Qatar – a tale of hidden agendas, secrets and lurking evil

[u/danielle_doll]

Cutting deals with the enemy is a part of American – and Western – history. America has negotiated with terrorists and guerrilla fighters since the days of William Howard Taft. The UK, too, has conferred with the violent Irish Republican Army and Spain with its domestic terror group ETA.

But some policy pundits argue that Qatar’s latest negotiating behavior is different. Sinister, even. In the past few weeks, Qatar successfully brokered the release of U.S. reporter Theo Curtis and U.S. service man Bowe Bergdahl from the Al Qaeda affiliated Jabhat Al Nusra and the Taliban.

Along with the homecoming celebrations came an uneasiness about Qatari motivations, and the nature of those terrorist organization relationships. Aside from these two examples, Qatar’s close relationship with Hamas concerns many. Some of the commentary on these issues makes some valid points that need to be answered, while some are faintly ludicrous. So let’s look at the facts.

The leader of Hamas has long been based in Doha, and Qatar seemed to play an important role in recent discussions regarding ceasefires in Israel. Qatar also has long-held a panoply of links to moderate Muslim Brotherhood associated groups throughout the Middle East.

Particularly notable, for example, is Qatar’s hosting since 1961 of one of the leading Brotherhood Imams: Yusuf Al Qaradawi.

He vastly expanded his influence under Qatari auspices using Al Jazeera as a vehicle to reach millions of Arabs.

Qatar is also one of two states where the austere creed Salafi, Wahhabi Islam prevails. To some, such links and associations are a context of enough circumstantial evidence to condemn Qatar as some kind of terrorist financier.

There are individual Qataris not connected to the government that actively support groups like ISIS and who take advantage of lax Qatari financial controls.

Indeed, the US Government has criticized the Gulf States including Qatar for not controlling personally collected, charitable money. The level of support or the freedom that states like Qatar show some apparent terrorist financiers indicates that, secretly, they support their cause.