Texas A&M has announced that it will be shutting down its campus in Doha, Qatar. Now other universities are making excuses not to follow suit. More on this can be found here: “Texas A&M potentially compromised US nuclear security, pulls plug on Doha campus,” by Benjamin Weinthal, Jerusalem Post, February
Jon Yates, a spokesman for Northwestern University, told the Post, “Northwestern has partnerships with educational institutions in more than three dozen countries around the world, including two universities in Israel. We maintain a campus in Doha, Qatar, to educate future generations of journalists and those working in communications fields, representing more than 50 nationalities, to help positively impact the region. Northwestern looks forward to continuing to educate students from across the region and around the world.”
Apparently at its Doha campus, Northwestern University limits itself to training journalists and others in “communications fields,” so that the national security problem, it claims, does not exist. But Al-Jazeera is a major presence on the campus, collaborating with Northwestern faculty in the classroom. And Al-Jazeera spews anti-Israel and antisemitic venom nonstop. Even were that not the case, by continuing to operate in Qatar, Northwestern helps to legitimize a state that is the main financial supporter of Hamas. And any support given to Hamas, after the October 7 atrocities, cannot any longer be tolerated.
When pressed about Qatar’s role in stoking Jew hatred in its school curriculum, according to a Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) study, and Qatar’s alleged role in funding the Islamist terrorist movement, Yates declined to comment.
Such pusillanimity from Northwestern is deplorable. Clearly Yates, a spokesman for the university, was following orders when he defended the university’s collaboration with Qatar, and was silent on Qatar’s antisemitism and its funding of Hamas. Perhaps its governing body will step in, just as the Board of Regents did at Texas A&M, and shut down its campus on Qatar as well.
Joel M. Malina, Vice President for University Relations at Cornell University, told The Post, “Cornell receives funding to operate a medical school in Qatar that has graduated over 500 students from the Middle East, Asia, and many other countries, including the U.S. We are proud of this collaboration that is helping to train much-needed doctors to support patient care, biomedical research and overall quality of life.”
At Cornell, as at Northwestern, there seems to be a moral bind spot. The Qataris claim to be funding a branch of Cornell Medical School in Qatar, training doctors for the betterment of humanity, but that misses the point. Any collaboration with Qatar serves to legitimize the leading financier of Hamas, at a time when Hamas, and its supporters, must be shunned by everyone.
According to MEMRI’s study, the Qatari Islamic Education textbooks for grades 1-12 “glorify jihad and self-sacrifice for the sake of Islam, presenting them as virtues and as divine commandments that earn Allah’s favor and rewards, chief among them admittance into the highest level of Paradise. Moreover, starting in grade 8, the books stress the importance of death in Islam instead of the importance of life.”
MEMRI added,” The textbooks repeatedly emphasize the difference between Muslims and non-Muslims, describing the latter as ‘unbelievers’ who will suffer terrible tortures in Hell and whom the Muslims must renounce. The books stress the superiority of Islam over other religions, especially over Judaism and Christianity, which are presented as false and distorted religions, and also feature antisemitic motifs, presenting Jews as treacherous, dishonest and crafty, and at the same time as weak, wretched and cowardly.”
Qatari textbooks inculcate hatred of non-Muslims, who are described in the Qur’an as “the most vile of created beings.” The non-Muslims will be tortured in Hell for their Unbelief. Jews are the object of special hared, for they are the “strongest in enmity” toward Muslims. They are “treacherous dishonest, and crafty” but also “weak, wretched and cowardly.” Young Qataris are taught that jihad and martyrdom are glorious, and death “fi sabil Allah” (in the path of God) should be embraced. This is what young Qataris are taught and do believe.
Texas A&M has been the first American university to pull out of Qatar. May the remaining half-dozen American universities that have campuses in Qatar come to their moral and geopolitical senses, and follow suit.
jerry glenn says
Northwestern and Cornell surge in the national Islamopandering derby.
OLD GUY says
It’s all about large money coming into their endowment funds.