(Hastings, United Kingdom) — In January this year, the UAE made a shock announcement. It would no longer fund its young students to study abroad at universities in the United Kingdom. The decision was reported by multiple news outlets, each confirming the shocking reason for the pronouncement. An Emirati expert in strategic and political affairs, Amjad Taha, said, “The UAE will not send its students to become hostages of Islamist jihadist ideology disguised as campus activism” while studying in Britain.

This shows how seriously the UAE considers the threat posed by radical Islamic ideologies to its young people. The Muslim Brotherhood has been banned in the United Arab Emirates since 2014, yet this decision shows it has found a stronghold in Western universities. For decades, the United Kingdom has been a favourite destination for young Emirati students and academics. They were given generous scholarships to live and study in the UK, but due to the threat of radicalisation, this is no longer the case. 

British universities have long been a symbol of academic excellence, and they were originally founded to further Christian education and biblical knowledge. For instance, the motto of Oxford University is from Psalm 27, “The Lord is my Light”. However, foreign funding has undermined the foundations of these once-great institutions. This becomes clear when you look at where this foreign financing originates. The figures are shocking. A never-ending stream of money from Islamic regimes has poured into English universities.

According to an academic report cited by the BBC, Islamic regimes have donated £750 million to UK universities since 1996. A Saudi prince donated £3 million to Cambridge University to build the Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre for Islamic Studies. The Qatar Development Fund donated another £3 million to Oxford. A report from the Centre for Social Cohesion listed the following donations to UK universities:

In total, eight major UK universities have received over £233 million from Islamic regimes. This would mean that the main source of external funding for UK universities comes from Islam.

The result of this funding is why the UAE withdrew funding for its students to study in the UK – this Islamic money has brought with it Islamic ideology. This should serve as a stark warning to a country that has long prided itself on higher education.

Surviving the Captivity

In the Book of Daniel, we see a similar pattern of “re-education”.  When Judah fell to Babylon in the seventh century BC, the conquest was not only a military operation. It was a cultural, intellectual and spiritual takeover. The Babylonians, under the direction of King Nebuchadnezzar, targeted the brightest of Israel’s youth for re-education in the ways of Babylon.

Daniel 1:3-5 reads, “Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and of the nobles, youths in whom was no defect, who were good-looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for serving in the king’s court; and he ordered him to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. The king appointed for them a daily ration from the king’s choice food and from the wine which he drank, and appointed that they should be educated three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king’s personal service.”  

The strategy here is clear – reshape their minds by immersing them in Babylonian education, culture, and worldview. This would incorporate intellectual instruction, social assimilation through food and entertainment, and ultimately spiritual replacement of the God of Israel with the gods of Babylon.

Daniel 1:6-7 details, “Now among them from the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them; and to Daniel he assigned the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach and to Azariah Abed-nego. 

With this strategy of giving the captives new names, the intent was clearly to erase their identity as the people of the God of Israel and replace it with loyalty to the Babylonian gods and, thus, to Babylon itself. The command to “teach them the literature and language” of the Babylonians shows that education is not neutral; it is formative in shaping beliefs, securing loyalty and allegiance, and changing their moral outlook. 

Yet, it is Daniel’s response that provides believers today a critical lesson in dealing with the attempted re-education: “But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself” (Daniel 1:8).

Daniel was able to live in such an environment without being taken captive by the cultural pressures imposed by an outside society. He understood the stakes of intellectual and cultural formation and drew a clear line that he would not cross in obeying his God.

The parallel between the Babylonian attempt to replace a culture and the problem of Islamic funding of UK educational institutions should not be ignored. The ideological frameworks and religious views attached to these “donations” shape the campus culture and the next generation’s thinking. They are not doing this without an endgame in sight. As believers, we need to understand that the battle of ideas fought in classrooms will shape the cultural tide for the next generation.

Cultural captivity and attempts to influence education can be resisted by a firm commitment to the Word of God and, most importantly, a relationship with the God of the Word!

Thomas Fretwell is the Founder and Director of the Ezra Foundation, the Senior Pastor of Calvary Chapel Hastings, the host of the Theology & Apologetics Podcast, and a Contributor to Harbinger’s Daily.