Islamist influence in Texas remains a real and ongoing concern. For more than a decade, money has continued to flow through the state from non-profits, non-governmental organizations (NGO), disaster relief groups, and even from the state agencies, to push a Muslim-centric ideology.
It was just last year that Gov. Greg Abbott issued the proclamation to designate both the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim Brotherhood, as “foreign terrorist organizations” and “transnational criminal organizations.”
“The actions taken by the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR to support terrorism across the globe and subvert our laws through violence, intimidation, and harassment are unacceptable,” Abbott’s proclamation states.
Abbott details cases in which both the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR have sought to aid and promote Islamist ideas and organizations, such as Hamas, in Texas and throughout the world.
The Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist fundamentalist organization, was founded in Egypt in the 1920s and spread throughout the Arab world over the following decades. CAIR describes itself as a “nonprofit, grassroots civil rights and advocacy organization.” It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Hamas, a Palestinian nationalist and fellow Sunni fundamentalist group, has its roots in the Muslim Brotherhood following the 1967 Six-Day War between Israel and a number of Arab states, including Egypt.
While CAIR, as a nonprofit entity, is not required to publicly disclose their donors, ongoing litigation in Minnesota has ordered disclosure of donations by “any individual or entity within, or any governmental entity of, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, or Kuwait from 2007 to 2014,” indicating that alleged foreign funding is a real issue. Similarly, but more explicitly, the Muslim Brotherhood has direct ties to Qatar — where the terrorist organization is given “safe haven” from prosecution.
But for decades, Qatar has long remained in a gray zone with fundamentalist ideologies.
Going all the way back to the 1990s, the Gulf country hosted and, allegedly, facilitated fundraising for al-Qaeda-linked charities that facilitate Islamist militancy. It was during a U.S. House Committee in 2003 that Congress flagged these charities as conduits for al-Qaeda funds.
“By clothing their militant activity with charitable ideals,” the testimony describes, “Arab-Afghan leaders discovered that they were able to slip below the radar of many international intelligence agencies.”
According to a U.S. Justice Department brief, the terrorist organizations understood that “the charities would receive funds that could be withdrawn in cash and a portion of the money used for legitimate relief purposes and another portion diverted for al Qaeda operations.”
“The money for al Qaeda operations would nevertheless be listed in the charities’ books as expenses for building mosques or schools or feeding the poor or the needy.”
Over the course of the following decades, evidence continued to mount concerning Qatari support for Islamist extremism.
Qatar sponsored media propaganda, provided material support, and shielded Islamist movements (like Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood) during the 2011 Arab Spring. In 2012, it allowed Hamas to establish a political office in Doha, which remains operative.
Additionally, a 2014 U.S. State Department letter concedes that Qatar is open to working towards peace in the region, but that “while Qatar sees the growth of extremist groups… as direct challenges to its own security and interests in the region, its disruption of terrorist financing by Qatari individuals and charitable associations remains inconsistent.”
After Hamas won the Palestinian elections in 2006, taking full control in 2007, it was Qatar who endorsed the terrorist group and pledged $400 million towards “a transformational infusion of cash at a time when foreign aid to the Palestinian territories has been in free fall,” as described by The New York Times. Qatar has been reported as “Hamas’ most important financial backer and foreign ally,” providing $1.8 billion to the terrorist group since 2012. Then beginning in 2018, Qatar sent hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Gaza Strip, with the approval and facilitation of Israel, on the grounds it would be used to “prevent a humanitarian disaster.”
Critics argue that the funding, and harboring of Hamas leaders in Qatar, has been used “to enhance, to cement [Hamas’] grip on Gaza.” Leaders in Qatar have rejected the accusations.
During his first stint in the White House, President Donald Trump fired off a series of posts that cast Qatar as facilitating “radical ideology.” That same year, former U.S. officials raised concerns about Qatari support for terrorism — “I don’t know instances in which Qatar aggressively goes after (terror finance) networks of Hamas, Taliban, Al-Qaeda,” former Defense Secretary Robert Gates stated.
During a 2018 House National Security Subcommittee hearing, Qatar was shown to be a central actor in facilitating Muslim Brotherhood, and affiliated movements, terrorist activities by providing both financial support and safe harbor in the county.
Information supporting the notion that Qatar is a quasi-facilitator for terrorism around the globe continues to gather steam. But outside the direct donations to extremist groups, money is through the use of “foreign gifts” to American universities — in an effort to further tighten their grip on suffocating Western values.
One such example is the Qatar Foundation. The non-profit organization established in 1995 by the Father Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, has been described as “indivisible” from the government. “Although private and non-profit in name, [Qatar Foundation] is very much a state-led organization spearheading Qatar’s efforts at building itself into a regional and global leader in education, science, and cultural development.”
The Qatar Foundation registered as a foreign agent with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2018 further validating their funding coming from a foreign government and political party.
The U.S. arm of the Doha-based and Qatari state-supported Qatar Foundation, known as Qatar Foundation International (QFI), claims its goal is to promote and provide support for certifying “teachers of Arabic in primary and/or secondary (K-12) public/state-funded schools.” It also offers “classroom enrichment grants” so that U.S. educators can “purchase resources and materials that supplement their teaching of the Arabic language and Arab world.
Founded in 2009 as a 501(c)(3) private foundation, it then in 2012 voluntarily terminated its status as a private foundation and transferred its remaining balance to the Qatar Foundation.
It was also in 2018 that QFI was accused of spreading “Islamist propaganda” as the National Review detailed, saying that “An American educator who worked at a QF educational institution in Doha told the Middle East Forum that faculty were not allowed to purchase maps showing the state of Israel, the entire territory of which was instead labeled ‘Palestine.’”
In Texas, QFI has directly funded Arabic language and culture programs in several districts, raising questions about the content and implications of such foreign-backed curricula in public education.
For instance, at Manara Academy, a public charter school in Irving, Texas, QFI-supported activities have included classroom materials featuring maps of the “Arab world” that exclude Israel entirely, replacing it with “Palestine.” Photos shared by QFI highlighted a teacher displaying such a map as part of an “Arab Culture Arts Program,” prompting concerns about biased or one-sided portrayals of the Middle East in taxpayer-funded schools.
Similar funding has supported Arabic immersion and language programs elsewhere in the state.
Austin Independent School District (AISD) received a $100,000 grant from QFI in 2016 to launch a new Arabic language and culture program, funding teacher salaries, curriculum development, instructional materials, and other resources.
In 2015, Houston Independent School District (HISD) obtained an $85,000 grant (with earlier reports citing $75,000 to start its Arabic Immersion Magnet School), supporting immersion programs that integrate Arabic language with cultural studies.
Beyond K-12 education, QF and related Qatari entities have funneled substantial funds into Texas universities, often through research contracts and gifts that fall under federal Section 117 reporting requirements (which mandate disclosure of foreign gifts and contracts of $250,000 or more to the U.S. Department of Education).
Texas A&M University has received over $197 million through the Qatar National Research Fund (a QF affiliate) for research contracts. Additional undisclosed funds—estimated at over $100 million routed through the Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES)—have supported projects in sensitive areas like nuclear proliferation research, cybersecurity, and related technologies. TEES specializes in these fields, and critics argue that contracts exchange access to sensitive intellectual property (IP) for Qatari funding, with some agreements granting Qatar ownership or control over resulting IP.
It was just last year that Texas A&M shuttered its Qatar Campus, which was being funded by the Qatar Foundation, after it faced significant concerns over foreign influence, national security risks, and geopolitical ties.
Other universities, such as University of Texas at Austin, have benefited from QFI grants to Arabic faculty, supporting research and program development. Additionally, under Section 117 disclosures, other Texas institutions have reported Qatari funds, including Rice University.
Concerns persist regarding underreporting, lack of transparency, and the sensitivity of the research involved. And there remains another source of funding coming from the Gulf state into Texas.
The Qatar Harvey Fund, framed as humanitarian aid in the wake of Hurricane Harvey’s devastation in 2017, committed a total of $30 million from the State of Qatar for long-term recovery efforts. In its own materials it describes itself as “a commitment of solidarity between the people of Qatar and the people of Texas.”
It was created directly by His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of the State of Qatar. This is the same leader whose government has provided billions in support to Hamas as well as safe haven for its political leaders in Doha. To administer the $30 million gift, Qatar established an advisory board featuring prominent Texas figures, including Eileen Lawal, President of the Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy, Renu Khator, Chancellor of the University of Houston System, Graciela Saenz, attorney and former Houston City Council member, Bill White, former Mayor of Houston.
The Houston Community College foundation, the University of Houston Foundation, Lamar University, Texas A&M University System, and others received money as part of the Qatar Harvey Fund grant program.
While the Qatar Harvey Fund has been framed as an act of humanitarian goodwill aimed at meeting real needs in storm-ravaged Texas, its origins cannot be disentangled from the Qatari state itself, whose record as a patron and enabler of Islamist extremism is well documented.
It’s now been well established that Qatar and its government have taken an offensive approach to infuse itself with American academia. Questions concerning its past and present ties with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, including providing both material and monetary support. And while the investment in Texas education is presented as benign cultural exchanges or humanitarian solidarity, it flows from the very coffers that sustaining terrorism extremist ideology.
Still, Texas universities must comply with federal mandates under the National Defense Authorization act, which requires disclosure of foreign grants. As well as the Chips & Science Act of 2022 that expressly prohibits University researchers, faculty, staff, and students from participation with a malign foreign recruitment or malign foreign talent like recruitment programs.
But that only involves China, North Korea, Russia, Iran or entities in those countries. And loopholes are present when funds are routed through U.S.-based subsidiaries or intermediaries which bypass strict contract bans if approved by the Higher Education Research Security Council, yet the council’s rejection reports lack enforcement teeth, permitting renewals under vague terms. Additionally, institutions report only foreign gifts over $250,000 annually, missing smaller or incremental transfers from adversarial sources — like Qatar.
These gaps must be addressed if Texas, and its academic institutions, are to remain free from radical Islamist ideology.