Juan Cole asks Philadelphia for help

Long-time readers know that as a result of the September 11, 2001, attacks and subsequent events, I decided a couple of years ago that something had to be done about the woeful lack of understanding between the United States and the Muslim world. There will always be differences, but there need not be differences based on ignorance or fantasy. The Arab world alone has a population of 300 million and a combined economy of some 1 trillion dollars a year.

My response has been to found, with some colleagues, the Global Americana Institute, which aims, initially, at getting central works of American thought and history into Arabic. I think we also have to try to endow a chair at an Arabic-speaking university, but more on that later. It has taken a long time to get all the state and Federal permissions, but we are finally done. The Global Americana Institute is a fully recognized 501(c)3 charity, and donations are tax deductible. I am coming to the public with a plea to support us. We will, of course, also be approaching foundations and other funders, but I am hoping that this project is something that can garner grassroots support.
--Juan Cole

A worthy cause to which you can donate via the above link. Particularly, Juan calls on Philadelphians:

So, let me launch some challenges. Philadelphia is now celebrating Franklin's tricentenary. I visited the exhibit and found one book shelf with Franklin's autobiography in various languages. None of them were Middle Eastern languages. Can't the Franklin Foundation, or other Philadelphia donors, or just the people of Philadelphia (other Pennsylvanians and indeed other human beings of all sorts welcome, too) come up with the paltry few thousand dollars it would take to bring back out Ben Franklin's autobiography in Arabic and distribute it? Does Philadelphia have any sister cities in the Arab world to whom it could be presented as a gift in honor of the tricentenary? Can any readers from Philadelphia put us in touch with funders?

Maybe we can all post this information on our blogs to spread the word amongst the local crowd. I'll start with that and possibly donate later once my income is somewhat more secure.