A new study is sounding the alarm over what it describes as an extensive Qatari funding network designed to seed Muslim Brotherhood influence throughout American universities and cultural spaces. According to the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), Qatar may have funneled more than $20 billion into US institutions — and the total could be far higher.
ISGAP’s report centers on the Qatar Foundation, financed by the Al Thani ruling family, which the organization claims has spent decades slipping substantial sums into elite American schools to help advance the Muslim Brotherhood’s long-term ideological aims. “The royal family of Qatar has a Bay’ah — a spiritual oath — to the Muslim Brotherhood, so they’re pumping in many, many billions of dollars into our universities, K-12 schools and cultural institutions, using influence and soft power to promote its ideology,” Dr. Charles Asher Small, ISGAP’s executive director, told The Post.
Among the findings ISGAP cites is a trail of contributions it says reached an extraordinary $10 billion for Cornell University alone, with other beneficiaries including Georgetown University, Texas A&M, and Brown University. Small stressed that what they have uncovered represents only a fraction of the whole picture. “This is the tip of the iceberg,” he said, estimating the real total could be “at least $100 billion,” noting that the project has “only looked at a few universities” thus far.
Cornell responded by highlighting that its Qatar-based medical school — funded by the Qatar Foundation — keeps its budget in the Gulf nation. “Budgeted funding for the medical school in Qatar has averaged approximately $156 million per year from 2012 to 2025, totaling $2.2 billion. Virtually all funding remains in Qatar for Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar school operations,” a spokesperson said, adding, “We are proud to be the first US-based university to offer our MD degree overseas to educate and train doctors and scientists in patient care, biomedical research and improving quality of life.”
Small said Georgetown received “over a billion in funds” directed toward programs in Middle East studies, social sciences, and its famed diplomatic training initiatives. “It’s a very impactful use of soft power,” he noted.
ISGAP’s review also uncovered $1.3 billion awarded to Texas A&M. After years of searching, Small said investigators located a contract under which the Qatar Foundation would financially support more than 500 research projects at the university’s Qatar campus, established in 2003. The agreement gave “all intellectual property rights” to the foundation, ISGAP said — an arrangement the university confirmed. “Faculty who create intellectual property at Texas A&M at Qatar receive 37.5% of the net licensing revenue from that IP,” the school said. “The remaining net licensing revenue is distributed 33.3% to the Qatar Foundation and 29.2% to Texas A&M at Qatar to reinvest in the research program there.”
ISGAP says 58 of these projects had “dual-use” military applications, and many others were tied to nuclear research. The group has urged the Department of Energy to review the matter. Texas A&M insists otherwise: “No nuclear technology, weapons/defense or national security research is conducted at the Qatar campus. No sensitive or secret research is taking place at this campus.” The university has since moved to shut down its Qatar branch, asserting that its mission should be “focused on Texas and the US.” Small, however, said ISGAP’s investigation “hit some kind of raw nerve.”
The report claims that one of the strongest on-campus vehicles for influence is the Muslim Students Association (MSA), which has over 600 chapters nationwide, including at Columbia University and NYU. ISGAP further alleges that Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which “cooperates with the MSA,” has been “particularly effective in advancing Brotherhood objectives” amid the Israel-Hamas conflict. When asked about oversight, Columbia said it “has been clear that we have zero tolerance for promoting terror or violence.”
The report also revisited the uproar over a Qatar Foundation International–sponsored map displayed in a Brooklyn public-school classroom that labeled Israel as “Palestine,” arguing it exemplifies the broader ideological effort.
ISGAP’s document — “The Muslim Brotherhood’s Strategic Entryism into Western Society: A Systematic Analysis” — argues the Brotherhood is already deep into a decades-long strategy to “transform Western society from within” by embedding ideologically aligned individuals and ideas across key institutions. The organization called for the US to formally designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group. This week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued such a designation for both the Brotherhood and CAIR. Supporters include Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who said, “The Muslim Brotherhood is a pro-Hamas organization determined to carry out its ‘civilization jihad’ strategy with the goal of splintering Western society into terror cells. I’ve consistently supported designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization to bolster our national security and protect the future of higher education.”
Small argued that the stakes are enormous and that Americans must confront the ideological threat. “American voters, decision makers and scholars need to pay more attention to the importance of ideology,” he said. He warned that ISGAP’s findings “shows the Muslim Brotherhood wants to move Israel away from the US — to isolate it, to destroy it — to use antisemitism to fragment and weaken the US and destroy its democracy.”
He added that transparency around foreign funding is essential. “I think taking funds from entities, states or foundations or businesses that are diametrically opposed to democratic ideals, or ideals of liberal education, there should be safeguards not to take money because it has influence,” Small said.
Pointing to the surge of campus activism sympathetic to Hamas, Small argued it demonstrates the urgency of reform. “The Muslim Brotherhood is committed not only to destroying the state of Israel and murdering Jewish people around the world, they’re committed to the subjugation of women, the murder of gay people and the destruction of democracy,” he said. “Very simple things we take for granted like citizenship, or the notion that regardless of our ethnic, cultural, religious, gender, racial background or income we have a right to be equal under one system in a democracy — this is what they want to destroy and replace.”
{Matzav.com}
