In the wake of Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack, the Hamas-friendly regime in Qatar demanded that American universities operating campuses in Doha "be aligned and in touch" when it came to their official communications, emails released by the House Education Committee show. On the same day, the dean of Northwestern University’s campus in Qatar (NU-Q) refused to sign on to a statement from his colleagues in the United States criticizing an NU-Q professor who downplayed the attack.
The emails are part of a report released Tuesday by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, "How Campuses Became Hotbeds: The Rise of Radical Antisemitism on College Campuses." The messages show that, on Oct. 17, 2023, the government-controlled Qatar Foundation held a call with representatives of American universities in Doha to discuss "how it is going" in the wake of the attack, according to a readout of the call sent from NU-Q associate dean James Shaw to campus dean Marwan Michael Kraidy. A Qatar Foundation official, President of Higher Education Francisco Marmolejo, requested "information sharing and no surprises," Shaw wrote.
"Also each PU's [partner university's] Comms Team to be aligned and in touch with QF," Shaw continued, relaying the Qatar Foundation's demands. He went on to express "slight concern"—not about NU-Q’s alignment with the terrorist-friendly regime in Qatar, but rather that the school "navigated the first 10 days of this crisis with minimal comms support due to absence."
The pressure from Doha appears to have had an effect on NU-Q's leaders.
Just hours after the Qatar Foundation call, Kraidy, the NU-Q dean, refused to sign on to a statement Northwestern issued criticizing NU-Q professor Khaled Al-Hroub. In an Oct. 16, 2023, interview with an NPR affiliate in Boston, Al-Hroub said that he had not seen "any kind of credible media reporting" that Hamas terrorists had killed Israeli civilians in their beds or raped Israeli women. When Fox News contacted Northwestern for comment on the interview, the school drafted a statement condemning "Al-Hroub's attempt to minimize or misrepresent the horrific killing of Israeli civilians by Hamas on Oct. 7." Kraidy disapproved of that statement, according to emails included in the House report.
"Not sure about the rape issue," Kraidy wrote in an Oct. 17, 2023, email to Northwestern communications head Jon Yates. "But we really don't want to be on the wrong side of the facts here. For NU in particular … with many scholars of news and misinformation, we should be extremely careful on this issue."
After Northwestern released the statement, Kraidy wrote to Northwestern associate provost for faculty Sumit Dhar—who spoke at NU-Q's annual convocation ceremony in 2023—to defend Al-Hroub's comments as "perfectly academic," emails released by the committee show. Northwestern later revised its statement to say the school condemned "any attempt" to minimize Oct. 7 rather than "Al-Hroub's attempt." Dhar pledged to "regain Khaled's confidence" after the ordeal, according to the report.
It was not the only time NU-Q clashed with Northwestern over statements related to Oct. 7. The school "intentionally chose not to circulate" an Oct. 13, 2023, Northwestern statement to students condemning the attack as "abhorrent and horrific," according to the House report.
Yates, the Northwestern communications head, told the Washington Free Beacon that the university "is in the process of reviewing" the report.
The revelations provide the most complete picture to date of the control Qatar exerts over the universities with which it partners and floods with funding. The Gulf monarchy, over which the ruling al Thani family exercises absolute control, became the largest foreign funder of U.S. higher education in 2022 and has only increased its giving since then, providing $396 million to American colleges and universities in 2024 and $1.2 billion in 2025, according to Department of Education disclosures.
The sharp increase appears to have been driven by Qatar's contracts with American universities that operate satellite campuses in Doha. In addition to Northwestern, others including Georgetown University, Cornell University, and Carnegie Mellon University have branches in Doha's Education City.
As part of their contracts with the government, both Northwestern and Georgetown are "contractually required to abide by the 'applicable laws and regulations of the State of Qatar' and 'respect the cultural, religious, and social customs of the State of Qatar,'" according to the House report. Qatar's penal code criminalizes criticism of the government and flag and bans the posting of online content that the Qatari regime deems harmful, something Georgetown Qatar acknowledged in a guide for visitors.
"In Qatar, certain actions that may be acceptable elsewhere are subject to local laws and customs," the guide states. It goes on to ask visitors to "speak respectfully about the emir, the ruling family, and the government system"; "be cautious about spreading rumors on social media, even if they're true"; refrain from "publicizing crises happening inside Qatar"; and avoid "criticizing religions, prophets, or holy books."
Northwestern has downplayed the financial benefit it receives from its partnership in Qatar, which former Northwestern president Michael Schill described in an August 2025 interview with the House Education Committee as "meager." The committee's report tells a different story: It states that both Georgetown and Northwestern receive lucrative "management fees" through their contracts with Qatar.
"Georgetown's fee, for example, has incrementally increased since 2019, from roughly $6.1 million to $7.6 million in 2025," the report states. "Northwestern annually transfers part of its management fee to its School of Communication and its School of Journalism in Evanston." Qatar "has also provided Northwestern with a $15 million endowment for five professorships at its Evanston campus," according to the report.
Georgetown did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The House report also details the extent to which Northwestern and Georgetown employ anti-Semitic faculty members and lecturers on their Doha campuses. NU-Q liberal arts program director Sami Hermez, for example, suggested in a July 2025 social media post that "Jews control Europe."
"Zionists have control over European policy and power," Hermez wrote. "If you want to make the leap that Jews control Europe, I don't care. … They have been able to take control because they haven't allowed anyone to name their pwr grab."
Georgetown Qatar, meanwhile, offers a visiting fellows program that brings what the university describes as "leading scholars or practitioners to campus to engage with faculty and students through a variety of activities." A 2024 fellow, according to the report, was then-Al Jazeera+ host and producer Sana Saeed, who taught a course titled, "U.S. News Media and the Politics of Hiding a Genocide." It described anti-Semitism in the United States as "manufactured hysteria" and described Oct. 7 as "an unprecedented mission by Palestinian resistance groups from Gaza, led by Hamas, to break Israel's siege," the report states.
Northwestern is conducting what it has described as a "multi-year review to determine whether to continue operating in Qatar past the 2028 academic year, when its current contract expires." Georgetown's interim president, Robert Groves, told Congress last year that he's "very proud" of the school's relationship with Qatar.
