Imagine a conference room overlooking the Mediterranean. On the table: a $25 billion plan to rebuild Gaza. The blueprint: 200 education centers and 180 religious facilities. Around that table sit representatives of Qatar, Turkey, Egypt, and the UAE, tasked with ensuring Hamas never returns to power. One problem: an invisible partner is already seated at that table.
The Invisible Partner
Hamas is a wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. Article 2 of the 1988 charter: “The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine.” It has never been revoked.
The Brotherhood spawned more than Hamas. Bin Laden, al-Zawahiri and al-Baghdadi all emerged from its ideological incubator. For decades, Brotherhood clerics issued fatwas obligating every Muslim to armed jihad against Israel.
Qatar: The Brotherhood’s leading supporter and exporter
FDD identifies Qatar as the “leading supporter and exporter of Brotherhood ideology.” Qatar has hosted the Brotherhood’s global leadership for sixty years. In 1961, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Brotherhood’s spiritual leader, arrived in Doha. Qatar funded him, granted him citizenship, and gave him an Al Jazeera platform reaching 60 million viewers. Qatar transferred $8 billion to the Brotherhood’s Egyptian government, and billions more to Hamas, whose leaders live in Doha five-star hotels.
Qatar does more than fund the Brotherhood. It exports its ideology. In 1981, $21 million from Qatar’s emir and Qaradawi built ISNA’s headquarters. ISNA is now the largest Muslim organization in North America, named an unindicted co-conspirator in Hamas financing case.
But Qatar understood that shaping minds requires reaching םוא to the younger generation.
Al Jazeera, the Brotherhood’s megaphone1, set up AJ+ in Washington to reach young Americans on social media; the Justice Department ordered them to register as foreign agents in 2020, but as of 2024, they have yet to comply.1
Qatar became the largest foreign donor to American universities, with $6.6 billion in contributions. ISGAP studies found a direct correlation between funding from countries like Qatar and the rise of campus antisemitism, with universities receiving Middle Eastern money experiencing 300% more antisemitic incidents.
Some 51% of Americans aged 18-24 say the Hamas-led October 7 massacre “can be justified.” Among Americans over 65, only 9% believe this.
Turkey: The Brotherhood’s state sponsor
FDD identifies Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP party as “the Turkish arm of the Muslim Brotherhood,” assisting its establishment of schools and media channels throughout Turkey. After Egypt’s 2013 coup, Erdogan granted asylum to 1,500 Brotherhood members.
In 2017, when Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain severed ties with Qatar over its Brotherhood links, Turkey sided with Qatar. On October 25, 2023, Erdogan said “Hamas is not a terrorist organization. It is a group of mujahideen defending their land.”
Egypt: Tension between the political and religious establishment
Egypt outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013. But outlawing an organization does not win hearts and minds. A Washington Institute poll found 75% of Egyptians view Hamas positively, and 94% believe Hamas did not kill civilians on October 7.
This exposes the core problem. In 2015, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi stood before Al-Azhar’s scholars and demanded a ‘religious revolution.’ Al-Azhar, one of the earliest Jami'(mosque/ university) complexes in the Muslim world, refused. ‘You’ve exhausted me, honorable Imam,’ Sisi told Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam. On October 18, 2023, Al-Azhar issued a fatwa declaring that ‘Zionist civilians on occupied land are not worthy of the description of civilians.’
Egypt’s government fights the Brotherhood. Egypt’s religious establishment supports Hamas. Even if it calls it ‘saluting with absolute pride the resistance efforts of the Palestinian people.’
The UAE: The exception
In 2014, the UAE designated the Brotherhood a terrorist organization. Then they built counter-extremism infrastructure. Hedayah trains religious leaders in theological engagement, with over 1,500 imams and 600 female religious leaders promoting moderate Islam. The Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi is a mosque, church and synagogue, side by side. Sawab, a UAE-U.S. partnership, counters extremist content online with one billion impressions, 60% of followers aged 13-34. IMPACT-se examined 220 UAE textbooks: no antisemitism, and found no incitement and that UNESCO standards were met. The Ministry of Tolerance promotes coexistence since 2016.
Who will care for Gaza’s children?
Return to that conference room. Israeli media reported the UAE was in talks to take over Gaza’s civilian administration. A day later, Abu Dhabi graciously announced: “Gaza’s governance is the responsibility of the Palestinian people.” Qatar and Turkey showed no restraint. Sheikha Moza and Erdogan’s wife have declared themselves defenders of Palestinian education.
Qatari textbooks teach children that “treachery and treason are among the traits of the Jews.” Turkish textbooks call Jews “infidels.” In September 2024, Turkey’s school year opened with ‘From Gallipoli to Gaza.’
Now imagine them running those 200 education centers. The International Union of Muslim Scholars, who issued the fatwa obligating armed jihad, gets 180 religious centers.
Gaza’s children have been indoctrinated since kindergarten. UNRWA textbooks glorify martyrdom and jihad. Qatar and Turkey will not undo that indoctrination. They will deepen it.
Gaza's children deserve a new future. They will not find it at a table where the Brotherhood and its supporters are already seated.
Aviram Bellaishe is vice president at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs