AT HISTORY'S END:

The East looks West: Qatar and education (John C. K. Daly, 2/20/2004, UPI)

A tradition attributed to the Prophet Muhammad enjoined the faithful to "Seek knowledge, even as far as China."

Nowhere is this injunction taken more seriously than in energy-rich Qatar whose ruler, Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Kahlifa al-Thani is pouring a significant portion of his country's petrodollars into creating world-class academic institutions. But Emir al-Thani is looking to the West, not East, for inspiration, particularly to the United States.

In nine years, the non-profit Qatar Foundation has attracted branch campuses of some of America's most outstanding institutions. On Feb. 16, a branch campus of Carnegie Mellon University was formally opened as the Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar in the capital Doha's Education City. The new institution will offer its first class of 50 students entering in September computer science and business programs leading to Carnegie Mellon degrees based on the same admission standards and curricula as its main campus in Pittsburgh. The Liberal Arts and Sciences building was officially opened at the same time. Japanese architect designed the 237,000 sqare foot building. In a sign of the times, the Qatar Foundation board member Dr. Ahmad Zaki Yaman, the former Saudi oil minister and architect of OPEC, delivered the keynote address. [...]

The Qatar Foundation states as its philosophy, "People are the most valuable asset of a nation," while Emir al-Thani has said of his interest in education, "Let us be resolved and look forward to the future with trust and boldness in order to be among the active and influential and provide our coming generations with the best opportunities to meet their future and overcome its challenges." The Prophet would be pleased.

The Westernization of the Middle East proceeds apace.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 20, 2004 9:01 PM