Qatar may be a tiny nation, but it packs a serious punch that threatens the global order, writes Polish journalist Adam Starzynski.
People who have been following international news closely in recent years might have noticed that Qatar keeps appearing in the headlines and clearly punches well above its weight in world affairs for a country with only 300,000 citizens.
Lately, Qatar has been in the spotlight for housing the Hamas leadership while at the same time playing the role of the main negotiator, together with Egypt, for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Qatar also served as a safe haven for the Taliban for many years, and in 2020, facilitated a peace agreement between the United States and the Islamist group.
In between, Doha has also managed to organize the World Cup in football and was behind the largest corruption scandal in the history of the European Parliament, known as “Qatargate.”
However, Qatar’s main influence operation is its decades-long campaign to sponsor the spread of radical Islamist movements and mosques in the Middle East and Europe. Apart from sponsoring the construction of huge mosques and associations, Qatar is running an advanced media and PR campaign, creating fertile ground for these foreign Islamist movements to take root in their new countries.
We all know about the violent Jihadist organizations such as al-Qaida, ISIS and Hamas. However, most people know very little about the most influential Islamist organization, the Muslim Brotherhood.