THE $2.5 MILLION GIFT to Harvard University from Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, is being returned to him.

Arab's Gift to Be Returned by Harvard (New York Times via Mystical Politics)
By STEPHANIE STROM

Published: July 28, 2004

Harvard University is returning a controversial $2.5 million gift to its donor, the president of the United Arab Emirates.

Harvard said in a statement Monday that the president, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, recently asked to withdraw the gift, which was to endow a chair in Islamic religious studies, before it was subjected to a formal deliberation this summer by the university.
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Abdulla Alsaboosi, a spokesman at the United Arab Emirates Embassy in Washington, said negotiations between the university and Sheik Zayed's representatives had been going on for several months. "The negotiations were conducted in an atmosphere of cordiality and mutual respect," Mr. Alsaboosi said, "but in the end, since no decision was taken by the university, we felt regretfully that we had no option but to retract the gift."

Students and Jewish organizations had criticized the Harvard Divinity School for accepting the donation, which was made in 2000, because they objected to the sheik's support for a policy research organization, the Zayed International Center for Coordination and Follow-Up in Abu Dhabi, one of the seven states in the United Arab Emirates.

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I suspect (and hope) that the decision to withdraw the gift was made because the writing was on the wall that Harvard wasn't going to keep it. In any case, I'm pleased with the outcome.

For more on the Zayed Centre controversy, have a look at these entries.