Posted on 04/17/2008 6:57:32 AM PDT by forkinsocket
A closed meeting called by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) about Islamic studies will take place today amid fears that Saudi and Muslim organisations exert too much influence over UK universities as a result of donations that dwarf government funding.
Private donations, mostly to Islamic study centres, are much greater than government funding for Islamic studies and academics are said to be nervous of the threat to their academic freedom.
The conference will discuss how to improve Islamic studies in UK universities after the government earmarked £1m in funding following the publication of Dr Ataullah Siddiqui's report last June.
Ministers labelled Islamic studies a "strategic subject" and said the "effective and accurate teaching" of it in universities could help community cohesion and counter extremism.
It is expected that the conference will hear calls for more Islamic study centres to be opened at or allied to British universities.
In 2006, Hefce and the Scottish funding council and the research councils for the arts and humanities and economic and social research earmarked £4.5m annually to support area studies and related languages.
This included setting up the Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arabic World - a collaboration between the universities of Edinburgh, Manchester and Durham.
Dr Denis MacEoin, Islam expert at Newcastle University, said academics were nervous about handling topics that might upset their sponsors.
"It's part of an overall belief that only Muslims can teach Islam, which in an academic context is entirely wrong. It would soon remove the possibility for genuine academic debate."
He said increasing numbers of students with Salafist - a more traditional form of Islam - backgrounds were taking Islamic studies and could be upset by "proper academic critical debate".
"It does threaten academic freedom and critical thinking," he warned.
(Excerpt) Read more at education.guardian.co.uk ...
we’re watching the end of western civization.
England has willingly cut it’s own throat.
Crouch down and lick the islamic hand that feeds you...
Wake up, England, and smell the invasion.
Harvard got $20 million from the same Saudi prince whose check Rudy returned after 9-11.
This weekend, Harvard will host its 8th Islamic Finance Conference.
Islamic Finance means “sharia-compliant” finance.
Sharia is the law of the land in Iran, Saudi Arabia and Sudan...
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