Qatar trying to influence U.S. educational institutions

Nahla Abdelmonem

The United States Higher Education Department is investigating secret funds by Qatar and think tanks affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood to some universities.

This goes hand in hand with information published recently by the website of the Clarion Project which tracks terrorist organizations.

American universities, the website said, had raised up to $10 billion from countries with links to suspicious movements between 2012 and 2018.

Nevertheless, the universities receiving this financing had failed in stating the full amount of money they received in official records.

On February 12, the Higher Education Department said some universities had failed in reporting the full donations they had received as well as their sources.

American universities, it said, had received a total of $375 million in donations in four years.

Black hole

In February, a bipartisan Senate Homeland Security subcommittee report revealed that Qatar alone has provided almost $1.5 billion to U.S. universities and colleges since 2012.

In some cases, the funding comes via government-tied entities with known links to subversion, spying, terrorism and extremist ideology.

For example, the terror-linked Qatar Foundation donated a jaw-dropping $33 million to Georgetown University in 2018.

That is just a single year from a single worrisome donor, the clarion Project said.

Qatari policies

Organizations inside Turkey donated around $37 million to American universities. Around $46 million was also donated by entities affiliated to the International Organization of the Muslim Brotherhood.

All these funds came within the framework of Qatari policies for influencing American educational institutions and think tanks.

Financing in this regard also aims to influence the results of U.S. educational institutions in ways that serve the Qatari agenda and Qatari interests in the long run.