Iran Buys Off Programs at Columbia, Rutgers

by Samara Greenberg  •  Nov 24, 2009 at 11:52 am

http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/blog/2009/11/iran-buys-off-programs-at-columbia-rutgers

Yesterday, the New York Post reported that the Alavi Foundation, an alleged front company for the Iranian government, has given "hundreds of thousands of dollars" to the Middle Eastern and Persian studies programs at Columbia and Rutgers universities, which employ "anti-Israel, pro-Iran" professors.

According to the Post, the Alavi Foundation gifted $100,000 to Columbia after the university agreed to host Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2007. Additionally, between 2005 and 2007, the foundation donated over $250,000 to Rutgers' Middle East department headed by Hooshang Amirahmadi. Amirahmadi does not believe Hezbollah and Hamas are terrorist organizations.

As Michael I. Krauss notes in the winter 2008 issue of inFOCUS, many American universities' Middle Eastern studies programs are corrupted by "Gulf state petrodollars." As a result, those programs' professors openly engage in "America-bashing, Israel-bashing" and apologetics for Islamist ideology.

Related Topics:  Campus Issues, Iran  |  Samara Greenberg receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free jewish policy center mailing list