Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding

The Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Cen­ter for Mus­lim-Chris­t­ian Under­stand­ing (ACMCU) at George­town Uni­ver­si­ty was estab­lished in 1993 and renamed in 2005 fol­low­ing a $20 mil­lion endow­ment from Sau­di bil­lion­aire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal. Its found­ing direc­tor, Dr. John Espos­i­to, has been a cen­tral fig­ure in Islam­ic stud­ies and inter­faith dia­logue, but the cen­ter has faced sus­tained crit­i­cism for its alleged ide­o­log­i­cal lean­ings and ties to Islamist fig­ures. Crit­ics have accused Espos­i­to and the ACMCU of down­play­ing the threat of polit­i­cal Islam and main­tain­ing affil­i­a­tions with indi­vid­u­als and orga­ni­za­tions linked to the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood. Espos­i­to served on advi­so­ry boards of insti­tu­tions asso­ci­at­ed with Broth­er­hood-linked schol­ars, and the cen­ter has host­ed or sup­port­ed events fea­tur­ing fig­ures with alleged Islamist con­nec­tions. While the ACMCU pro­motes its mis­sion as fos­ter­ing under­stand­ing between the Mus­lim world and the West, detrac­tors argue it has at times act­ed as a plat­form for legit­imiz­ing Islamist nar­ra­tives under the guise of aca­d­e­m­ic neu­tral­i­ty. These alle­ga­tions have been part of broad­er debates about for­eign fund­ing and ide­o­log­i­cal influ­ence in U.S. high­er education.

Exter­nal References:

His­to­ry

Sau­di Prince Gives Mil­lions to Har­vard and Georgetown

The Bridge to Shari­ah Ini­tia­tive [incl. John Esposito]