About two years ago, Georgetown University and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qatar signed an agreement: Qatar pledged $630,000 to the institution for research on Islamophobia and related programs.
Again and again, Georgetown promised to follow certain principles. The university agreed that its Islamophobia-focused Bridge Initiative would “consult with the Islam and Muslims Initiative,” another Qatar-backed program, and consider its session, theme and speaker recommendations. The contract also stated that the university must “plan and host these events and activities in Washington, DC”
The Conservatives are now criticizing the university for the contract, saying it allows Qatar to negatively influence the university’s plans. And the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a pro-Israel group whose stated goal is to combat antisemitism, is urging the Justice Department to investigate Georgetown, alleging that it is in flagrant violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a complex law that generally requires what it describes as “agents of a foreign principal” to register with a foreign attorney general. The Brandeis Center argues that Georgetown should be registered as a foreign agent of Qatar.
“Citizens of the United States have a right to understand when an educational institution appears to be, instead, playing up the views of a foreign government,” wrote Evan Slavitt, the center’s general counsel, in an email to Within Higher Ed. “The Brandeis Center, concerned about such influence being used in a way that could facilitate anti-Semitism in the United States, demands that Georgetown be transparent about its relationship with the government of Qatar.”
Georgetown did not deliver Within Higher Ed interview about the deal and did not respond to several written questions, including whether he had ever rejected a speaker’s recommendation under the contract. However, the university pointed to other parts of the contract, not mentioned by the Brandeis Center, that protect the university and the academic freedom and independence of the Bridge Initiative.
The agreement is not Georgetown’s only agreement with Qatar—it has operated a campus in the country for 20 years.
When Within Higher Ed contacted the Qatari embassy for comment on the alleged contract, a Qatari official responded in an emailed statement, calling the allegations “baseless.” The official wrote that they are “following the usual pattern of smear campaigns that misrepresent academic and cultural relations involving Qatari institutions,” adding that they want to “create relations between Qatar and the United States.”
“They will not succeed,” the statement said. “The partnership with Georgetown University’s Bridge Initiative is an academic collaboration focused on promoting interfaith dialogue and addressing the documented rise of Islamophobia. Qatar does not direct or control the academic content of the Bridge Initiative. Decisions regarding research, programs, and the selection of speakers are made independently by its faculty.”
The Bridge Initiative says on its website that it has “produced more than 235 pieces of research” over the past six years. It publishes the Today on Islamophobia newsletter, a daily list of news about Islamophobia around the world, among other resources. Its latest report is about the rise of anti-Muslim bigotry during Zohran Mamdani’s successful campaign for mayor of New York City.
It is unclear whether the Justice Department has begun an investigation into Georgetown. The spokesman said Within Higher Ed Wednesday that “the Department does not comment on the presence or provide updates on the status of the investigation.”
But this alleged use of FARA by the Brandeis Center may present a new threat to universities that receive foreign funding. Congressional Republicans continue to criticize the institution’s ties to China and other Middle Eastern countries besides Israel, and President Trump has ordered the Department of Education to ensure that universities report foreign gifts and contracts in accordance with other federal laws.
“The Department of Justice is looking at other concerns about foreign influence in the United States, and the people involved in the FARA bar, the people who practice the practices. [law] in this area, they know that think tanks, research institutes and universities—more than ever before—are the potential focus of law enforcement,” said Daniel Pickard, chair of the international trade and homeland security practice at Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney.
Pickard said registering as a foreign agent requires public reporting and carries a stigma in many people’s minds. Although he did not comment on the Georgetown case, he said, “Private research agencies and universities are reluctant to register under FARA if they are not required by law.”
US colleges and universities will receive a total of $5.2 billion in grants and major foreign contracts by 2025, according to the Department of Education. Including governmental and non-governmental organizations in these countries, Qatar has given the most—more than $1.1 billion.
Report, Article and Letter
Criticism of the Georgetown-Qatar contract is growing. A March staff report from the Republican-controlled Education and Labor Committee, titled “How Campuses Are Hotspots: The Rise of Radical Antisemitism on College Campuses,” summarized the contract and included it in an appendix.
Last week, the Conservative Washington Free Beacon published an article focusing on the contract. The headline said the Bridge Initiative “promoted terrorist-imprisoned imams from Qatar’s ‘educational videos,'” and the first sentence of the article called the country “Qatar allied with Hamas.” (The headline did not mention that Qatar is also a major US ally; it hosts the largest US military base in the Middle East, and provided Trump with a plane that he plans to convert into an Air Force jet One.)
The Brandeis Center cited Free Beacon An article in his letter to acting US attorney general Todd Blanche.
“These so-called conferences and events are simply the introduction of speakers deemed acceptable to Qatar in order to promote the image of Qatar in the United States,” Slavitt wrote in a Brandeis Center publication. “Indeed, by using this money through an agency with a clear mission, it goes to the heart of what the law was originally intended to address – the secret creation of propaganda under the direction of a foreign nation.”
Slavitt said the Justice Department’s FARA division should investigate “and make sure the American public is fully informed about Georgetown.[‘s] not as a neutral presenter of information but a creature of the Qatari government promoting its vision. “
In a statement emailed to Within Higher EdGeorgetown pointed to parts of the brief contract that the Brandeis Center did not cite. Those provisions include a bullet following the consultative authority, which states that the university “shall, at its discretion, select and develop topics for sessions with its participants.”
Georgetown also targeted the center and the Free Beacon he did not cite saying that the Qatari Ministry of Affairs cannot “direct the research, scholarship, or teaching of the Bridge Initiative, or accept its benefits,” and the contract should not “be construed as limiting the academic freedom of the University, or the Bridge Initiative,” or of staff or students. Another provision of the contract states that the department “has no duty to administer, manage or operate in relation to the work of the University.”
“The allegations contained in the previous report and in the letter to the Department of Justice choose the personal lines of the contract to create a false image, and do not include the serious context,” Georgetown said in its statement. Free Beacon said executive editor Eliana Johnson Within Higher Ed in the email, “We stand by our reporting.”
Slavitt said Within Higher Ed in an email “given the features listed in the letter and the incredibly large value that Qatar provides, the impression that Georgetown University is not primarily led by Qatar cannot be overstated.”
The Brandeis Center, a nonprofit organization, does not disclose its donors.
“Our sponsors are Americans who are deeply and rightly concerned about the rise of anti-Semitism in the United States,” Slavitt said. “The blatant, shameful abuse and disregard for the work being done at Georgetown University is completely different. The university signed a $630,000 contract with a foreign government department and agreed in writing to allow that government to quietly shape who speaks and what is said at events in our nation’s capital.”
