by Ganesh Sahathevan
Sydney University VC Mark Scott may be powerless to act against pro-HAMAS supportersrs because of funding decisions made by former VC Michael Spence, and the failure of his General Counsel Richard Fisher to address the issue. Fiher and Spence were sentt queries with regards the story below. Spence remained silent,and Fisher threatened to sue for defamation.
First posted by Ganesh Sahathevan on the Terror Finance Blog in 2010
The University of Sydney, Australia has refused to confirm or deny that funding has been received from the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) and/or its associates even while the IIIT remains under investigation for financing terrorism.
Queries on the matter were put to the university’s Vice-Chancellor, Michael Spence ,consequent to the university’s invitation and sponsorship of a lecture tour of Australia by IIIT director Anwar Ibrahim. The sponsorship comes at a time when the university cuts corners due to what it say is a shortage of funding for day-to-day operations.
Anwar was invited to give a public lecture titled "Islam, Democracy and the Status of Malaysia's Quasi-Secular State". The lecture was organised by the university’s Department of Government and International Relations.
Anwar and his fellow IIIT directors continue to invoke the 5th Amendment against self-incrimination in their declarations disclosed in the IIIT’s IRS 990 tax filings. The IIIT’s IRS 990s provide some evidence of a history of providing funding to bodies that have then either extended invitation to Anwar , or bestowed on him some award. The ongoing investigation has led to these filings containing less detailed information such that the ultimate beneficiaries may not be identified.
The queries about IIIT funding were also put to Michael Spence in his personal capacity. These queries have also been met with silence. In addition, Spence and the university continue to maintain silence about the university’s communications with Dr Adrian Ong Chee Beng, who has been convicted of fraud, and has worked for Anwar and his principal adviser Dr Rahim Ghouse. Ghouse is believed to have represented Anwar in his business dealings with Sheik Yassin Al-Qadi, the Al-Qaeda financier whose activities included the transmission of funds to terrorist groups for and/or on behalf of Mohamad Al-Faisal.
(http://www.abc.net.au/rn/
One of the first high-profile visitors to the university following Spence’s appointment as VC in 2008 was Turki al-Faisal, Mohamad Al-Faisal’s brother. As mentioned previously , there was no apparent reason for Turki’s visit (http://www.terrorfinance.org/
Spence is no stranger to Saudi funding. He was formerly at Oxford University , where he was Head of the Social Sciences Division, one of the four Divisions that make up the University. In welcoming him to Sydney University , the University said:
One of Dr Spence's priorities at Oxford was actively to encourage fundraising and substantial sponsorship from benefactors and corporate groups (http://ussc.edu.au/people/
These benefactors and corporate groups have included many from the Middle East. For example the controversial Saïd Business School was under his purview . (http://www.usyd.edu.au/news/
It was also during his tenure that £20 million was received from the late King Fahd of Saudi Arabia for the financing of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, which is associated to the university.(http://www.
It appears that Spence has brought to Sydney his Saudi connections. Via the MWL and WAMY , both funded by the Faisal Foundation, Anwar and the IIIT themselves owe much to the Saudi Government and Royal Family . As reported in Malaysian Business, September 1, 2005:
Then, sometime in mid-1970'S I (Tengku Razaleigh,former Finance Minister,Malaysia) met Prince Mohammed Al-Faisal who was then running the AlFaisal Foundation. He asked me if I had heard of a young man called Anwar Ibrahim. He wanted my view of Anwar, saying that the foundation would go ahead with helping him (Anwar) with his
activities if I said okay."
The Al-Faisal name seems to link Spence to Anwar, and the IIIT. Spence’s stint at Oxford may provide some clues as to what their objectives might be.
In 2005 Anthony Glees, the former director of Brunel University's Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies identified Oxford as one of a number of UK universities that had accepted Saudi funding and whose scholarship then took on a pro-Arab stance.In regards to Oxford he said:
Saudi Arabian and Muslim organizations are funding cash-strapped British universities to the tune of more than $466 million….. over the past five years, 70 per cent of politics lectures at the Middle Eastern Centre at St Antony's College, Oxford, were "implacably hostile" to the West and Israel - an allegation denied by Oxford …
Glees sees the donations as a poisoned chalice: "Britain's universities will have to generate two national cultures: one non-Muslim and largely secular, the other Muslim. We will have two identities, two sets of allegiance and two legal and political systems. This must, by the government's own logic, hugely increase the risk of terrorism."(http://www.
The matter was also reported in the UK Telegraph:
Extremist ideas are being spread by Islamic study centres linked to British universities and backed by multi-million-pound donations from Saudi Arabia and Muslim organisations, a new report claims.
Eight universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, have accepted more than £233.5 million ($466 million) from Saudi and Muslim sources since 1995, with much of the money going to Islamic study centres, according to the report.
Universities that have accepted donations from Saudi royals and other Arab sources include Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, University College London, the London School of Economics, Exeter, Dundee and City. Prof Glees says Government policies "push the wrong sort of education by the wrong sort of people, funded by the wrong sorts of donor".
He added: "The Government must reconsider its far-reaching, security-driven plan to use higher education in the fight against the radicalisation of young British Muslims. If it proceeds, it will create the very situation the Government wants to avoid: the development of self-imposed Muslim apartheid in the UK."
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Sydney University being one of the oldest in Australia has significant input into government departments that shape policy. I have previously written about Islamists influences at Sydney and other universities in an article that can be located at http://www.terrorfinance.org/
Sydney University and Michael Spence’s work with Anwar appears to be the latest act in a long term strategy to buy influence , and ultimately government policy.
