Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Temple University rejects endowed chair for Islamist professor Mahmoud Mustafa Ayoub
Temple University rejects endowed chair for Islamist professor Mahmoud Mustafa Ayoub
January 7, 2008
Temple University Rejects Endowed Chair For Islamist Professor
Temple University Rejects Endowed Chair For Islamist Professor
By Beila Rabinowitz and William Mayer
January 7, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - According to news accounts, Temple University has rejected a suspicious offer of $1.5 million by a Saudi tied, Islamist organization called the International Institute of Islamic Thought [IIIT], to endow a chair in Islamic studies headed by current Temple religion professor Mahmoud Mustafa Ayoub. [see Ayoub's CV here, http://www.temple.edu/religion/faculty/ayoub.html ]
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer:
"Last spring, an Islamic group came to Temple University with an extremely generous offer: $1.5 million for an endowed chair in Islamic studies to honor religion professor Mahmoud Ayoub. After months of talks the deal fell apart when trustees and others raised concerns about the donor, the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), a nonprofit research organization that was included in a government probe into funding of suspected terrorists...IIIT was eager to work with the school because of its association with Ayoub and former professor Ismail Al-Faruqi...a cofounder of IIIT. [source, http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_page/20080105_Donor_cancels_Islamic_chair_for_Temple.html ]
Explaining the rejection, Ayoub suggested Islamophobia as the cause, lamenting:
"They did not want a chair of Islamic studies funded by a Muslim organization...That is really a sad thing, because part of the chair's mandate was to encourage and engage in interfaith dialogue with Jews and Christians and others."
This self-serving explanation is not surprising since the native of South Lebanon is closely associated with IIIT and a myriad of other Islamist organizations. He is also on the list of nominees for the advisory board of a group called "American Muslims for Constructive Engagement" which includes numerous members of the IIIT as well the leaders of North America's most prominent Islamist groups. [see, http://www.amceweb.net/2.html ]
Among the AMFCE's members are several people who have been investigated by the FBI when in 2002 [see, http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/1148] it raided IIIT's headquarers in Virginia as part of "Operation Greenquest," a federal taskforce created to destroy the funding channels for foreign terror groups, many of which, for example HAMAS, are linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.
The AMFCE website provides links back to the International Institute of Islamic Thought, The Islamic Society of North America [ISNA], the Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR] and the Muslim American Society. Both CAIR and ISNA have been named as unindicted co-conspirators in the ongoing Holy Land Foundation prosecution [reference the document, http://www.pipelinenews.org/images/2007-05-29-US%20v%20HLF-ListCoConspirators.pdf]
As set forth in a September 18, 2007 article by theses authors [see, "CAIR, The Muslim Brotherhood And The Khalil Gibran International Academy, The "Civilization-Jihadist Process" Is Well Underway," http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=hlfcair91807.htm ] a key piece of evidence [government exhibit GX3-85, a .pdf of which is accessible here, http://www.pipelinenews.org/images/GX3-85.pdf ] submitted in the Holy Land Foundation [HLF] case was seized over fifteen years ago in a 1991 raid on the Virginia residence of one of the HLF's unindicted co-conspirators.:
"...This official Muslim Brotherhood [Ikhwan] document half in Arabic, half in English, outlines an audacious plan whereby they hope to subjugate Western civilization under the yoke of a global Islamic theocracy, the caliphate, calling the means whereby that might be obtained a "Civilization-Jihadist Process."
At the end of this document which details the Muslim Brotherhood's plan of subversion through a stealth jihad, there is a list of organizations which it is counting on as "friends" to help it overthrow of secular government in the West and institute the institute Sharia. That list includes the International Institute of Islamic Thought [IIIT, see #28] and the Islamic Society of North America [ISNA, see #1]
Had Mahmoud Ayoub been allowed to head a newly endowed Islamic studies program at Temple University it would have represented an opportunity for the IIIT to place a trojan horse spreading Islamism inside a respected educational institution. This level of cunning and duplicity epitomizes the essence of stealth jihadism.
In "How the West Could Lose," Middle East historian Dr. Daniel Pipes notes, "Should Islamists get smart and avoid mass destruction, but instead stick to the lawful, political, non-violent route, and should their movement remain vital, it is difficult to see what will stop them." [source, http://www.danielpipes.org/article/4227 ]
Temple University deserves recognition and is to be commended for doing the due diligence in this matter and then making the politically courageous decision to reject IIIT's tainted offer.
However, to bring Temple's initial effort to a satisfactory conclusion, we suggest that they immediately launch a probe into professor Ayoub's background, associations and ties, including his connection to the American Muslims for Constructive Engagement and the IIIT, as we believe there is a very good reason why the Islamists were willing to spend over a million dollars placing him at the head of this now scuttled program. http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=temple1.7.08.htm
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