In this issue.

• Author: Ayres, Philip
• Pages: 6(2)

We lead with the second part of Mervyn Bendle's two-part article on Saudi funding in Australian universities. When the first part of this important study was published in National Observer (No. 72, Autumn 2007), it brought on its author's head the wrath of the authorities at Griffith University, a recipient of Saudi funding. Dr Bendle teaches courses there on terrorism and related topics, courses the university once tried to close down by indirect means, perhaps because they were seen to offend against political correctness (the "correct line" would have been to teach that "terrorism" is an invention of Western Islamophobes). In this second part, Dr Bendle opens with a look at the current situation at Griffith University "where this problem is well advanced", proceeds to examine the global nature of Saudi proselytisation via the principles of financial jihad, and goes on to consider "the behaviour of bureaucrats, academics and politicians who play the role of agents of influence or useful idiots, doing the bidding of totalitarian ideological movements, including Islamism".

In "Lights out on liberty", Mark Steyn, author of the acclaimed America Alone, examines the repression of free speech and print in...