Let’s Not Take the Money

Writing for Campus Watch, Canadian journalist Barbara Kay has exposed the Islamist organizations behind the $2 million funding of a new chair in Islamic studies at Huron University College, an affiliate of the University of Western Ontario.

The two principal donors are Muslim Association of Canada and the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), both of which have Muslim Brotherhood-inspired charters. IIIT’s co-founder and former president, Shaykh Taha Jabir al-Alwani, is an unindicted co-conspirator in the case against Sami Al-Arian, the Florida professor who pled guilty to conspiracy to help the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a U.S. State Department-designated terrorist organization. Moreover, a U.S. Customs agent swore in an affidavit that IIIT’s current vice president, Jamal Barzinji, has ties to Hamas.

Trish Fulton, principal (president) of Huron and other administrators are apparently betting they can ignore the reputation of the principal donor: the Virginia-based International Institute of Islamic Thought.

Fulton and others at HUC would be in good company if they return the money. When IIIT came calling on Temple University in 2008 with an offer of $1.5 million to fund a chair in Islamic studies, Temple—after hearing from donors, alumni, trustees, and others alarmed by its potential association with IIIT—took the high road and refused the gift.

Winfield Myers is managing editor of the Middle East Forum and director of its Campus Watch project, which reviews and critiques Middle East studies in North American universities. He has taught world history and other topics at the University of Michigan, the University of Georgia, Tulane, and Xavier University of Louisiana. He was previously managing editor of The American Enterprise magazine and CEO of Democracy Project, Inc., which he co-founded. Mr. Myers has served as senior editor and communications director at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and is principal author and editor of a college guide, Choosing the Right College (1998, 2001). He was educated at the University of Georgia, Tulane, and the University of Michigan.
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