A comprehensive new report reveals that the Muslim Brotherhood’s century-long strategy to infiltrate and undermine American democracy has reached its halfway point, with Qatar having pumped over $20 billion into US colleges and universities as part of a coordinated campaign to embed Islamist ideology into the heart of American education. The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy warns that the true figure could exceed $100 billion, and the evidence of this influence is now visible in the wave of antisemitism sweeping across campuses nationwide.
The 200-page report, titled “The Muslim Brotherhood’s Strategic Entryism into Western Society: A Systematic Analysis,” represents the first comprehensive assessment of the Brotherhood’s progress at the midpoint of what internal documents describe as a 100-year plan to transform Western society from within.
“We are now fifty years into the Brotherhood’s 100-year plan to entrench themselves into key institutions in the United States and other western societies to undermine and destroy our democracy,” said Dr. Charles Asher Small, founding director of ISGAP and co-author of the report. “This is not simply a political movement but a transnational ideological project that adapts itself to Western systems while working to undermine them.”
The Qatar Foundation, bankrolled by the ruling Al Thani royal family, has channeled tens of billions of dollars into American educational institutions to help the Sunni Islamist organization establish footholds throughout academia. According to Small, the Qatari royal family has taken a Bay’ah—a spiritual oath—to the Muslim Brotherhood, obligating the regime to follow all religious edicts and rulings issued by the organization.
“The royal family of Qatar has a Bay’ah to the Muslim Brotherhood, so they’re pumping in many, many billions of dollars into our universities, K-12 schools and cultural institutions, using influence and soft power to promote its ideology,” Small explained.
Cornell University stands as the largest recipient, with ISGAP documenting over $10 billion in Qatari funding over the years. Georgetown University received over a billion dollars directed toward programs in Middle East studies, social sciences, and diplomatic training initiatives. Texas A&M accepted $1.3 billion from Qatar, funding over 500 research projects at the university’s Qatar campus, established in 2003.
The ISGAP investigation uncovered that 58 of the Texas A&M projects had dual-use military applications, with dozens more involving dual-use nuclear research. The group has called on the Department of Energy to investigate these arrangements. The agreement between Texas A&M and the Qatar Foundation granted “all intellectual property rights” to the foundation—an arrangement the university confirmed.
Cornell defended its relationship with Qatar, noting that budgeted funding for its medical school in Qatar has averaged approximately $156 million per year from 2012 to 2025, totaling $2.2 billion. “Virtually all funding remains in Qatar for Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar school operations,” a spokesperson said. “We are proud to be the first US-based university to offer our MD degree overseas to educate and train doctors and scientists in patient care, biomedical research and improving quality of life.”
Texas A&M disputed ISGAP’s claims about sensitive research, stating: “No nuclear technology, weapons/defense or national security research is conducted at the Qatar campus. No sensitive or secret research is taking place at this campus.” The university has since moved to shut down its Qatar branch, asserting that its mission should be “focused on Texas and the US.” Small said ISGAP’s investigation “hit some kind of raw nerve.”
The report identifies the Muslim Students Association as the “primary vehicle for campus influence,” with chapters on more than 600 college campuses, including Columbia University and NYU. ISGAP alleges that Students for Justice in Palestine, which “cooperates with the MSA,” has been “particularly effective in advancing Brotherhood objectives” tied to the Israel-Hamas war.
When asked about oversight of the MSA chapter at Columbia, a spokesperson said the university “has been clear that we have zero tolerance for promoting terror or violence.”
The Qatar Foundation’s domestic reach extends beyond universities. Qatar Foundation International sponsored the map of the “Arab World” that renamed Israel as “Palestine,” sparking outrage when it was displayed in a classroom at PS 261 in Brooklyn last year.
The report draws on authenticated internal documents, including The Project from 1982 and The Explanatory Memorandum from 1991, which outline the Brotherhood’s century-long plan for the West. These documents describe a strategy the Brotherhood calls “civilization jihad“—a long-term campaign to subvert democratic societies by exploiting freedoms of religion and speech while forming tactical alliances with progressive and minority groups.
“The Brotherhood has learned to use the very freedoms of democracy as tools to erode it from within, exploiting the tolerance and openness of liberal societies as strategic vulnerabilities,” Small said. “This report lays out how, and what must now be done to defend our democracy. Designation as a terror organization is essential to safeguard our freedom and way of life and we must deal with the entryist damage that has already been done.”
Dalia Ziada, ISGAP Washington Coordinator and co-author of the report, emphasized the immediacy of the threat. “As someone who has studied and witnessed the Brotherhood’s operations firsthand, I can say with confidence that this is not a theoretical threat. It is an organized, multi-generational project to manipulate Western democracies and silence moderate Muslim voices, powered by the ideological and financial backing of Qatar.”
The report urges the US government to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued such a designation this week for both the Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY) supported the call for federal designation. “The Muslim Brotherhood is a pro-Hamas organization determined to carry out its ‘civilization jihad‘ strategy with the goal of splintering Western society into terror cells,” she said. “I’ve consistently supported designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization to bolster our national security and protect the future of higher education.”
Small warned that the stakes extend far beyond campus politics. “The Muslim Brotherhood is committed not only to destroying the state of Israel and murdering Jewish people around the world, they’re committed to the subjugation of women, the murder of gay people, and the destruction of democracy,” he said. “Very simple things we take for granted, like citizenship, or the notion that regardless of our ethnic, cultural, religious, gender, racial background or income, we have a right to be equal under one system in a democracy—this is what they want to destroy and replace.”
The report argues that ISGAP’s findings “shows the Muslim Brotherhood wants to move Israel away from the US—to isolate it, to destroy it—to use antisemitism to fragment and weaken the US and destroy its democracy.”
Small stressed that transparency around foreign funding is essential moving forward. “I think taking funds from entities, states or foundations or businesses that are diametrically opposed to democratic ideals, or ideals of liberal education, there should be safeguards not to take money because it has influence.”
The report was launched at an event attended by senators and congressmen, including Senator Ted Budd (R-NC), Congressman Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN-03), Congressman Greg Landsman (D-OH-01), Congressman Don Bacon (R-NE-02), and Congressman Brad Schneider (D-IL-10), along with policymakers, scholars, ambassadors, and Muslim and non-Muslim experts. ISGAP will continue briefing policymakers and national security officials in Washington and allied capitals about the report’s findings and recommendations.
The report forms part of ISGAP’s ongoing “Follow the Money” initiative, a global research program tracking extremist financing, ideological indoctrination, and foreign influence operations within Western institutions.
