FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy findings expose how fifty-year Muslim Brotherhood campaign at America’s top Catholic university has shaped U.S. foreign policy and normalized anti-Western extremism within elite academic circles

ISGAP calls for a federal investigation into Qatar’s specific influence at Georgetown and an immediate halt to any activities linked to this funding until such activities undergo full scrutiny by relevant security and regulatory bodies

NEW YORK, June 10, 2025 – Ahead of a new congressional hearing into Georgetown University’s foreign funding ties, The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) today released a major new report exposing a 50-year Muslim Brotherhood campaign and 20-year Qatari funding strategy to reshape American foreign policy through elite academia. According to the research, Qatar has funneled over $1.070 billion into Georgetown University. The ISGAP report, authored by leading scholars on the Muslim Brotherhood, forensic accounting and terror financing, offers the most comprehensive evidence to date of how those committed to antisemitic and anti-Western ideologies, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood with the support of the Qatari Regime, use academic funding to infiltrate US universities, influence future leadership, and legitimize anti-democratic thinking, anti-Americanism and antisemitism from within.

The report, titled “Foreign Infiltration: Georgetown University, Qatar, and the Muslim Brotherhood,” lays bare how Qatari money is systematically used to buy influence, compromise academic integrity, and embed Islamist ideologies at the heart of American higher education. Georgetown, the oldest Jesuit Catholic university in the United States with one of the most prestigious diplomatic training programs globally, serves as a primary pipeline of graduates to the U.S. State Department. The university has become a central platform for advancing the agenda of the Qatari regime and its deep affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, whitewashing extremism and exporting anti-Western and antisemitic ideological narratives that undermine core American democratic values.

Through its Middle East-focused centers and School of Foreign Service that have been infiltrated by leading Muslim Brotherhood inspired scholars, Georgetown serves as a gateway for inserting foreign-backed ideologies into the ranks of America’s diplomatic leadership. Georgetown graduates now occupy top positions in the State Department, intelligence agencies, and global NGOs – many having passed through an environment shaped by foreign donors with interests hostile to democratic norms and U.S. allies.

This report follows last week’s deadly antisemitic terrorist attack in which two Israeli embassy workers were murdered in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Charles Asher Small, ISGAP Executive Director, said: “The Qatari Regime targets Georgetown due to its unrivalled access to current and future leaders. Over two decades, that investment has paid off – embedding Muslim Brotherhood scholars and narratives deep within the American academic and political culture. This masterful use of soft power is not only about Georgetown. It is how authoritarian regimes are buying access, narrative control, and ideological legitimacy – and too many universities are willing sellers. It is time to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. As we saw last week, pro-Hamas antisemitism in the U.S. has moved from rhetoric to outright terrorism on the streets of Washington. Just three miles from the site of last week’s murders outside the Jewish Museum, Georgetown has been the center of a 50-year indoctrination campaign aimed at infiltrating the highest echelons of U.S. society with murderous antisemitism. We are now seeing the results of this campaign in the most brutal fashion. From the classroom to the encampments to our streets, this incitement must be stopped as it poses a national security risk both domestically and internationally.”

Natan Sharansky, Chair of ISGAP and renowned champion of human rights, said: “Antisemitism has been growing on American Campuses for at least 30 years. It first began within Middle East Studies. Georgetown University is no exception. The delegitimization and demonization of Israel create a hostile environment for Jewish students, and antisemitism has always been only a harbinger for the erosion of democratic norms in a free society. By publishing our reports, we are not attempting to limit free speech or liberal dialogue. On the contrary, our goal is to protect liberal values and the principles of equality within the American academy, of which higher education is a vital institution of the very foundation of democracy. Sadly, our enemies with their billions understand this only too well.”

Key Findings in the Report:

  • Over $1 billion in Qatari funding: Since 2005, Georgetown has received more than $1.070 billion from Qatari sources. These include funds to establish and operate Georgetown’s Qatar campus (GU-Q), along with significant support for its Washington-based Middle East centers.
  • Academic integrity compromised: Georgetown established its Qatar campus in 2005 amid financial strain. GU-Q is entirely financed by the Qatari government, including an annual management fee to Georgetown’s main campus. Research agendas, faculty hiring, and curriculum development are all shaped by Qatari priorities. The result: a campus governed by censorship and self-censorship, operating under a regime that criminalizes criticism of the Emir and censors academic materials. Academic freedom is not merely limited – it is structurally incompatible with the host regime’s legal and ideological constraints.
  • GU-Q as a tool of state soft power: Rather than advancing liberal education, GU-Q has become a feeder school for the Qatari bureaucracy, training civil servants and reinforcing regime narratives. Scholarship is selectively nurtured to serve Qatari reputational interests – not intellectual pluralism. In effect, the institution operates as a prestige façade for authoritarian soft power.
  • Centers as ideological hubs: Georgetown’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS) and the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) are at the center of this ideological realignment. These centers minimize the threat of Islamist extremism, normalize anti-Israel discourse, and platform voices linked to movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood. In 2020, the U.S. Department of Education named ACMCU as an example of how foreign funding advances “a particular country’s worldview” within American academia.
  • Pipeline to power: Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service has produced more U.S. diplomats and ambassadors than any other institution. Many alumni have been shaped by ideologically slanted curricula and faculty with close ties to foreign funders. These graduates go on to shape policy – often in ways aligned with the worldview of their financial backers.
  • Antisemitism and radicalization on campus: Since the October 7 Hamas massacre, Georgetown has experienced a sharp rise in antisemitic rhetoric, pro-Hamas demonstrations, and BDS-linked activism. Faculty and students connected to Qatari-funded academic centers have played active roles in these campaigns. The radicalism seen across American campuses today did not appear overnight – it is the direct result of decades of ideological engineering.
  • Betrayal of Catholic values: Georgetown, ranked the top Catholic college in America, was founded by Jesuits and still presents itself as a faith-based institution. Its partnership with a regime that jails dissidents, sponsors terrorism, and censors speech represents a profound moral and institutional failure.

This report is the latest in ISGAP’s Follow the Money investigative research series, which has documented how authoritarian regimes – particularly Qatar – have poured billions into elite American universities including Yale, Cornell, Texas A&M, and now Georgetown. The goal is consistent: soft indoctrination, policy influence, and reputational laundering. These efforts rely on financial dependence, academic censorship, and strategic positioning within influential departments and centers.

 

 

Policy Recommendations

ISGAP urges Congress, State Department, and—once confirmed by the Senate—the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, along with other relevant political and educational bodies to demand immediate and full transparency from Georgetown University. This includes public disclosure of all contractual and financial agreements with Qatari entities, a comprehensive audit of foreign influence on faculty hiring, syllabi, and programming across both the U.S. and Qatar campuses, and a rigorous review of the academic independence and integrity of its Middle East-focused centers.

ISGAP specifically calls on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee—which hold jurisdiction over U.S. institutions of higher education—to immediately launch formal investigations into foreign funding at Georgetown and its potential role in fostering antisemitism and anti-democratic extremism. These standing committees are fully empowered to undertake such oversight without the need to establish a new commission.

Additionally, ISGAP urges the U.S. Department of Education to initiate a full compliance audit into Georgetown’s reporting of foreign contributions under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act and to ensure enforcement of transparency and disclosure laws governing foreign influence in academia.

In parallel, ISGAP calls on the U.S. Department of State to evaluate the Muslim Brotherhood for designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under U.S. law, based on its ideological incitement, antisemitic platform, and material support for terror-affiliated actors. ISGAP also urges the Departments of State, Treasury, and Justice to review whether individuals and institutions connected to this campaign meet the threshold for targeted sanctions under existing counterterrorism statutes.

Finally, given Georgetown’s Catholic identity and Jesuit heritage, ISGAP calls on the Vatican and the Society of Jesus to investigate the university’s partnership with an authoritarian regime that criminalizes dissent, censors academic speech, and bankrolls movements rooted in violent antisemitism. Faith-based institutions must be held accountable to the moral principles they profess.

In light of the report’s findings, ISGAP has sent urgent letters to senior U.S. government officials, security agencies, and legislators, urging immediate action. Letters have been delivered to: Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security; Linda McMahon, Secretary of Education; Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor; members of Congress and the Senate from both parties; Leo Terrell, Senior Counsel to the Assistant U.S. Attorney General for Civil Rights; and the office of the US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism.

The full report can be accessed here: https://isgap.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/FTM-GEORGETOWN-REPORT-2025-05-23-1.pdf

 

Background

The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) initiated the Follow the Money research project in 2012, focusing on the illicit funding of United States universities by foreign entities promoting anti-democratic, antisemitic ideologies, often linked to terrorism. This ongoing investigation unearthed substantial Middle Eastern funding, primarily from Qatar, to U.S. universities, previously unreported to the Department of Education (DoED) as required by law, revealing billions of dollars in unreported funds. This groundbreaking work led to a federal government investigation in 2019. Despite its close ties to the United States and other Western nations, Qatar has cultivated an extensive network of Islamist partners, hosting, supporting, and representing entities such as the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), maintaining ties with Iran, hosting the Taliban, supporting Hamas, and backing militias in Syria and Libya. ISGAP remains at the forefront of exposing and addressing these intricate issues concerning foreign funding and ideological influences within U.S. academia.

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For media inquiries contact Raoul Wootliff at [email protected]