Wake Up! What You Should Know But May Not Know… Or May Not Want to Know - Part 8: Wake Up! The Threat from Within Our Own Borders - 5/9/25
Dear Friends,
This monograph concludes the Wake Up! series. In my prior monograph, Part 7: Wake Up! Qatar… the Second Head of the Octopus, I spoke at length about Qatar’s support of Islamofascist organizations and how Qatari money has infiltrated Western political circles, think tanks, colleges, and universities. I also discussed in detail how Qatar had built a powerful propaganda network through its sole ownership of al Jazerra and its partial ownership of other media outlets such as the Economist. However, I did not discuss the implications of Qatari largesse on the West, nor tie it into the broader context of the battle over Western civilization and the threat from within our own society.
Please note that unfortunately on Substack.com, the footnotes – which I think add a great deal of background information and depth – can only be found at the end of the monograph. On the PDF version, the footnotes are shown on the page upon which they first appear, making them easier to access and integrate while reading the monograph. Please also note I have attached a PDF version at the end for those of you who prefer to print it out and read it in that format.
I approach this monograph, The Threat from Within Our Own Borders, with a certain amount of discomfort and trepidation. It is far more comfortable to discuss the threat from external forces than to address the threat from inside. That is why spy agencies shudder when they hear the word, “mole”. It calls many factors into question, and forces the agency to look in the mirror and ask, “Where have we gone wrong and how could this have happened?”
In much the same way, we in the West have to ask these same questions about our societies, be it in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom (UK), or Europe. But first, as with a spy agency trying to identify the mole in the organization, we must first clearly identify the threat to our society. The threat stems from a toxic brew of self-loathing, Qatari largesse, and unchecked immigration, all of which is abetted by the media which has turned a blind eye to what has been taking place. I will discuss each of these elements in depth, before bringing it all together in the final section of this monograph.
This toxic cocktail has unleashed a wave of antisemitism that rivals the levels seen in America in the 1930’s and sadly may be even worse. Unlike the past, the ever shape-shifting disease of antisemitism around the globe is being cloaked in anti-Zionist rhetoric, rather than in the more traditional forms of antisemitism based on religion, race, or power. And the rise in antisemitism is not limited to America. It is pervasive around the globe.
Before Israel had even responded to the October 7 invasion and massacre of its citizens, protests emerged around West in support of the perpetrators of this genocide, rather than in support of its victims. Nor were these protests spontaneous. In many cases, they were carefully orchestrated with the same signs and chants appearing in cities through Europe, the UK, Canada, and the United States, as if by magic.
If you think that these protests are simply anti-Israeli or anti-Zionist or even antisemitic, you are missing the broader tableau. They are profoundly anti-Western in nature. The October 7 attack on Israel was but the galvanizing force that brought to light the threat that had been lurking below the surface.
I. Self-Loathing in the West
The foundation of this threat was laid over the course of the past decade plus and has little to do with Jews or with the state of Israel but rather stems from the self-loathing that has permeated Western society, a hatred which has been carefully inculcated in our youth.
Let me begin, however, with people’s views on Israel and on Jews, as the attitude toward Jews is often the canary in the coal mine indicating the health of a society. I will then turn to the broader attitudes of many young Americans toward America and Western civilization. Harvard Harris did an extensive poll in December 2023, two months after Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, covering the Hamas-Israel conflict and antisemitism more broadly. Let me share some of the questions asked and responses. Following each chart, I will highlight what I believe to be the key takeaways.
Do You Think the Attacks on Jews were Genocidal in Nature?:
73% of Americans believed the attack on October 7, 2023 was genocidal in nature.[1]
Even among the 18 to 24 cohort, this view was still prevalent with 66% of the people in this cohort agreeing that the attack was genocidal.
Do You Think Hamas’ Killing of 1200 Civilians and the Kidnapping of Another 250 was Justifiable due to Palestinian Grievances?:
73% of Americans did not believe what happened that day could be justified.
For each age cohort (from oldest to youngest), the percent of Americans that supported this view declined.
Shockingly, among the 18 to 24 cohort, even though 66% viewed Hamas’ actions as genocidal, 60% still believed that Hamas’ actions were justified.
Think about this carefully. If you parse the data, what it means is that over 40% Americans aged 18 to 24 that believed the attack was genocidal somehow still believed that it was justified.[2],[3]
The conclusion here is stark. For these young Americans, committing genocide against Jews is justifiable. Note that this is consistent with the testimony before Congress of the college presidents from Harvard, Penn and MIT in December 2023. When asked if calling for the genocide of Jews was a violation of their campus code of conduct, each of them answered, “It depended on the context.” For a large cohort of young Americans, however, it was not simply the “calling” for the genocide of Jews that depended on the context. For these young Americans, apparently the actual genocide of Jews now depends on context, as well.
Do You Support Israel or Hamas More in this Conflict?:
Overwhelming, 81% of Americans supported Israel in the conflict.
Yet, once again for each age cohort (from oldest to youngest), the percent of Americans that supported Hamas increased.
And shockingly a full 50% of Americans ages 18 to 24 supported Hamas, a terrorist organization that broke the ceasefire that was in place on October 6, 2023, gleefully massacring Jewish civilians in their own homes.
Despite the protests on college campuses and in the streets of major American cities and the constant criticism of Israel in the media, the views of Americans have not changed dramatically over the past year and a half. The most recent Gallup poll conducted in April 2025, shows that support for Israel has fallen only modestly to 75%, down from 81% in December 2023.
Unfathomably, however, the majority (by a slim margin) of Americans ages 18 to 24 now support Hamas more than Israel in the conflict. Despite the images of starving hostages that looked eerily similar to those of Jews held in Auschwitz and the reports of the torture they endured at the hands of Hamas, a full 35% of Americans ages 18 to 24 oppose the position that Hamas must release the remaining hostages without any conditions or face serious consequences.
Jews as a Class are Oppressors:
73% of Americans did not share the view that Jews as a class are Oppressors.
Similar to the prior question, for each age cohort (from oldest to youngest), the percent of Americans that supported it increases.
Once again, there was a massive change in the 18 to 24 cohort, where a shocking 67% supported this view, dramatically greater than even the 25 to 34 cohort.
Again, let’s not simply gloss over this. Somehow, a full two-thirds of young Americans have come to view Jews as Oppressors, a truly shocking and nearly incomprehensible level.
In looking at the results of the Harvard Harris December 2023 poll as well as more recent polls, the conclusions are obvious: Americans overall understand what happened on October 7 and who was to blame for the ensuing war. However, among younger Americans and especially those aged 18 to 24, their views on Israel and on Jews radically diverge from earlier generations. Where hatred for all other minorities – be it tied to race, religion, gender or sexual-orientation – has declined among young Americans, hatred for Israel and for Jews has increased materially. What explains this?
These divergent and highly negative views among 18 to 24 year-olds about Israel and Jews can’t be ascribed merely to anti-Zionism or antisemitism, although these views are likely symptomatic of both attitudes among a large proportion of young Americans.
Vasily Grossman, in his novel, Love and Fate, presciently wrote, “Tell me what you accuse the Jews of, and I will tell you what you are guilty of.” As it relates to the younger generation, Douglas Murray[4] has insightfully modified Grossman’s words ever so slightly, but significantly. “Tell me what you accuse the Jews of, and I will tell you what you believe you are guilty of.”
The animosity toward Israel and Jews is reflective of the shame this generation of Americans, Canadians, Brits, and Europeans has been taught to feel about their own country’s history and this self-loathing is clearly reflected in the polling results.
Let’s first look at some data from the Harvard Harris December 2023 poll and then supplement it with results from other polls that Douglas Murray referenced in his two most recent books, The War on the West and On Democracies and Death Cults. [5]
White People are Oppressors and Non-White People are Oppressed:
65% of Americans do not share the view that white people are oppressors, while 35% support it.
However, for each age cohort (from oldest to youngest), the percent of Americans that support this view increased.
Moreover, there is a dramatic increase in the 18 to 24 cohort, where a staggering 79% support this view, a full 30% more than even in the 25 to 34 cohort.
Consistent with the Harvard Harris December 2023 poll, Murray cites the results from a series of other polls that reveal the attitudes of young people in the West toward their own countries.
According to a 2022 Harvard Youth Poll, almost half of Americans 18 to 29 would vote for “a candidate that agrees that pupils in K-12 should be taught that racism is a fixture of American laws and institutions.”
Young British contemporaries share this view. According to a 2022 UK poll, “18 to 24 year-olds were the only group in British society who think students should be taught that Britain was founded on racism and remains structurally racist today.” In this age group, 42% answered “Yes” to this question as compared to only 22% that answered, “No.” The remaining 36% answered, “Don’t know.”
In a 2020 poll, “only 29% of Americans under the age of 30 saw their ‘Founding Fathers’ as heroes.” A truly astonishing 31% saw them as villains! Incredibly, for this generation, more people saw George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Benjamin Franklin as villains rather than as heroes!!
A 2023 poll showed that “44% of Americans ages 18 to 29 had a positive view on socialism, while only 40% had a positive view on capitalism.”
And finally, a 2023 poll showed that only 18% of Americans ages 18 to 29 said they were “extremely or very proud to be an American.” Note that the question did not ask if you were proud of the American government and its policies, but rather whether you were proud to be an American.
To show how radically the views of American youth have changed, a mere 10 years earlier, a 2013 poll that asked this same question. In that poll, 85% of Americans ages 18 to 29 said they were “extremely or very proud to be an American.” In a mere 10-year period, the level of pride to be an American amongst young Americans has totally flipped.
When British youth were asked similar questions, the results were strikingly similar. A recent poll in the UK of those aged 18 to 27 found that only 41% are proud to be British, an all-time low. This compares to a 2004 poll taken 20 years earlier, where 80% of Brits in this age group were proud to be British.[6]
How could this be??? Admittedly, there has been much to be ashamed about in terms of government policy and actions in each of the past three American administrations. Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican there is no shortage of things to deplore, ranging from America’s shameful retreat from Afghanistan, our exploding deficits, and our porous borders to our disgraceful treatment of allies, our disregard for the law, and our wanton callousness.[7]
All of this has undoubtedly played a role in the decrease in pride among young Americans, but there is something much more fundamental going on. After all, the change in attitudes was not limited to Americans. Moreover, America has had prior turbulent periods over the past 60+ years, but America has never witnessed negative attitudes remotely close to the levels held currently by our youth.[8] Clearly, there is something far deeper that has transpired in American and Western society that has caused this self-loathing. But what?
Murray provides a clear and concise answer to this question. “This and other data in the West show that young people have an astonishingly low view of the virtue of their country… A generation has come up that has been taught that by dint of being born in the West, they have been born into countries built upon ethnic cleansing and genocide founded by people that are settler, colonialist racists, and that their societies perpetuate these evils right to this very day.”
I share Murray’s conclusions. In the Oppressed / Oppressor framework being taught in our K-12 schools and universities, not only are the Oppressed good and the Oppressors bad, but also history is to be judged by the norms of our time, rather than the norms of their time. Moreover, the many positive elements of Western history have been simply swept to the side and deemed unworthy of discussion.
To demonstrate just how ludicrous taking this approach to evaluate history is, imagine judging a Revolutionary War or Civil War surgeon or doctor by the current standards of medicine, and condemning even the best among them as totally unfit. Or imagine judging Jim Thorpe (perhaps the greatest American athlete of all time) based on his times in races or the length of his jumps as compared to modern standards and pronouncing him, mediocre at best.
Yet, this is how Western history is being taught in our schools. Is it any surprise to see the poll results among young Americans and how radically their views deviate from older generations? They have been indoctrinated in this Oppressed (good) / Oppressor (bad) ideology and the more oppressed you are, the more merit you have.
In the DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) movement that has run rampant in our schools, cultural institutions, and businesses, rather than focusing on merit, DEI is obsessed with identity. [9] In the eyes of this movement, no longer should an individual be judged solely based on their merit, but rather on what group they belong to and the level of their grievance.
DEI has strayed far away from what the words diversity, equity and inclusion mean to most of us. In this woke ideology, equity is not measured by equality of opportunity, but rather by equality of outcome. Your personal success or lack thereof is explained by whether you were oppressed or an oppressor, rather than by your merit or effort. Just to be clear, I do not think that we always have equality of opportunity, for sadly, we do not.[10] Clearly, in my mind, it is something our society should be striving for on an ongoing basis. However, to admit a student or hire a person principally based on religion, gender or sexual-orientation, rather than merit strikes me as profoundly wrong.
In this Oppressor / Oppressed ideology, should a group of people in any school or any position be less than its percentage of the population, the answer is that the discrepancy is due to systemic racism and white privilege. The corollary to this is that any group that is overrepresented in any field or domain is, by definition, overrepresented due solely to “privilege”. Put simply, in this ideology, underrepresentation and overrepresentation are nothing more than the two sides of the same coin, and both are a function of injustice.
This woke ideology is particularly noxious for Jews, who have often excelled as students, professors, lawyers, doctors, and businessmen/women. The more that Jews have excelled and the higher their percentage in any of these fields, the more squarely they are placed into the Oppressor camp and held in contempt.
II. The Implications of Qatari Largesse
The Qatari money that has flowed into the United States has not been without its consequences. After all, the Qatari money was not given out of the goodness of their heart in the service of the United States with a philanthropic objective in mind. So, what is the Qatari objective? Why the munificence?
As I wrote in Part 7 of the Wake Up! series, Qatar has sought to spread Islamofascist ideology throughout the globe. To be successful in this endeavor, there are two necessary elements. The first is obvious – to promote Islamofascism through all means possible. The second is less obvious – to weaken the existing society and its norms and values, making it more susceptible to change.[11]
Qatari funding has amplified the Oppressed (good) /Oppressor (bad) ideology as the lens through which Western society should be viewed, discrediting its history and values. By doing so, Qatar is able to help foster the enemy from within our borders that is seeking to undermine and transform America (and the West), while at the same time also supporting our enemies from without.
What is maddening about the situation, is that Western Governments have largely given Qatar a free pass on all this. Why, you might ask? In my opinion, two factors come into play. The first is straightforward – it’s the Golden Rule, “The party with the gold, rules.” Qatari largesse has led its many recipients to at best turn a blind eye to what is happening, and at worst to actively be participants in the spreading of Islamofascist ideology. The second factor is a bit more complicated. By successfully positioning themselves as so-called “honest” mediators and intermediaries, Qatar has been able to camouflage their true intent.
In Part 7, I shared the magnitude of Qatari donations to American universities, but I did not address the implications of this funding. In this section, I will discuss the following topics:
The impact of Qatari funding on what is being taught at our colleges and universities.[12]
Qatari financial support of radical Islamofascist elements in our society.
Qatar’s role in the radicalization occurring at many American mosques.
Qatar’s role in creating the term, Islamophobia, and then demonizing it.
I will begin with Qatar’s financing of American colleges and universities and examine Qatar’s role in shaping what is being taught at many of our most universities. It’s important to first note that the students arriving on our college campuses are not blank slates. Much of their beliefs and values have already been shaped in our elementary schools and high schools. However, colleges and universities often act as a force-multiplier in reinforcing this woke, Oppressed (good) / Oppressor (bad) ideology that far too often is being taught at our elementary schools and high schools. Sadly, this ideological view dividing the world into two camps, Oppressed and Oppressors, is particularly prevalent at our most elite colleges and universities. Have you ever considered why?
Qatari Contributions to American Universities
As I discussed in the prior monograph, Qatar has donated over $4.7 billion to American universities. They have concentrated their funding on the most elite universities in the country, including Harvard, Yale, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell and Columbia to name just a few of their top recipients. Making matters worse, a large percentage of these funds were never disclosed despite the legal obligations for the universities to do so. By and large, universities have been silent on this question, even when questioned directly. There are numerous pending lawsuits against universities demanding full disclosure on this topic.
Despite the level of opaqueness, it is clear that this dark money has often been used to establish entire academic departments, endow professorships, shape course agendas and content, and scrutinize or cancel activities. It is highly likely that the undisclosed Qatari donations have been disproportionately used to fund departments and establish academic programs in areas such as Middle Eastern studies, anti-colonialism, racism and anti-racism, and ethnic and gender studies.
As just one example of how pronounced Qatari influence has become, at Columbia University (one of the major beneficiaries of Qatari largesse), Professor Joseph Massad is currently teaching a course on Zionism. This is the very same man, who called Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, “Awesome.” Think about the absurdity of this for a moment. A tenured faculty member at Columbia who is an ardent Hamas supporter is teaching the course on Zionism, the right of the Jewish people to have a state of their own in their historical homeland. This is like having Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minister for Propaganda and Public Enlightenment in Nazi Germany, teaching a course on contemporary Jewish values. Are you kidding me?
Ritchie Torres, a Democratic Member of the House of Representatives from the state of New York, clearly understood the absurdity of this. He criticized Massad’s class on X, saying, “Why should U.S. Taxpayers subsidize ideologic indoctrination that glorifies the mass murder, maiming, mutilation, rape and abduction of Jews and Israelis.” Torres is alluding to U.S. taxpayer support for leading American universities and their tax-exempt endowment status. Although U.S. taxpayers are subsidizing these universities overall, it is often Qatari money that directly subsidizes these particular departments.
Some of the departments and academic areas of study funded by the Qataris might appear to you as more surprising than others. Middle Eastern studies and courses on anti-colonialism are obvious areas of Qatari interest. Here, the Qatari objective is clear. Their goal is to shape the narrative around Palestinian rights, the religion of Islam, the conflict with Israel, etc. The same is true of their backing of the anti-colonialism curriculum given Qatar’s desire to portray Israel as a white, colonialist usurping the rights of “indigenous” Palestinians.
But what about their support for courses, professors and entire departments that focus on issues such as racism, anti-racism, ethnic or gender studies?
In his insightful book, The War on the West, Douglas Murray lays out the concerted effort to denigrate Western civilization and destroy the underpinnings of our society by putting forward a false, distorted, and one-sided narrative of Western and American history. By funding departments focused on racism, ethnic, and gender studies, Qatar’s goal is to lead an entire generation of Americans, Canadians, Brits and Europeans to question the values of their societies with the goal of instilling a profound sense of shame. They have been remarkably successful at this endeavor.
When we see the protests on elite universities, we should keep in mind the maxim, Follow the Money. It is not a coincidence that these protests are occurring disproportionately at elite American universities where Qatari money is most prevalent. Researchers have proven a direct correlation between Qatari contributions to universities and the level of antisemitism reported on those campuses as compared to other campuses that have not been showered with undisclosed Qatari largesse.
The most comprehensive and well researched analysis of the role of Qatari money in American universities was published in the Middle East Journal on March 6, 2024, and is entitled, Tuition of Terror? How much Does Qatar’s Money Affect American Academia. For those of you who are interested, I have attached the link, Tuition of Terror, and urge you to read it. It provides a far more in-depth analysis than what I am presenting here with many links to source documents and studies.
Perhaps the thing that is most disappointing here is America’s willingness to allow this foreign funding of our universities to happen in the first place. Laws restricting foreign ownership of U.S. media assets were first established in 1934 and have remained in place ever since. These restrictions aim to safeguard national security and ensure domestic control over American media. Yet, we are willing to allow “foreign ownership” of our universities that shape the minds of our next generation. How can this possibly make sense???
Qatari Support of Islamofascist Movements
If I described Qatari financing of American university programs as opaque, Qatari funding of Islamofascist movements in the United States is deep, dark, and murky. There is layer upon layer of entities that camouflage the ultimate donors to these causes. What is clear is that Qatari money has supported a wide-range of Islamofascist movements both on our college campuses and in the streets of our major cities.
The demonstrations that have been occurring are neither spontaneous nor organic but rather have been carefully orchestrated. Let me focus on two inter-connected organizations, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), which have been behind a large number of these demonstrations.
SJP describes itself as: “An independent, grassroots organization mobilizing students to advocate for Palestinian liberation and self-determination.” The description goes on to say that SJP opposes colonialism, capitalism, and imperialism in all forms, emphasizing intersectionality in its activism. SJP campaigns against Israel’s occupation and colonization of Arab lands, supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and organizes events highlighting alleged human rights violations by Israel.
Like SJP, AMP describes itself in innocuous terms: “American Muslims for Palestine is a grassroots organization dedicated to advancing the movement for justice in Palestine by educating the American public about Palestine and its rich cultural, historical and religious heritage and through grassroots mobilization and advocacy.”
However, neither is remotely close to being the grassroots organization that both claim to be. Behind the scenes, SJP activities are largely centralized and coordinated through the National SJP (NSJP) umbrella group, which was established in 2010 by AMP. NSJP unites over 275 campus chapters across North America, providing resources, training, and a shared strategy for activism.
AMP, in turn, is primarily funded through its fiscal sponsor, the Americans for Justice in Palestine Educational Foundation (AJP), a 501 (c)(3) organization. AJP facilitates donations to AMP from WESPAC Foundation (WESPAC), another 501 (c)(3) organization. WESPAC is also the principal financial sponsor of SJP. Over and above its financial support, WESPAC provides SJP with extensive operational assistance (according to WESPAC’s own website).
Both AJP and WESPAC have well-established ties with Hamas as well as with the Muslim Brotherhood. Thanks to a lawsuit brought by the parents of David Boim, an American teenager studying in Israel who was shot by two Hamas terrorists on the morning of Monday, May 13, 1996, many details into AMP have been revealed in court filings. David Schlessinger, the Boim’s attorney, has built a convincing case against AMP. He accused AMP of acting as an “alter ego” of Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP), a now-defunct group that was shut down after it was ruled liable for Boim’s murder in a U.S. federal courtroom nearly 20 years ago and deemed by the U.S. government to be a terrorist organization.
Schlessinger said his team has assembled “overwhelming” evidence that shows AMP is, in reality, simply a continuation of IAP. Among other close parallels cited by Schlessinger, top officials at AMP — many of whom have direct ties to Hamas — were once affiliated with IAP, in what he characterized as a “dramatic” overlap of leadership.
AMP was formed immediately after IAP was shut down in 2004. “The key player in the day-to-day functioning of AMP was the same guy who was the key player in the day-to-day functioning of IAP,” Schlessinger told the Jewish Insider, referring to Abdelbaset Hamayel, a former top IAP official who also served as AMP’s first executive director and still manages its books and records.
“If you don’t want to be identified as a terrorist organization,” Schlessinger said, “why in the world would you hire as your executive director the guy who was the executive director of this predecessor organization that has been found to be a supporter of terror?”
In addition, Schlessinger contends that AMP quickly established itself as a formidable organization with widely attended conferences and a deep reserve of institutional resources because it “inherited” IAP’s business and operational methods as well as its email lists, donors, and convention speakers. In support of this claim, Schlessinger noted that AMP held a convention immediately after its 2004 launch with nearly the same roster of speakers and in the same location in Illinois where IAP hosted its events, clearly demonstrating how the two groups are identical in all but their names.
If you think that what Schlessinger is alleging is biased because he represents the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, think again. The Senate HELP Committee, lead by Bill Cassidy, in March 2025, launched a probe into AMP due to its “alleged” ties to Hamas and involvement in organizing antisemitic and violent demonstrations on U.S. college campuses. Requests for information have been sent to AMP and related entities, but the probe remains in its early days.
So, a quick recap. SJP is not the grass-roots organization as it claims. Its operations are highly centralized and directed by the NSJP. SJP and NSJP are funded largely by AMP, an organization with deep ties to terrorist groups. AMP’s funding, in turn is provided, by various 501(c)(3) entities that facilitate tax-deductible donations and, more importantly, hide the identity of the donors providing this money.
Given Qatar’s close ties with and financial support of both Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, it doesn’t take a genius to conclude that Qatar provides a meaningful portion of the funding to both SJP and AMP, if not the majority. Qatar wants to be the force behind the scenes facilitating the whole affair, while remaining largely hidden from view. As I said at the beginning, the whole process is indeed deep, dark, and murky… and it is meant to be.
Almost immediately after the October 7 attack, SJP-organized protests erupted on college campuses across the country, and particularly at elite American universities. Miraculously, these allegedly spontaneous protests not only blamed Israel for the attack of October 7 and demanded an immediate ceasefire before Israel had even taken any actions to defend itself, but also had the exact same chants, posters, and signs. How could this be? And, who funded all this? Once again, the answer is clear, “Follow the Money” and it inevitably brings you back to Qatar.
SJP have been suspended or expelled at numerous colleges and universities for their violation of university policies, including unauthorized encampments, violence on campus, harassment, and intimidation. Among those colleges and universities banning SJP from campus are Pomona College, Brown University, Rutgers University, University of Georgia, Columbia University, George Washington University, Michigan University, and most recently, UCLA.
Washington University in St. Louis was one of the few universities to enforce its time, place, and manner restrictions.[13] During an interview with Dan Senor on his podcast, Call Me Back, Andrew Martin, the Chancellor of Washington University, described the encampment that appeared on his university’s campus on April 27, 2024, and the players behind it. If there is any doubt as to whether these protests were grassroots, Chancellor Martin answered this question:
“We had 400 protestors on the campus and 100 arrested. 75 of them were unaffiliated with the University. We know that many of them… we booked them… were not from St. Louis. They had flown in from around the country to carry out their agenda on our campus and disrupt our students while they were studying for exams.”
Washington University’s experience was by no means unique. The pattern was the same at campus after campus, where professional activists were dispatched to coordinate protests. At Columbia, Harvard, UCLA and other leading universities, pamphlets were distributed instructing students how to best enter buildings, construct barricades, and resist arrest. Do any of us really believe that these materials were prepared by students at those universities?
These protests, however, are not limited to college campuses. As I will discuss later, they have occurred in major Western cities throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and the UK.
Qatar’s Role in Branding & Condemning Islamophobia
With the backing of Qatari money, there has been a concerted effort to inject the term, Islamophobia, into the narrative. It is often defined as an “unfounded hostility toward Islam” and is described as encompassing both individual prejudice and systematic discrimination against Muslims. Universities and government officials always decry antisemitism and Islamophobia in the same breath, as though there is a symmetry between the two. The most recent case of this was Harvard University’s simultaneous release of reports on antisemitism and Islamophobia.
While undoubtedly, there is at times unjust and unwarranted discrimination against Muslims, Islamophobia creates a false symmetry to antisemitism. Muslim students are not facing anything remotely close to the ordeal being faced by Jewish students on elite university campuses where Jews are often demonized, threatened, and blocked by protestors from going to classes. Unlike Jewish students, they are not being confronted with chants calling for their deaths and hearing people scream, “Hitler should have finished the job, you dirty, f’ing Jew”, as happened at a recent college protest.
With the financial backing of Qatar, Islamophobia has been weaponized to stifle any criticism of radical Islam. Under the tenets of Islamophobia, any criticism of radical Islam is a criticism of the Islam religion and is immediately condemned as racist and needs to be shutdown. Note that this is why I prefer to use Islamofascist ideology rather than Islamist ideology. I don’t want there to be any doubt exactly what I am criticizing and condemning. The acceptance of the Islamophobia narrative has stifled any analysis and criticism of Islamofascism. Qatar has been behind much of this branding effort with its vast financial contributions to Western think tanks and universities.
Qatari Funding of American Mosques and the Radicalization of American Muslims
In order to understand Qatar’s funding of the radicalization of American Muslims, we have to determine two separate elements. The first is whether Qatari money is being used to fund American mosques; and the second, is whether American mosques are being used to radicalize American Muslims.[14]
In order to determine the role of Qatari money in funding American mosques, it is necessary to first pierce a web of related entities. Once again, the maxim, Follow the Money is the key. The main channel by which Qatar donates money to universities and Western think tanks is Qatar Foundation. While there is some evidence suggesting that the Qatar Foundation funds the Muslim Brotherhood, the Qatar Foundation does not appear to be the main vehicle by which Qatar funds mosques. As usual, Qatar’s role is cloaked behind multiple layers and to uncover it, we need to work backwards.
The largest funder of American mosques is the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT). NAIT has financed the construction of over 300 Islamic centers across 42 states. Approximately 27% of American mosques have been funded by NAIT, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Other sources, however, suggest that this number is much higher, and likely north of 50% of American mosques.
Documents released in the prosecution of the Holy Land terrorism case[15], named NAIT as one of the entities that is part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood and revealed that NAIT received a material portion of their funding from the Muslim Brotherhood. In addition, senior NAIT officials have been closely linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. Note that the Muslim Brotherhood is banned as a terrorist organization in the UAE, Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and even the Palestinian Authority-controlled West Bank, even as the Muslim Brotherhood is allowed to operate freely in the United States and the UK.
Amjad Taha, a well-regarded UAE peace-activist and commentator, clearly and concisely lays out the threat posed by the Muslim Brotherhood:
“In the UAE, we understand the tactics of the Muslim Brotherhood terrorists. They infiltrated schools and universities, using Quranic teaching classes to recruit and radicalize youth. That’s why we banned them by law and raise awareness through public campaigns. In the UK, however, they are not banned. They operate schools, gyms, universities, and charities freely. These groups can turn a son against a mother, instill hatred for one’s own people, burn national flags, incite religious conversion, and encourage attacks on teachers. From civilized to uncivilized… their goal is moral collapse. In the UAE, our government protects us. In the UK, the authority protects them.”
The Qatar Charity, another Qatari state-owned NGO, provides a material part of the Muslim Brotherhood’s financing and has strong connections to the Muslim Brotherhood at multiple levels.[16] Hence, through this web of intermediary entities, it is safe to conclude that Qatar has played an extensive role in the funding of American mosques.
Now to the second element – American mosques are being used to radicalize American Muslims. NAIT has been specifically linked to spreading Wahhabi doctrines in U.S. mosques, which promotes a strict and often intolerant interpretation of Islam. In a study by Mordechai Kedar and David Yerushalmi titled, Shari’a and Violence in American Mosques, published by the Middle East Forum in 2011, they found that 51% percent of mosques had texts the either advocated violence in the pursuit of Shari’a-based political order or advocated violent jihad as a duty that should be of paramount importantance to Muslims, 30% had texts that were modestly supportive of violence like the Tafsir Ibn Kathir and Figh as-Sunna, and 19% had no violent texts at all. Here is a link to their study: Shari’a and Violence in American Mosques.
The Kedar-Yerushalmi study focused on the texts being taught at the mosques. But there is a much easier way to prove Islamofascism is being taught in American mosques; and that is through the words of American Imams.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization founded in 1998. MEMRI focuses on translating and analyzing media content from the Middle East, South Asia, and beyond, including Arabic, Farsi, Turkish, Urdu-Pashtu, and other languages. Its stated mission is to bridge the language gap between what is being said to Arab and Muslim audiences in Arabic as compared to what is being said in English to Western audiences. Often there is a very stark divide between the two.
In addition to this core activity, MEMRI also films lectures, sermons, and speeches to principally Arab audiences in the West and seeks to disseminate them in order to disclose extremist content and document cases of antisemitism. It is this later work that I want to rely on in order to give you a glimpse into what is being said at American mosques. In each case, I will provide a link to a MEMRI post on X that provides a video of what is being said by Imams[17] here in America. This is but a small sampling of the transcripts that MEMRI has provided of Imam’s sermons in America:
A Los Angeles, California Imam, Marc Manley on the Los Angeles Fires: “Allah has shown some of the Zionists who celebrated the destruction in Gaza that he will exact revenge upon them for their evil”: California Imam.
A Dearborn Heights Shiite Scholar, Ahmad Qazwini: “It is impossible to lose to a Zionist on the battlefield – either you kill him and he goes to hell, or he kills you and you go to paradise; it’s a win/win situation”: Dearborn Scholar.
A Colorado Imam teaches children at Mosque: “Jews cannot be trusted, Allah turned Jewish fisherman into monkeys; The Jews killed their prophets, tried to kill Jesus”: Colorado Imam
And if you think, the Imam’s comments are limited to Jews, here are two comments about Christians, one from Charlotte, North Carolina and the other from Toronto, Canada:
A Charlotte, North Carolina Imam, Imam Hroon Sait: “50 years from now, Muslims will be the number one group in America; calling Christians to Islam is the easiest thing to do”: Charlotte Imam.
A Toronto, Canada Imam, Abdullah Hakim Quick: “Christians have no modesty and no shame. This is what distinguishes us and them. Jesus, who is alive now will return to the Muslims”. Toronto Imam
III. Immigration
In Part 5 of the Wake Up! series, I wrote extensively about the threat from Islamofascism to the West.[18] One of the key conclusions of that monograph was that the mass immigration from Muslim countries combined with the failure of Muslim immigrants to integrate represents a grave threat to the West.
In this section, I am going to discuss the magnitude and implications of the immigration crisis in Europe, the UK, Canada and the United States. Not surprising, I will focus my discussion on immigration from Middle Eastern Muslim countries.
It’s necessary, however, to commence with the bigger picture. The impact of immigration differs dramatically in terms of both scale and nature across countries and regions. Nevertheless, there is a clear common theme – immigration has become a major political issue across all countries and regions, if not the defining political issue. In the United States, the overriding issue has been the impact of illegal immigration, while in Europe, the UK, and Canada, it has been the impact of legal immigration.
In the United States, illegal immigration crisis has been an issue for well over a decade, but under the Biden administration, it became a tsunami. During President Biden’s four years in office, the U.S. government data indicates that between 8.8 and 9.4 million people either: 1) unlawfully entered and remained in the United States, or 2) overstayed their visas and illegally remained in the United States … and no, that number is not a typo!
The table below summarizes illegal immigration during the four-year term of President Biden as compared to the preceding six-year period and provides the total for the past decade.
a) People released into the United States after border encounters with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). [19]
b) People who entered illegally but were not intercepted by CBP (Getaways).
c) People who overstayed their visas and remained in the country illegally.
To put these numbers into perspective, illegal immigration into the United States was more than 50% greater than legal immigration over the past decade. The CBP reported that ~10.0 million people received a Green Card during this period, making them legal immigrants into the United States, as compared to the ~15.6 million that immigrated illegally.
In Europe, the UK, and Canada, the situation is very different and demonstrates how totally out of control illegal immigration in the United States is by comparison. Illegal immigration in Europe, the UK, and Canada is de minimis as compared to legal immigration. The two tables that follow provide immigration data – legal and illegal – for Europe, the UK, and Canada, together with a breakdown by region where people immigrated from. In looking at this data, it is not surprising that the anger in the United States is principally around illegal immigration, while in Europe the public’s anger is focused on the levels of legal immigration.
With this background, let me now concentrate on immigration from Middle Eastern countries. In Europe, the UK, and Canada, immigration from the Middle East hit a peak during the 2015-2016 migrant crisis, when there was a major influx of immigrants due to the civil war in Syria. While 2015-2016 might have been the peak, immigration remained at elevated levels throughout the past decade. Applying the percentages to the mid-point estimates shown in the preceding tables results in the following level of total immigration from the Middle East to each of these countries/regions:
Middle Eastern immigration over the past decade represented between 2% and 3% of the 2015 population in Europe, the UK, and Canada. Even though this sounds like a manageable level, the absolute number of Middle Eastern immigrants was extremely large. Moreover, they were not evenly dispersed across the country/region but rather were often concentrated in urban areas where they represented a dramatically higher percentage of the local population.
What made this highly problematic was the nature and attitude of these new immigrants, who often had no desire to integrate into their new countries. The uncomfortable truth is for many of these recent Middle Eastern immigrants, the goal was never to assimilate but rather to convert the West to their values, using violence if necessary. Moreover, based on government data for those countries that track it, immigrants from MENA countries commit a disproportionate share of rapes, murders, and violent assaults.
In the United States, immigration from Middle Eastern countries represented: 1) a dramatically smaller percentage of the 2015 American population, and 2) the absolute numbers were materially lower than Europe and the UK, and roughly comparable to Canada. Based on data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the DHS Entry/Exit Overstay Report, approximately 795,000 to 815,00 immigrants from the Middle East entered and/or remained illegally in the United States over the past decade made up of: 1) legal immigration (~700,000), 2) illegal immigration (~45,000), and 3) Visa Overstays (~50,000-70,000).
On top of that, at any point in time there were roughly another 150,000 students from MENA countries in the United States studying on a student visa over the past decade, a strikingly large number. There was no effort on the part of either the U.S. Administration nor the universities themselves to vet these students based on their social media posts or statements. Moreover, one has to ponder who was paying their tuition at our colleges and universities? [20]
Far too often, Qatar, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Hamas are the logical and likely candidates. I think it is safe to say that for the vast majority of the Palestinian students attending our elite universities and colleges, they were not paying their own way. And did all these students come for innocent reasons or was there a more nefarious objective in mind, in many cases? This is not to say that all Middle Eastern, or even Palestinian, students came to the United States in order to undermine it. Nevertheless, even if only 10% of the 150,000 students in America from the Middle East came with that objective in mind, the negative impact on our society would be profound.
Because the level of immigration from Middle Eastern countries is much lower in the United States than in Europe, the UK or Canada, the threat is much more muted here than in those countries. Nevertheless, the story in America is very much the same, just on a smaller scale. Unlike the generations of Italians, Germans, Poles, Irish and Ukrainians who had immigrated to the United States over the decades and were proud to be Americans (while also maintaining their cultural heritage), large percentages of these recent Middle Eastern immigrants had no intention to integrate into American society but instead sought to disrupt it.
IV. Tying It All Together
So let’s quickly summarize the situation. There are three elements underpinning the threat to the West from within our own borders:
The radicalization of the younger generation in the United States, Europe, the UK, and Canada.
Qatari money that: 1) influences the curriculum, ideology, and decision-making at our most elite colleges and universities, 2) fans the flames of the radicalization of our youth, and 3) funds the radicalization of Muslims living in each of these countries/regions.
Significant immigration from the Middle East and North Africa over the past decade, a large percentage of which have no desire to integrate and, in far too many cases, seek to subvert their adoptive nations.
What makes the danger orders of magnitudes greater is that these three elements are not separate and discrete threats, but rather inexorably linked and mutually reinforcing. Making matters worse, the strategy is to use the West’s core value of free speech against it.
I ask myself, “How can it possibly make sense to allow Qatar to provide billions of dollars to our leading colleges and universities via undisclosed pledges and shape the curriculum at those institutions?” Yet, this is what we are doing.
And how can it make sense to allow foreigners into our country who have no desire to support America, but rather seek to undermine it and then allow them to stand behind the banner of free speech as though they are proponents of free speech even as they harass, shout down, and intimidate all other voices?
Meanwhile, the Western media far too often is a co-conspirator in all this, some might argue a passive one, but I am less than sure of that. What is clear, however, is that the media seeks to downplay this threat because it does not fit into their woke, Oppressor / Oppressed view of the world. For most of Western media, consistent with progressive dogma, all cultures should be valued equally and there is no longer absolute good or evil. In this thinking, “Who are we to place our cultural values on another society?”
In this twisted logic, the Hamas terrorists together with the ordinary Palestinians that followed them into Israel on October 7, 2023 and participated gleefully in the massacre that ensued, should not be judged by Western standards. They must have had a good reason for their actions that day, making their genocidal acts not only understandable, but justified. After all, can’t everything be explained by the Oppressor / Oppressed narrative?
And aren’t we unfairly applying our own cultural values if we condemn societies where gay people are thrown off of roof tops, women shrouded in burqas with virtually no legal rights, and men are permitted to marry girls as young as nine years-old? For that matter, what is wrong with cannibalism, incest or rape? Give me a break!
All too often the media either fails to cover what is taking place in our country, or worse still seeks to justify it in a classic case of “victim blaming”. Attacks on Jews in the street or the vandalism of Jewish stores, homes, and places of worship are “understandable and justified”. And far too often the message in the media, at some level, is that everything that befalls the Jews is caused by the Jews themselves, and they are only getting what they deserve. Note that you can just as easily insert the word, Israel, for the word, Jews, and the story is the same.
As for the coverage of the news, where is the outrage over the slaughter of innocents in the Ukraine or Sudan? Or the condemnation of Pakistani Islamofascists for the recent terrorist attack across the border in Kashmir? Or the atrocities that the new Jihadist government in Syria is committing against minorities? As they say, “If there are no Jews, there is no news.”
I want to end by providing you with a series of posts (all very short) that illustrate what is happening on the campuses and streets of the United States and Canada. At demonstrations, there are chants of “Death to Israel” accompanied by chants of “Death to America”. If you thought this was only occurring at protests in Iran, you are wrong.
They are happening right here in North America. Not only are Israeli flags burnt, but so too are American and Canadian flags. Police are often overwhelmed by the sheer number of people in the mobs and are forced to retreat. Students are terrorized on campuses, told not to show any outward signs of being Jewish (such as wearing yarmulkes or a Star of David necklace), and afraid to speak their views.
Interview with a female Jewish student at Columbia: Columbia Student
Pro-Palestinian violent protests around the country: Violent Protests in Major Cities
Pro-Palestinian protestors taking down and shredding American flags: American Flags
Pro-Palestinian protestors burn American flags: Burning American Flags
Calls for armed revolution in Dearborn: Armed Revolution
Chants of Death to Israel, Death to Canada, Death to America: Death to America
Jewish stores being vandalized: Jewish Store in Miami Vandalized
Jewish storeowner being threatened: NYC Jewish Store Owner Threatened
Pro-Palestinian protestors assault a Jewish man: Jewish man assaulted in NYC
American monuments being desecrated: American Monuments Desecrated
Pro-Palestinian protestors marching in NYC: Violent NYC Protests
The list could go on and on…
Perhaps nothing typifies this more than what happened at Grand Central station in New York City on Monday, April 7, 2025. During the middle of the evening rush hour, a mob of left-wing radicals in conjunction with pro-Palestinian supporters stormed Grand Central station, taking over the main concourse. The police were outnumbered and unable to get control of the situation, forcing the police to lock several entrances and exits to the station in order to keep additional protestors from entering as they tried to move the protestors out of Grand Central station, but with little success.
You would think that this would be major news dominating the headlines of national newspapers and news networks. I ask each of you whether you were even aware that this had happened? If not, the logical question to ask would be, “Why weren’t you?” Below is a series of posts with short videos of what took place that day at Grand Central station. I urge you to click on the links:
The Pro-Palestinian mob on the street outside of Grand Central station: The Mob Outside
The Pro-Palestinian mob taking control of the main concourse: The Mob In the Concourse
The NYPD’s efforts to control the situation outside: NYPD Outside
Does any of this remotely strike you as “free speech”, or does it appear to you as something far more sinister and dangerous?
As bad as the situation is in the United States, the scale and magnitude of these violent anti-Israel, anti-Western protests is far more severe in Europe, Canada and the UK. In France, there are parts of the country where police are afraid to enter.
We need to wake up to the threat from within our own borders before it is too late.
*****************************
This completes the eight-part Wake Up! series. I hope that it has helped you to wake up to what is happening around you. Perhaps now, you can relate to my title: Wake Up!... What You Should Know, But May Not Know… Or May Not Want to Know.
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Take care,
Tony
[1] Because the term, genocidal, is being thrown around so cavalierly these days, I thought it worthwhile to define it: genocidal refers to “actions, policies, or behaviors that are intended to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, or that have the characteristics of genocide.”
[2] Here is the math, let us first assume that all of 18-24 cohort who did not view it as genocidal (34% of respondents) thought the action was justified. This is a very conservative assumption as undoubtedly some of the people who did not view it as genocidal may still have viewed the actions as not being justified. The two need not go hand-in-hand.
[3] If we subtract this 34% from the 60% that viewed it as justified, that leaves 26% out of the 60% who thought Hamas’ actions were both genocidal and justified, even with the prior conservative assumption.
[4] Douglas Murray is a well-known and highly credible British author, political commentator, and war correspondent who has been outspoken about the threat of Islamofascism and the rise of antisemitism, as well as on the efforts to destroy Western civilization. You can access many of his speeches on YouTube, if you are interested in learning more on his views.
[5] When Murray provided the source of the polls, I have referenced it. However, in most cases, Murray only provided the year of the poll, but not the organization conducting it.
[6] The 2024 poll was conducted by YouGov/the London Times, while the 2004 poll was conducted by Populus. In both polls, the question was asked, “Would you say it is true or untrue that you are proud to be British?” Three answers were available, “True”, “Untrue” or “Don’t Know.”
[7] Note that I want to avoid a discussion of which administration was worse and who was responsible for what as that is not the purpose of this essay. Suffice it to say, our government over the past 20 years has not cloaked itself with honor.
[8] If you are prone to wearing rose-colored glasses, just recall the race riots and assassinations in the 1960s, the protests against Vietnam war, the crippling inflation in the 1970’s, America’s impotence after its embassy was stormed during the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and its staff held hostage for 444 days, the devastation caused by the Great Financial Crisis, and on and on.
[9] I covered the impact of the DEI movement in-depth in my monograph, Understanding Antisemitism – Part II: Section A, published on Substack on January 3, 2024. If you are interested in learning more, you can access the monograph at Tony Brenner @ Substack.com.
[10] For example, how could it be fair or appropriate to judge my sons who attended private schools from K-12 against those that attended failing public schools? I think it is appropriate to adjust standards for socio-economic factors and admit students or hire individuals that have dealt with adversity and demonstrate the highest potential, rather than simply by the criteria of who has the best test scores or resume. This does not mean, however, that I think we should select students based on race, religion, gender or sexual-orientation, nor exclude students on the basis of the criteria.
[11] In medicine and in biology, this is a well-known principal. A healthy organism is much more likely to fight off an infection or a virus than an immunocompromised one.
[12] Note that Qatari money is not limited to American colleges and universities. Qatar has given millions upon millions of dollars to local school systems, principally in major urban areas to influence the curriculum. How else do you think maps of the Middle East, with Israel erased and Palestine replacing it, show up in our elementary and high school classrooms?
[13] Time, place, and manner restrictions are common features at American Universities which seek to balance the right to free speech against harassment and intimidation, limiting where, when, and how this speech is permitted. Most elite universities failed to enforce their own policies and in the rare instances when they did, mitigated the consequences for those that violated them.
[14] This is not to imply that all, or perhaps even a majority of American mosques are being used to radicalize American Muslims. Rather, it simply indicates that a major source of their radicalization is via mosques.
[15] The Holy Land Foundation (HLF) case is one of the most significant terrorism financing trials in U.S. history, involving allegations that the Texas-based charity provided financial support to Hamas. Established in the 1980’s, HLF was once the largest Muslim charity in the United States, claiming to provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians. However, U.S. authorities alleged that the organization funneled millions of dollars to Hamas under the guise of charitable work. Prosecutors presented documents, financial records, and surveillance videos linking HLF to senior Hamas figures.
All five defendants were convicted on multiple counts of providing material support to terrorism and related charges and received sentences that ranged from 15 to 65 years in prison, and HLF was deemed a terrorist organization and shut down.
[16] In Part 7 of the Wake-Up! series, I discussed in-depth the Muslim Brotherhood’s close connection with Hamas and the historical ties between the two organizations.
[17] Imams are Muslim clerics
[18] If you are interested and have not already read that monograph, you can access it at: Tony Brenner @ Substack.com.
[19] In May 2024, the House Committee on Homeland Security released a factsheet that outlined the April 2024 U.S Customs and Border Protection (CBP) border encounter data. During the first 39 months of the Biden Administration, there were 9.5 million border encounters nationwide, and the CBP projected that the total number of border encounters would exceed 10.0 million illegal immigrants by the end of President Biden’s four-year term. A border encounter is defined as the successful interception of a single illegal immigrants by CBP.
Of these 9.5 million encounters during this 39-month period, 3.7 million (38.5%) illegal immigrants were released into the United States pending future hearings, 4.1 million (43.1%) were removed or expelled, and 1.7 million (18.4%) were pending decisions or processed under different immigration programs. On top of this number, CBP reported that 1.7 million people who were visually spotted crossing the border but not apprehended and estimated that another 250,000 people entered the country illegally without detection during this time period.
[20] Foreign students typically pay full tuition, room and board. That was one of the reasons that colleges and universities liked to admit them as it allows these institutions to offer more financial aid to American students
.