By Barry Ellsworth
TRENTON, Ontario
Newly-released WikiLeaks documents detail Saudia Arabia’s funding of private Islamic schools in Canada at a time when questions have been raised about the kingdom’s funding in Canadian Muslim communities, Canadian media reported Thursday.
The documents are a paper trail between the Saudi embassy in Ottawa and Riyadh, talking about two donations in particular – one to a school in Ottawa for more than $200,000 and another to a Mississauga school for almost $150,000, reported the Globe and Mail newspaper.
While foreign donations to private schools are legal in Canada, some critics have raised concerns that the money from Saudi Arabia comes with strings attached – namely the teaching of a “puritanical” Islam as espoused by Saudi doctrine, the Globe reported.
But the executive director for the Muslim Association of Canada – the association operates several mosques and private Islamic schools – said only unconditional donations are accepted and denied any Saudi influence.
“It’s not the way we operate,” Sharaf Sharafeldin told the Globe. “We are solely Canadian and we have our own way of doing things.”
The Olive Grove School in Mississauga, run by the association, received $134,000 after details of a renovation were sent to officials in Riyadh from the Saudi embassy in Ottawa, according to the leaked documents.
The school is one of the “top performing academic schools in Ontario” and has a 1,200-student waiting list, the newspaper reported.
But Sharafeldin said the school project was small considering the overall project carried a price tag of $7 million.
The Ottawa Islamic School had the same response when asked about Saudi influence thanks to the $211,000 donation toward a $4 million school project.
“We do not accept such donations with strings attached at all,” said principal Mohamed Sheikh Ahmed.
In one memo, a Saudi official in Riyadh requested “the Canadian government’s written approval” of any donation.
The donations are legal, but a parliamentary committee has been looking at foreign donations over the past eight months and questions have been raised about the Saudi funds sent to Canada’s Muslim communities.
“We have to be concerned about all foreign funding coming in,” said Conservative Senator Daniel Lang, who is the chairman of the national security committee.
