Christie's benefit from supporting Islamic causes

Submitted by Prashant (United States), May 10, 2014 at 12:09

Dear Dr Pipes:

In one of your updates on this blog you pointed out that Governor Christie's wife accepted a donation of $4.5 million from UAE for a fund that she founded to help the victims of storm sandy. You would recall that Mayor Giuliani of New York city had declined such a donation for the 9/11 victims several years ago. In a day and age when western governments are cash starved and ME is loaded with money it is easy to find examples of transactions which, though legal, can be compromised.

A few years ago I found an example of a British professor who, during his visit to an Islamic institution in India, took the liberty to criticize the local history. When I research about this professor, I found that he had proudly mentioned about his visits to many ME countries on the "foreign trips" section of his web page. How much of the middle eastern money has creeped into our public life around the world is a matter of observation for all people who like honesty and freedom. Until the countries in the middle east become genuine freedom loving secular democracies, it is hypocritical for our people, institutions and politicians to accept donations from them. Would we have taken donations from Chairman Mao and Stalin during the cold war? If you like western democratic institutions and freedom and benefit from them, you ought to dislike lack of democracy and freedom in the middle east.

I thank you for maintaining this page on Christie. Accepting Middle Eastern money as donation when these countries do not extend even a token support to the ideas of democracy and freedom should not jibe with our ideals.

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