Author: Beth McMurtie
Publication: Chronicle of Higher
Education
Date: June 6, 2003
The Harvard Divinity School is considering
whether to return a $2.5-million donation to the president of the United
Arab Emirates after questions were raised about his connection to a controversial
Middle Eastern think tank.
The Zared Center for Coordination
and Follow-Up --which was established "in fulfillment of the vision" of
the president, Sheik Zared bin Sultan al-Nahayan, according to its website
-- in recent years has been host to speakers and has published books with
anti-Semitic and anti-American views.
Wendy McDowell, a spokeswoman for
the divinity school, said that administrators have been aware of the possible
ties since December, but that they have not yet been able to determine
whether the center has received the president's blessing.
"From what we've been told, it's
one of those things in that country where people say that everywhere,"
she said of the statement about fulfilling the president's vision. "There
are people who start things in the name of the president all the time.
It's like when we call things 'George Washington something.' It does not
necessarily mean he's behind it or sponsors it or has given any money to
it."
But Rachel Fish, a divinity student
who met with Dean William A. Graham in March to share information she found
on the center's Web site, said the connection was obvious and that she
was distraught that the administration has taken so long to make a decision.
Ms. Fish said the dean told her that the center's activities were "deplorable"
and that he would form a research team to look into the possible connection.
"It was just puzzling and troubling
to me how the institution could have accepted the money to begin with,
when this connection was apparent," she said. "This wasn't secret information
that I had access to."
President Zayed donated the money
to Harvard in 2000 to create a professorship in Islamic religious studies,
but the position has not yet been filled. The divinity school has put the
search on hold "until all questions are resolved," Mr. Graham said in a
statement.
The president is not listed on the
Zayed Center's Web site as having a particular role there, but his deputy
prime minister is chairman of the center. The organization states as its
goal the promotion of "solidarity and cooperation among the Arab nations
in the light of the principles and objectives of the League of Arab States."
The Zayed Center has drawn several
high-profile speakers over the years, including former President Jimmy
Carter, former Vice President Al Gore, and former Secretary of State James
Baker.
It has also gained a reputation
for serving as host to controversial lecturers and publishing their works.
Last year, Thierry Meyssan, a French author whose book The Appalling Fraud
claims that the U.S. military was behind the September 11 attacks, spoke
at the center. The center published his book in Arabic. It has also published
a book titled Those Who Challenged Israel, in which the ideas of Holocaust
deniers David Irving and Roger Garoudy are highlighted.
On April 9, Umayma Jalahma, a professor
of Islamic Studies at King Faysal University in Saudi Arabia, who has claimed
that Jews use human blood in making pastries for the Purim holiday, was
a guest lecturer, according to the Middle Eastern Research Institute. (The
center's Web site does not list any speakers for that date.)
Last year, the Zayed Center was
host to a conference on "Semitism," in which the center's executive director
called Jews "the enemies of all nations," according to news reports.
The Anti-Defamation League, which
monitors anti-Semitism worldwide, has a page on its Web site about the
Zayed Center. Topics of the center's lectures and publications include
Jewish conspiracy theories, the league states.
In his statement, Mr. Graham called
the Zayed Center's activities "repugnant and indefensible." The school
has made inquiries to both the V.A.E. government and to V.S. government
diplomatic officials in Abu Dhabi, he said. The independent researcher's
report was delivered to Mr. Graham last week, and he said he plans to share
it with faculty members before coming to a decision.
Ms. Fish eagerly awaits some action.
"The divinity school is a moral voice of this institution," she said. "By
accepting this money, or at least being complicit and complacent and not
returning the money, you are bankrupting the divinity school of its moral
voice."
