By BI: Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a senior member of the Saudi monarchy, says he’ll pledge his $32 billion fortune to “charity.” In light of his past donations, this is a highly concerning development. Much of his philanthropic work will help “foster cultural understanding” of Islam in America and the West. That means promoting the kingdom’s brand of Islam, while censoring criticism of Islam.
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal owns the second-largest block of stock (7%) in News Corp., Fox News’ parent company. Recently Alwaleed has been accused of saying, “A strong U.S. government is not good for us.” If he simply wants stories about the dictatorship of the Saudi Kingdom to be swept under the rug, his investment in FOX News helps ensure that.
Investors Business Daily Published reports and books reveal Alwaleed already has pledged millions to radical Muslim Brotherhood front groups like CAIR and the Muslim Students Assoc. that have as their main goal to Islamize America and spread Shariah law throughout the West. These pro-jihadist groups can now count on a massive and virtually endless infusion of cash to their war chests.
Alwaleed has extensive ties to Brotherhood leaders. For example, he tapped “tele-Islamist” Tariq Al-Suwaidan, widely reported to be a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Kuwait, as the channel director of his Islamic religious TV outlet Al Risala.
The network’s “Supreme Advisory Committee” has included Abdullah Omar Naseef, whom ex-federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy says is “a major Muslim Brotherhood figure” who has helped raise funds for al-Qaida.
Alwaleed made headlines after 9/11 when he donated $10 million to the World Trade Center fund only to have then-New York mayor Rudy Giuliani return the check. After presenting the money, the Saudi billionaire issued a press statement blaming the terrorist attacks on U.S. support for Israel while “our Palestinian brethren continue to be slaughtered at the hands of the Israelis.”
The next year, Alwaleed donated a whopping $27 million to a Saudi telethon for the violent Palestinian intifada against Israel, according to the Clarion Project.
Also in 2002, he gave $500,000 to the Washington-based designated terrorist group CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations), which federal authorities have linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.
In 2005, moreover, he spent $40 million to expand Islamic studies at U.S. colleges — donating $20 million to Harvard University to create a campuswide Shariah law studies program, while pumping another $20 million into Georgetown University for a “Muslim-Christian understanding” program run by notorious Islamic apologist John Esposito.
Harvard used the gift, which was initiated by the prince, to create the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program, a University-wide project run by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.. The money will fund four new professorships, one known as the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal chair in contemporary Islamic thought and life, and provide support for graduate students. It will also launch a $1-million initiative within the University Library, the Islamic Heritage Project, that will digitize historically significant Islamic materials and make the resulting images, including digitized texts of the classics of the Islamic tradition, available on the Internet.
The $20 million gift to Georgetown is the second-largest ever received by the Jesuit-run university, school officials said. It will be used to expand the activities of the university’s 12-year-old Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. Center director John L. Esposito said in an interview that “a significant part of the money will be used to beef up the think tank part of what the center does.” It will answer issues like, ‘What is the actual relationship between the West and the Muslim world? Is Islam compatible with modernization?’
Despite fawning press reports, Alwaleed’s charitable pledge is no cause for celebration. It’s cause for alarm. His billions will finance Islamist pressure groups who exist to force Western civilization to yield to Islamic no-go zones, Shariah courts and blasphemy laws.