CAIRO, December 13, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Saudi billionaire Prince Al-Walid Bin Talal has donated $40 million to two leading US universities to expand their Islamic studies programs in order to promote interfaith understanding and knowing more about Islam, according to news reports Tuesday, December 13.

Harvard University and Georgetown University each announced Monday that they had received $20 million donations from Prince Talal, who is also a famous businessman, The New York Times said.

Using this donation, Harvard said it would create a university-wide program on Islamic studies, recruit new faculty members in the field, provide more support for graduate students and convert rare Islamic textual sources into digital formats to make them widely available.

"For a university with global aspirations, it is critical that Harvard have a strong program on Islam that is worldwide and interdisciplinary in scope," said Steven E. Hyman, Harvard's provost, who will coordinate adopting the new program.

As for Georgetown, the university said it would use the gift, the second-largest it has ever received, to expand its Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, which is part of its Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.

The university added that it would rename the center the H.R.H. Prince Al-Walid bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.

Center director John L. Esposito told the Washington Post that "a significant part of the money will be used to beef up the think tank part of what the center does."

Up to now, he said, the center has not had enough resources "to respond to the tremendous demand that is out there".

He added that this demand comes "from the government, church and religious groups, the media and corporations to address and answer issues like, 'What is the actual relationship between the West and the Muslim world? Is Islam compatible with modernization?

"Now we can run workshops and conferences [on these subjects] both here and overseas," he told the Post.

"It is critical that Harvard have a strong program on Islam that is worldwide and interdisciplinary in scope," Hyman said.

In making the two gifts, the prince focused on the importance of uniting disparate cultures, the Times said.

Harvard's news release quoted him as saying that he hoped Harvard's Islamic studies program "will enable generations of students and scholars to gain a thorough understanding of Islam and its role both in the past and in today's world."

"Bridging the understanding between East and West is important for peace and tolerance," he said.

"We are determined to build a bridge between Islam and Christianity for tolerance that transcends cultural and geographical boundaries," the Georgetown release added.

In a in a telephone interview from the Saudi capital of Riyadh, Talal told the Post that he also has donated $15 million to establish the Middle East's first two centres for American studies, at universities in Beirut and Cairo.

"As you know, since the 9/11 events, the image of Islam has been tarnished in the West," said Al-Walid, who is chairman of the Riyadh-based Kingdom Holding Co. and has extensive business holdings in Europe and the United States.

"There is nothing wrong with his expressing his opinion on American foreign policy," Esposito said.

He said his gifts to Georgetown and Harvard will be used "to teach about the Islamic world to the United States," and the new programs at American University in Beirut and American University in Cairo will "teach the Arab world about the American situation."

Prince Walid is one of the richest individuals in the world, with a fortune estimated at $20 billion (16.6 billion euros).

He was recently ranked by Forbes Magazine as the fifth wealthiest individual in the world, and is a confirmed philanthropist who gives away about $100 million (83 million euros) each year.

Born in Riyadh in March 1955 of a Lebanese mother, Prince Walid was educated in an American business school before beginning to construct his worldwide financial empire of banks, luxury hotels, and media properties, much of it concentrated in the United States.

Al-Walid, a grandson of the Saudi kingdom's founder, King Abdel Aziz, gave $10 million to the Twin Towers Fund shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 2001.

But then-New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani rejected the donation after the prince said in a news release that the United States needed to "re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stance towards the Palestinian cause."