22-24 April 2008
The Griffith Islamic Research Unit
(GIRU) and Griffith University have come under fire for
accepting Saudi Arabian funding for the Unit.
University 'an agent of extreme Islam' and Top
uni 'begged' for Saudi funding
were just some of the headlines making
the front pages of the newspaper.
Extracts from the newspaper
reports:
A PROMINENT Australian university
practically begged the Saudi Arabian embassy to bankroll
its Islamic campus for $1.3million, even telling the
ambassador it could keep secret elements of the
controversial deal.
Documents obtained by The Australian reveal that
Griffith University - described by vice-chancellor Ian
O'Connor as the "university of choice" for Saudis -
offered the embassy an opportunity to reshape the
Griffith Islamic Research Unit during its campaign to
get some "extra noughts" added to Saudi cheques.
A JUDGE has likened Griffith
University to hardline Islamic "madrassas" in Pakistan -
notorious for breeding radicals - and accused the
Queensland institution of promoting a Muslim ideology
espoused by Osama bin Laden.
Queensland District Court judge Clive Wall also accused
Griffith of becoming an "agent" through which the Saudi
Arabian embassy was propagating extreme Islam.
The Australian first revealed in
September that Griffith had received a $100,000 Saudi
grant.
Griffith Islamic Research Unit
director Mohamad Abdalla
has rejected accusations the Saudi funding would be used
to promote Wahabism, saying his centre was opposed to
the hardline ideology and in favour of "moderate" Islam.
Various organizations and
individuals issued statements of support:
 In response to the daily attacks on
the unit from Kerbaj and The Australian, Griffith
University Vice-Chancellor Ian O'Connor wrote an
opinion piece entitled
Islam and the West need to engage
in the April 24 edition of the
Australian.
Mr. Ikebal Patel, President
of AFIC, issued a
press release on behalf of his organization.
The controversy that was stirred up
during the week also prompted a number of letters to the
editor of the Australian:
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I USED to teach ethics at Griffith University, and one
of my students was Mohamad Abdalla, now head of the
university’s Islamic Research Unit. I found him to be a
tolerant, sensitive and modest man, who often raised
moral issues from the Koran in our tutorials. I valued
his opinions and input. I have no knowledge of the
funding arrangements for the unit he now runs, as I have
not kept in contact with people at Griffith _ and so
have no interest in defending the university. But the
suggestion that Abdalla would institute some hardline
madrassa-style indoctrination is so out of character
with the person I knew as to be quite absurd.
John Forge
East Balmain, NSW |
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READING the story on Griffith
University’s soliciting of funds
from Saudi Arabia, one gets the
distinct feeling that this country
is viewed as a menace at best and an
outright enemy at worst. If Judge
Clive Wall’s concerns, or those of
your correspondents who support him,
are indeed sincere, then why is
nothing ever said about the
large-scale support the Wahabi
regime receives from its Western
friends. Support such as the recent
US commitment to sell Saudi Arabia
more than $20billion in
sophisticated weaponary, to provide
assistance to its intelligence
agency and making available on-going
training to its instrument of
repressive control, the Saudi
National Guard? These are but a few
examples.
Considering Wall’s membership of the
Australian Defence Force, he should
understand that the implications of
this support are far more serious
than the funding received by a
publicly controlled university in
Australia.
Mohammed Alfakhrany
Gladesville, NSW |
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I OFFER the following ``reality check’’ to the editors
of The Australian, Richard Kerbaj and Clive Wall. The
vice-chancellor of Griffith University, in an email to
all staff on April 22, has advised that two esteemed US
universities, Harvard and Georgetown, ``accepted in 2005
donations of $20million from a Saudi businessman and
member of the royal family to finance Islamic studies’’.
I look forward to the reactions of your readers to this
revelation. I would specifically urge Wall to
unequivocally condemn Harvard and Georgetown for being
``agents’’ of hardline Islam. After all, he has
condemned Griffith University for accepting donations
from the Saudi government.
Iyanatul Islam
Eight Mile Plains, Qld
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NEVER having been in Judge Clive
Wall’s court, I can only hope that
his reasoning there is more rigorous
than his reported comments on
Griffith University’s bid to secure
Saudi funding for its Islamic
Research Unit might suggest. His
argument is one of guilt by
association: Saudi Arabia funds
Wahabi-teaching madrassas in
Pakistan; Saudi Arabia funds
Griffith; Griffith is a teaching
institution like the madrassas;
therefore its teaching must be
Wahabist. Reds-under-the-bed seem to
have been displaced by Wahabists
cloaked in the respectability of
universities.
Ken
Goodwin
Indooroopilly,
Qld
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Dear Editors (The Australian &
Weekend Australian), (UNPUBLISHED)
I am deeply dissatisfied with the
articles about the Griffith Islamic
Research Unit (GIRU) published 22 to
24 April 2008. I found them to be
misleading, baseless, and to have
made completely false claims. The
articles were written in such as way
as to suggest sinister dealings
between Griffith University and the
Saudi Arabian embassy. The lack of
evidence and context in the
articles, however, suggests that The
Australian engaged in a blatant game
of fear-mongering and an attempt to
undermine the progressive and
positive work of a credible and
reputable academic institution.
GIRU is strongly committed to a
moderate and balanced approach to
Islam. It has very clear and
progressive objectives that are
contrary to the so-called wahhabi
ideology. GIRU’s focus on
‘contextualisation’ and
‘objective-oriented’ approaches is
contrary to the literalism
associated with the wahhabi
ideology. Moreover, GIRU is
extensively engaged in inter-faith
and inter-community dialogue and
works with a range of state and
federal government departments on
various issues pertaining to Islam
and Muslims. This level of openness
and engagement is also contrary to
the exclusivist and insular
character associated with wahhabism.
An article about GIRU written by an
objective journalist would have
revealed this.
GIRU should be judged on its product
– the research it produces, which is
publicly available on Griffith ’s
website. GIRU’s research is
progressive, unafraid of critiquing
and reformulating long-held views in
the field of Islamic Studies, and
even critical of various Muslim
conduct and interpretations of
Islam. GIRU’s research positively
contributes to the development of an
approach to Islam that is conducive
to the Australian context and
supports more harmonious relations
between Islam and the West.
The poor journalism, sensationalism,
and inaccuracies of your articles on
GIRU are unbecoming of Australia ’s
national daily. Please get your act
together.
Regards,
Nora Amath
Brisbane, Qld.
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RICHARD Kerbaj’s article shows a
worrisome level of fear amongst
academics represented through denial
and dissociation. Whilst Wahhabism
has claimed centre stage as some
sort of a fundamentalist version of
Islam, this simplistic approach
needs some academic scrutiny, that
is, when those academics are not
ducking for cover to dissociate
themselves from yesterday’s much
sought after benefactors. The irony
of this hypocritical approach to
disowning the hand that provides at
least part of your food is more than
disturbing in a society that is
still reeling from the fear of
witch-hunts. This is a disturbing
attitude amongst beneficiaries of
the funding, and is nothing short of
an insult to the benefactors.
The Salafist ideology practised in
Saudi Arabia is not the source of
terrorism, in fact Saudi Arabia is a
leading partner in the fight against
terrorism. Some refer to the
dominant school of Islam in Saudi
Arabia as Wahhaby and it may be
conservative, but the denunciation
of terror and extremism and the
prohibition of suicide bombings by
Saudi scholars, even in defence of
country, mean that the Saudi branch
of Islam has done a great deal to
combat terrorism.
Keysar Trad
Islamic Friendship Association of
Australia |
Other
letters
and emails received on the
matter.
Several leading
Muslim organizations in Queensland
endorsed a
letter of protest to the
editor of the Australian.
A
formal letter of complaint has
been lodged with the Australian
Press Council.
Mr.
Graham Perrett Member for Moreton
issued a press release reaffirming his support for Griffith
University and the Islamic Research
Unit headed by Moreton resident Dr Mohamad Abdalla.
“I am proud of my local university
and will always support their
extensive academic and community
endeavours. They are a world leader
in so many areas and have shown
independence and courage during the
difficult Howard years when so many
other universities chose to put
their cash registers before their
academic principles.”
In his letter
Mr Perrett confirmed that he had
known Dr Mohamad Abdalla for many
years in a variety of community
activities before he took on his
role at Griffith University’s
Islamic Research Unit.
“I have met many of Dr Mohamad
Abdalla’s students and from my
dealings with the faculty I could
not have seen a more considered and
moderate approach to Islam. It is
ludicrous for the ill-informed to
suggest that this faculty is a
madrasah breeding radicals. They
would be better served by reviewing
the sort of doctorate theses being
pursued by Dr Mohamad’s students
rather than peddling misguided
misinformation.”
Mr Perrett stated that he looked
forward to continuing to work with
Griffith University’s Islamic
Research Unit and Dr Mohamad Abdalla
in helping to make sure that the
southside community was a harmonious
and tolerant place.
THE CCN EDITORIAL
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Killing the Goose that
could have laid
Griffith’s Golden Egg
If
ever you needed a
shining example of the
phrase “a beat up” then
Richard Kerbaj’s
articles on GIRU, that
he passes off as
investigative
journalism, will surely
rank high amongst a
short list of
contenders.
Instead of enjoying his
well earned break while
Muslims and Islam take a
temporary back seat to the
apology to the Stolen
Generation and the 2020
Summit, Kerbaj has felt
the need to justify his
raison d'être as the
custodian of the “be
alarmed and be alert”
brigade by literally
scraping the bottom of
the barrel to continue
his campaign of stirring
the Muslim pot.
On
the Saudi funding issue,
Kerbaj has flogged the
“guilt by association”
angle going as far as to
resurrect a nondescript
Southport District court
judge to lend
credibility to some
rather vacuous and
disingenuous innuendos.
To
suggest that a course or
programme at a
University could be
manipulated towards a
particular agenda
without coming under the
scrutiny of Advisory,
Faculty and Academic
Boards demonstrates, at
best, a lack of
understanding of the
checks and balances
engrained in the
University system. Even
when rogue courses do
fall through the normal
QA cracks on occasions
then students and the
public at large will
have their say (see the
CCN article ANIC and
UWS for an example
of community pressure at
work).
Cash
strapped Universities
are always in search of
research funds. The
offer to respect the
anonymity of the donor
is standard practice and
not to be construed as a
conspiracy concocted to
gerrymander the funds
for some perceived
immoral or illegal
purpose.
GIRU’s track record over
its short existence is
littered with projects
and initiatives that
have been designed to
bridge the gap of
understanding of Islam
within the context of
the society we live in.
Its postgraduate,
internationally
peer-reviewed research
projects address a
number of social,
economic and political
issues from a
dispassionate, oft
critical, academic
perspective as is the
wont of Universities. To
compare them to
Madressas (where
school-going boys and
girls learn, in the
main, the basic tenets
and rituals of their
religion) is naïve in
the extreme and
undermines the work of
both educational
institutions.
Those
of us who have heard Dr.
Mohammed Abdalla at
inter-faith and
political forums, and
more significantly, from
the Kuraby Mosque Mimbar
on a Friday afternoon,
will readily testify to
his exhorting of his
congregation (to the
point of exhaustion) to
greater social
participation and
involvement with the
wider community (both of
which are seen as
anathema to some
hardline ideologies).
It is
disappointing to see a
newspaper of the calibre
of The Australian
resorting to tabloid
styled journalism at the
expense of truth and
fair play.
Why kill the goose when
everyone could have benefited
from the golden egg! |
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