Middle East Focus: On LSE, Colonel Qaddafi, and a Late Gulf Potentate………

Arabia Deserta

On LSE, Colonel Qaddafi, and a Late Gulf Potentate………

Walking on water

“The student union had discovered over the summer that the school had sought to name a theatre in its state-of-the-art New Academic Building after Sheikh Zayed al-Nahyan, the former dictator of the United Arab Emirates who the school described as a "life leader" as a result of a £2.5m (£1.54m) donation. Harvard returned a $2.5m donation it received from Sheikh Zayed, after it emerged that his Zayed International Centre for Co-ordination had sponsored lectures and publications claiming that Zionists were responsible for the Holocaust and that the US military had carried out the 11 September attacks in 2001. Unfortunately the LSE had no such qualms and in December 2006 signed an agreement with the UAE's current ruler, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, to create a centre for Middle Eastern studies at the university……. If the schHarvardool wants to show that it is truly sorry for the mistakes of the past then it should begin by changing the name of the Sheikh Zayed Theatre and name it after one of its many distinguished alumni and ensure that students are involved in an honest and open process of accepting funding…….”
Cheers
mhg

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com