Christian Group Exposes Qatari Dark Money Funding Campus Uprisings

The leader of a non-governmental Christian organization raised concerns on Monday about the connection between anti-Israel and antisemitic movements on college campuses and the massive amount of undisclosed funds from the government of Qatar flowing into American universities.

Jeff King, the President of International Christian Concern (ICC), stated on Monday that “there is a significant, secretive, and illegal transfer of money going from the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia to American Ivy League schools,” as reported by Breitbart here.

According to the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), Qatar provided $4.7 billion to numerous U.S. colleges and universities from 2001 to 2021.

“The explanation is straightforward: What is being taught is being paid for!” King emphasized in the statement.

Additionally, in its November 2023 report, the ISGAP highlighted that over 100 U.S. universities failed to disclose information on approximately $13 billion in unaccounted contributions from foreign governments, many of which are authoritarian.

As per the Gatestone Institute, Qatar channels these donations through its Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, a nonprofit established in 1995 that enables the concealment of funding as “private donations,” allowing universities to hide the origins of the gifts.

Even a coalition of Arab nations — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt — underscored Qatar’s financing of American education during their boycott of Qatar for supporting terrorism in 2019, as reported by the Jerusalem Post here. A UAE researcher penned an article titled “Qatar and the funding of American universities” in July 2020, asserting that Qatari influence contributed to limiting alternative perspectives on American campuses as “political correctness” and “racist ideology.”

ISGAP observed that U.S. universities receiving foreign funding exhibited higher levels of “speech intolerance.”

“It should come as no surprise when we witness students at many universities expressing support for extremist Islamist movements like Hamas. Follow the money. Christians must recognize that these groups are just as opposed to Christianity as they are to Judaism,” King emphasized in the statement.