Tyrannical Muslim dictatorships in the Middle East have poured funding into American universities in recent years. It is not because Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Saudi Arabia are enamored of American freedom or are nobly generous; rather, they are deliberately trying to transform our culture and brainwash the next generation of college students.
Even Republicans like Donald Trump seem very excited when we secure more investments from countries like Hamas-sponsoring Qatar and sharia-loving Saudi Arabia, but Westerners always forget that money is not in and of itself a good. If it comes from people who hold values completely antithetical to our own and who have shown by their actions that they want to impose their ideology around the world, then the money can actually be harmful. And that is the case with Qatari and Saudi money pouring into U.S. universities. If you wonder why so many students and professors in academia hate Israel, loathe the United States, and support Islamic terrorism, wonder no longer.
The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise released a March 2026 report addressing "Arab Funding of American Universities." The executive summary accuses the Biden administration of making it easier for malign foreign actors to fund U.S. universities, and explains the rise of academic antisemitism: "The report documents powerful financial incentives for universities to steer clear of teaching or research that might displease their Arab benefactors — a quiet, corrosive pressure on the academic freedom these institutions claim to prize." Some universities even have Doha campuses now. The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise listed some stats, among which were:
[The] data published through December 20, 2025, revealed that since 1986:
- Colleges and universities received $67.6 billion from foreign sources.
- Nearly one-fourth, or $16.2 billion, came from Arab individuals, institutions, and governments.
- Three countries account for 85% of Arab funding: Qatar ($7.7 billion), Saudi Arabia ($4.2 billion), and the United Arab Emirates ($1.8 billion).
- Arab funders made 14,426 contributions to 294 institutions in 49 states (excluding Alaska) and the District of Columbia.
- Only 5,915 (41%) of the donations worth ($15.7 billion) crossed the $250,000 threshold for reporting; the rest were smaller grants totaling about $414 million.
The UAE relies heavily on sharia law and prohibits preaching to convert Muslims to another religion, according to the U.S. State Department. While the UAE is not as radical as some Muslim nations in the Middle East, Open Doors International still reports legal persecution of Christians there.
The Qatari government is a major state sponsor of terrorism, and it harbors jihadis from al-Qaeda, Hamas, and the Taliban, who can live luxuriously in the Gulf state. Qatar also helps finance the Muslim Brotherhood. Hence, unsurprisingly, Qatari state media Al Jazeera regularly justifies, platforms, and promotes terrorists, from Hamas to the Muslim Brotherhood to Hezbollah, poisoning Westerners' minds with falsehoods meant to frame jihadis positively and to denigrate Israel and the USA. Furthermore, Qatari textbooks are persistently antisemitic.
Qatari leaders don't bribe U.S. politicians and fund U.S. universities because they're "moderate" but because they want us to be radicalized and applaud their terror proxies. The Jerusalem Post reported in 2024 that Qatar-funded groups were orchestrating campus anti-Israel protests. Likewise, the New York Post reported in 2025 that Qatari money for U.S. universities is part of a long-term strategy for the Muslim Brotherhood to infiltrate our country.
Related: Guess Which Dictatorships the UN NGO Committee Just Elected?
I wrote yesterday about the fact that Saudi Arabia is a fundamentalist Muslim dictatorship, and therefore enforces strict sharia. It even has a law on the books to punish converting away from Islam with death, though there have not been very recent examples of its enforcement. But just the fact the law still exists highlights the reality of Saudi sharia. Freedom House reported last year:
Saudi Arabia’s absolute monarchy restricts almost all political rights and civil liberties. No officials at the national level are elected. The regime relies on pervasive surveillance, the criminalization of dissent, appeals to sectarianism and ethnicity, and public spending supported by oil revenues to maintain power. Women and members of religious minority groups face extensive discrimination in law and in practice. Working conditions for the large expatriate labor force are often exploitative.
Both Saudi Arabia and Qatar persecute Christians.
It might sometimes be necessary to have military coordination with the Saudis in the Middle East as during the conflict with Iran's regime, but Saudis are not people we want investing in our companies and institutions. America already sold out much of our industry to Communist China and welcomed Chinese investment in U.S. universities, and what happened is that young Americans became much more Communist and businessmen supported anti-American policies. This is not a model that ends well for America, no matter how much blood-stained cash we receive in the meantime.
