Saudi-Supported Mosques and Islamic Research Institutes in the West

by Daniel Pipes
Mon, 24 Jan 2005
updated Mon, 28 Feb 2005

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Wondering which American organizations the king of Saudi Arabia favors financially? The answer is not hard to find. Just go to www.kingfahdbinabdulaziz.com and see it all conveniently laid out, in English at that. Here is the page on mosques in the United States which King Fahd supports:

Dar al-Salam Institute
Fresno Mosque in California
The Islamic Center in Colombia, Missouri
The Islamic Center in East Lansing, Michigan
The Islamic Center in Los Angeles, California
The Islamic Center in New Brunswick, New Jersey
The Islamic Center in New York
The Islamic Center in Tida, Maryland
The Islamic Center in Toledo, Ohio
The Islamic Center in Virginia
The Islamic Center in Washington
The Islamic Cultural Center in Chicago
King Fahd Mosque in Los Angeles
The Mosque of the Albanian Community in Chicago
South-West Big Mosque of Chicago
Umar bin Al-Khattab Mosque in Los Angeles

And here is the page on "Islamic Research Institutes supported outside the Arab/Islamic world"

American University of Colorado
American University in Washington
Arab World Institute, Paris, France
Duke University, North Carolina
Howard University, Washington
Institute of the History of Arab and Islamic Science, Frankfurt, Germany
Johns Hopkins University, Maryland
Middle East Institute, Washington
Shaw University, North Carolina
Syracuse University, New York

Comment: This listing is limited to causes personally favored by King Fahd. If one were to look at broader Saudi support, for example via the North American Islamic Trust, it would be far more extensive. For a start, see the listing of mosques, Islamic centers, academic chairs, and Islamic schools in a long article in the Saudi newspaper Ain-Al-Yaqeen on March 1, 2002. (January 24, 2005)

Feb. 4, 2005 update: Responding to an inquiry from a concerned alumnus about the nature of the "Islamic Research Institute" at Johns Hopkins University, a university official replied to him today:

I have not found an "Islamic Research Institute" or comparable entity at Johns Hopkins, either in the Krieger School of Arts & Sciences or at the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), so I am not familiar with what is referred to at that website [a reference to http://www.kingfahdbinabdulaziz.com/main/m330.htm]. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has supported professorships in the School of Medicine and in SAIS. As you may know, Prince Bandar graduated from SAIS with a Masters in International Public Policy (MIPP) in 1982.

So, what exactly is the Saudi king doing at Johns Hopkins? Anyone in the know is urged to write me.

Related Topics: Academia, Saudi Arabia

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