Qatar is Not Our Friend

The emirate of Qatar on the coastline of the Persian Gulf has benefited greatly from the limited attention span of Americans, who think that the only threats in that region emanate from Iran, ISIS terrorists or Saudi Arabia. But given Qatar’s determination to spend a lot of its oil wealth on spreading Islamism and funding terror, even while this Gulf state enjoys the status of U.S. ally, it’s high time that the West started paying more attention to the insidious nature of its activities. 

But the same madrassas and mosques that were being influenced by the Saudis are now getting money from Qatar. That wouldn’t be a bad thing if Qatar was pushing a moderate curriculum, but it’s doing just the opposite. 

Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the exiled Egyptian cleric who is the chief ideologue of the Muslim Brotherhood, is orchestrating all of Qatar’s efforts in spreading Islam. The Brotherhood is one of the chief sources of radical Islam in the region and was responsible for Egypt’s brief period of radical Islamic rule after the fall of the Mubarak regime, as well as serves as the spiritual godfather of the Hamas terrorist movement. Qaradawi is also deeply involved in the Qatar Foundation, an institution supported and sustained by members of the Qatari ruling family that has spread radicalism around the world while masquerading as a charitable group.

Qatar is not our friend.