Congressman Concerned About Georgetown University's Saudi Millions

Congressman Concerned About Georgetown University's Saudi Millions

Sat, Feb 16, 2008 at 8:35:55 am PST

Rep. Frank Wolf is asking Georgetown University some uncomfortable questions about the huge donations they’ve accepted from the religious totalitarian kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Wolf to Georgetown: Detail Use of Saudi Millions.

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 funds have been used in the training, briefing or education of those going into or currently employed by the U.S. government.