Saudi Funding: From Jimmy Carter to Middle East Studies

Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and Jimmy Carter

According to the Arab News, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter recently participated in an official Carter Center delegation to Saudi Arabia, where he met with Saudi billionaire and prolific funder of Middle East studies in the U.S, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal. The prince's largesse has resulted in the Islamist apologist-dominated Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University (headed by chief apologist John Esposito) and Harvard University's Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program, whose faculty, although less controversial, is equally tendentious.

During the meeting, Carter dutifully "commended the prince for his efforts to encourage East-West dialogue to bridge the understanding between the two cultures," but, as Campus Watch noted in 2012, Bin Talal's funding of Middle East studies is not intended merely to promote cross-cultural understanding. A representative for his foundation admitted at the time that it's part of an "effort to combat Islamophobia after September 11," including "an anti-campaign against Islam in general." In other words, its purpose is to promote a whitewashed, positive image of Islam in the West.

Saudi-funded Middle East studies academics have eagerly embraced this goal, whether wittingly or not. Such academics are not so much "created" by the Saudis and other Middle Eastern funders, as drawn to centers and positions that confirm and amplify preexisting biases. Bin Talal's funding magnifies the field's pro-Islamist, anti-Western voices and, for that reason, remains a cause for concern.