What’s happening with Islamic influence on Western Universities and Why?

A Fatwa – 1979

May 19, 2024

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I well remember meeting up with a couple fellows in London, England, who had been working on the oil rigs of Saudi Arabia in 1980. They quickly became good friends and told the most amazing stories of incredible wealth attained through the recent discovery of oil and the ostentatious spending of it by the Saudi elites. Tables so loaded with food they were groaning with the weight, their luxury chauffeur driven limos riding up and down the streets were apparent in London as well. I remember an evening spent speaking with a Saudi lawyer at the ‘Wellington’ pub who talked about the many wonderful international business transactions he was involved in, all stemming from the astonishing and sudden wealth coming from the Middle East.

Not everyone was so pleased. In 1979 a coup had occurred at the Grand Mosque in Mecca over this very thing, the liberalization of Islamic norms, corruption by the infidels through media – especially television, and flagrant disregard for sharia promised by the Saudi royal family when they came to power with the help of the reformist Sunni Wahhabis clerics in the 18th century. As is often the case with Islam, in accordance with the doctrine, the timing was significant – the first day of the new century 1400 in the Islamic calendar. (1)

· “Allah will raise for this community at the end of every hundred years the one who will renovate its religion for it.” (Dawud 4291)

The coup was not the failure it is made out to be. The perpetrators were demanding the expulsion of non-Muslims (only Muslims can become citizens in Saudi Arabia (2)), a reversal of the secularism that was quickly taking hold in the country, and claimed that they had the ‘Mahdi’ – an Islamic deliverer that is supposed to appear at the ‘end times’. (3)(4)

When the police arrived it rained bullets on them but firing a gun within the precincts of the Kaaba is forbidden, if they were killed while shooting would they go to hell? and so the police retreated. A news blackout was employed while Saudi authorities sought help from the ‘Ulama’ (Islamic scholars and clerics) to find a solution. That solution was a fatwa – a fatwa that would absolve the soldiers of any ‘wrong doing’ and satisfy those who had heard about the ‘Mahdi’ – a ruling that was to have far reaching effects for educational institutions across the entire non-Islamic world.

Yes, the coup was short and the perpetrators sentenced to death – but it was not a failure. While the scholars agreed that the ‘Mahdi’ was not genuine, they sympathized with the intent and demands of the insurgents. They agreed that the Saudis were on the wrong track, that a return to the way of sharia, and a repudiation of secular liberalism must take place. The clerics held the power and they used it. (5)

After 3 days of intense discussion the Ulama agreed to support the royal family, but there were conditions – including that Saudi Petro dollars would be spent to spread Islam in the world and allocate billions of dollars towards this programme. An essential detail that was omitted in later news reports. (6) With these conditions in place, the scholars signed the fatwa saying that the rebels were wrong and action could be taken against them. Many were killed. A month later, 63 militants were publicly beheaded and the modernization of Saudi Arabia was arrested for decades. (7)

But what of the billions?

A look at today’s campuses provides the answer as we witness the fruit of this fatwa. Billions from the Saudis and Qatar have poured into the Universities of non-Islamic countries right around the globe and have done so for many years now. (8) Already, in 2011 British universities were being described by MPs and Peers as ‘hotbeds of Islamic extremism’ endangering national security.(9) Universities that have been only too happy to accept these windfalls, heedless of the fact that Sharia contravenes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the predictable consequences. Ivy league universities in the U.S. have received at least 8 billion in funding from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Emirates and Kuwait. (10)(11)

“‘If you look at Carnegie Mellon, George Washington University, they actually have campuses in Qatar, and we know that Qatar is a country that's against open and free exchange of ideas and expression. So what is being taught to students on these campuses?” (12)(13)

We don’t have to guess, just turn on the news. This is one of the many ways in which formerly non-Islamic countries become Islamic. With Islam comes sharia, no freedom of religion, no equality before the law.

There is a solution. Don’t take the money and know the reason why.