Dartmouth anthropology professor Dale F. Eickelman's studies on the issue of Islamic religious and political leadership has drawn the attention of the national press, for Eickelman is the bin Laden Visiting Fellow for Islamic Studies at Oxford University.
The fellowship, initiated by a half-brother of Osama bin Laden, honors the memory of Muhammad bin Laden, the family's late patriarch. The grant sponsors a visiting professor's stay at Oxford to research some aspect of Islamic studies.
"Certain British papers have been calling Oxford to see if Osama bin Laden has been giving to Oxford," Eickelman said, whose long-term academic studies will not be affected by the Sept. 11 attacks, "but I can assure you his philanthropy is directed somewhere else."
Even if Osama bin Laden had participated in the endowment, Oxford's strict regulations prevent any donor from influencing how the money is used.
"A donor can specify general parameters of what a grant is for," Eickelman said. "There is no say in where the money gets placed afterwards."
Stemming from Muhammad bin Laden, an extremely successful construction entrepreneur, the extended bin Laden family includes 52 half brothers, some of whom have also donated to Tufts and Harvard Universities. According to a New York Times report, Harvard has removed the bin Laden fellows' names from its website, apparently to avoid controversy.
According to Eickelman, Oxford has not altered any of its policies towards the bin Laden fellowship program -- a possible result of, what he called, a more open attitudes towards Arabs.
"So many more Muslim Arabs reside in Britain that people don't get quite as concerned about people of Arab descent. [For example,] nobody looks twice at large groups of Arabs going to Bahrain," Eickelman said.
As a bin Laden fellow, Eickelman is currently studying Muslim leadership, focusing on the relationship between religion and politics in the Middle East, and how the two often come in conflict with each other. Part of his studies involve looking at the role Osama bin Laden plays in the Islamic world.
According to Eickelman, European nations also have had long-standing conflicts with terrorism, provoking safety and security measures in Europe that could also appear soon in the U.S.
"If you regularly visit places in Europe, you see subtle changes due to terrorism," said Eickelman. "It means the U.S. will have to be a little more cautious, at the airport, with our mail, et cetera."
Nevertheless, European nations have displayed an outpouring of emotion in response to the Sept. 11 attacks. Eickelman witnessed a three-minute moment of silence in the Netherlands where "the entire country stopped."
"There is a great deal of sympathy here. It wasn't just Americans that were attacked, it was people from all over," said Eickelman.
Eickelman's studies will likely help him when he returns to Dartmouth this winter to teach an anthropology course called "Thought and Change in the Middle East."
