Georgetown U. gets $20 million gift for its Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding from Saudi prince who Guiliani rebuffed

Georgetown University, the Jesuit college in Washington DC, received a $20 million dollar donation for the school's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.

From Wednesday's Arab News:

Kingdom Holding Company Chairman Prince Alwaleed ibn Talal announced yesterday his donation of $20 million to Georgetown University to support and expand its Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (CMCU).

The Center, part of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown, is an international leader in inter-religious scholarship and research, in particular Islamic studies and Muslim-Christian relations. The center will be renamed The Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.

And just who is Prince Alwaleed ibn Talal? Well, he's the wealthy--even on Saudi royal family standards--prince who shortly after 9/11, waved a $10 million dollar check at then-New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani to support the disaster relief effort going on then.

But Wally the Prince had something to say first.

From CNN in 2001:

The prince's statement said the United States "should re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stand toward the Palestinian cause.

"While the U.N. passed clear resolutions numbered 242 and 338 calling for the Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza Strip decades ago, our Palestinian brethren continue to be slaughtered at the hands of Israelis while the world turns the other cheek," the statement said.

Giuliani flatly rejected the prince's position. "To suggest that there's a justification for [the terrorist attacks] only invites this happening in the future," he said. "It is highly irresponsible and very, very dangerous.

Well done, Rudy.

The prince turns up in odd places. He owns a little more than five percent of NewsCorp., the parent company of Fox News.

In 2002, he was the largest named donor--about $2.5 million worth--to the "Terror Telethon" in support of the Palestinian Intifada.

And of course in late 2005, Catholic Georgetown gets $20 million from the prince for the new Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. Harvard got a similar $20 million gift yesterday too.

Just wondering? Are students at an Islamic college in Saudi Arabia able to learn anything about Christianity? Very unlikely.

Don't look for a Mel Gibson Center for Christian-Muslim Understanding in Riyadh any time soon.

So enjoy the money, Georgetown. And of course, Wally the Prince expects nothing in return from you.

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