Maggie's Farm

Harvard taking the money I can understand. It will do anything to preserve the absurd quantities of its endowment. Georgetown, though, is a puzzle. Does Georgetown realize that if any of its clerical staff stepped foot in KSA wearing their standard priestly or nunnery garb, or simply carrying their Bible, or simply wearing a crucifix about their neck, they would be detained, imprisoned, flogged and/or, in the most extreme of possibilities, beheaded for proselytizing their faith? The mere act of believing in Christ is a crime there. How does Georgetown fathom that it is the institution requiring the establishment of a multi-million dollar program designed to advance Islamic studies and further understanding of the Islamic world? I'd be most interested to see what kind of study abroad program Catholic Georgetown students can expect to see out of such a program. For, how can one study Islam and the Middle East without going there? And once those students are confronted with denying their very own faith in order to enter the country of their program's benefactor, what else is there to really understand about that country, its rulers, and its intolerant and fascist culture?