Friday, July 10, 2015

Dirty tricks of House of Saud: how they interfere in appointments at Pakistani universities

This is an incredible document from the Wikileaks collections of Saudi cables. It basically tells the story of how the Saudi embassy was outraged that the president of International Islamic University in Islamabad, friend and colleague, Mumtaz Ahmad, invited the Iranian ambassador in Pakistan to serve as guest of honor during the Cultural Week. The Saudi embassy was enraged and called the president and asked that the wife of the Saudi ambassador be invited instead.  Mumtaz explained that the invitation could not be rescinded.  The Saudi cable here urges the vice-president of the University (a Saudi) be asked to appoint a Saudi national as president. Mumtaz resigned in 2012 and a Saudi national was appointed in his place.  MESA's committee on academic freedoms should issue a denunciation of this incident--but only after they agree that members of MESA have the right to express their opinions freely on Arab-Israeli issues.