Perfidious Princes Teaching Tolerance?

(New York Post) Abby Wisse Schachter - Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal gave $20 million each to Harvard and Georgetown last week, as he explained, because "the understanding between East and West is important for peace and tolerance." One question: Is American intolerance of Muslims really a major world problem? Isn't it more the other way around? Who's funding religious understanding, pluralism, and tolerance in Saudi Arabia? Not Prince Alwaleed, that's for sure. Saudi Arabia outlaws religious pluralism. After oil (maybe), religious intolerance is its biggest export, with countless billions spent to promote only the most intolerant strand of Islam - what the Saudis call Hanbali Islam, and critics call Wahhabism. Let's see him fund "cross-cultural and inter-religious dialogue" at a Saudi school. And why don't those Saudi-funded madrassas start offering classes in religious diversity and understanding?


2005-12-19 00:00:00

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