth grade textbook:

“Just as Muslims were successful in the past when they came together in a sincere endeavor to evict the Christian crusaders from Palestine, so will the Arabs and Muslims emerge victorious, God willing, against the Jews and their allies if they stand together and fight a true jihad for God, for this is within God’s power.”

The heart of Wolf’s concern in both his letter to Georgetown, his alma mater, and in his opposition to the arms sales, appears to be a question of how reliable an ally Saudi Arabia is in the fight against terrorism and extremism. In addition, Wolf seems concerned over a cumulative effect Saudi interest in the U.S. has on policy. The letter notes a request to the Government Accounting Office about investigating “the revolving door” of senior officials who leave government only to lobby on behalf of governments where they previously served. And he specifically asks Georgetown about training current and future foreign service officers.
He notes that there has been a fair amount of promising talk, but “the Saudi government’s promises remain unfulfilled
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Wild Thing’s comment……..
U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) is considered a moderate Republican. And I am so glad he is doing this, I just have to wonder where the conservative Republican’s are to back him up on this. I sure hope they do and that the pressure will be put on the Saudi’s to give some answers.
I also think our Homeland Security should be concerned about this too. This war should not just be fought far away from here, it needs to be fought here at home too. We should be doing our part as a country to do what we can to be strong against those seeking to destroy us from within.