Qatar ties linked to anti-Western ideological shift at Georgetown, Middle East Forum reports

The money has not only sustained the campuses but also funded faculty, research initiatives, and endowed chairs on the Washington campus.

"From Georgetown’s Board of Directors to numerous endowed chairs, research agendas, curricular development, and joint appointments with Georgetown University-Qatar’s (GU-Q) Qatar-funded campus in Doha, the Persian Gulf state’s petrodollars touch virtually every segment of the Jesuit school," reads the report.

This, it adds, is particularly relevant given Qatar's relative hostility to Western Countries, and support for terror organizations such as Hamas.

In turn, ME Forum explained that Georgetown courses and research show growing ideological drift toward postcolonial scholarship, anti-Western critiques, and anti-Israel advocacy, with some faculty engaged in political activism related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or anti-Western interventionism.

The ME forum breaks down the "academic manipulation" into three categories: academic programs reflect Qatar's worldview, creating a hostile climate for pro-West students; hiring terror-sympathizing faculty and using radical-leaning curriculum; and promoting research emphasizing pro-terror anti-West themes.

With regards to staff, Qatar Foundation has established and funded chairs in three strategic fields: Muslim Societies, History of Islam, and Indian Politics. This in turn shapes how Islam, regional politics, and the modern Muslim world are interpreted within the campus context.

One such example is Chair in Arab Studies and Director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies: Fida Adely. Adely is notably critical of Western development frameworks, and much of her work as an anthropologist focuses on critiquing Western assumptions.

She is also highly active in the anti-Israel sphere, supporting BDS, and is a member of various pro-Palestine groups known for terror support.

Since August 2023, Fida Adely has served as director of Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS). CCAS is directly connected to Qatar as the Qatari embassy in DC sponsors the Qatar post-doctoral fellowship.

Under Fida Adely’s leadership and influenced by her pro-Palestinian activism, "CCAS has increasingly centered its focus on Palestinian issues and become a platform for promoting anti-Israel and anti-Zionist sentiment at Georgetown University," said ME Forum. CCAS has also formed academic collaborations with Birzeit University, which has ties to Hamas.

Other ties between Qatar and Georgetown include that Sheikh Abdulla bin Ali Al Thani, son of the former Emir of Qatar, serves on Georgetown’s Board of Directors, and the fact that Hamas apologist and virulent antisemite Mehedi Hasan was named a 2026 Politics Fellow at Georgetown’s Institute of Politics and Public Service.

Furthermore, Ian Almond, professor of world literature at GU-Q, publicly endorsed Hamas’s October 7, 2023, atrocities, stating “I don’t blame Hamas for this” and “it didn’t start on Oct. 7.”

“Qatar has proved highly adept at compromising individuals and institutions with cold hard cash,” said Winfield Myers, director of ME Forum’s Campus Watch project. “But with Georgetown, it found a recipient already eager to do Doha’s bidding to advance Islamist goals at home and abroad. It was a natural fit.”

“Georgetown is Ground Zero for foreign influence peddling in American higher education,” said MEF executive director Gregg Roman.

“It has not only abandoned its mission to educate future generations of diplomats and scholars to represent U.S. interests at home and abroad, but is working actively to undermine the foundations of American government and policy. No doubt they’re eager to get the money, but at base this evinces an ideological hostility to Western civilization.”