Let us begin with a X post by Paul William Harmon: “Before 1996, Qatar was a barren desert of 320k people. Yesterday, they casually spent $96B on Boeing Jets – the largest purchase in history. Their $450B fund owns more of London than the British Royal Family. Funny, how desert rulers engineered the West’s silent takeover”. Well, it looks to me that Qatar’s not just buying shiny toys or London penthouses; they’re bankrolling a silent takeover of the West. This tiny Gulf state’s playing the real 4D chess while Western elites are too busy assigning bathrooms to genders.
A Straight Enough Plan
Qatar’s game plan is simple: take their gas billions — $524 billion in their sovereign wealth fund, or enough to buy every hipster coffee shop in Brooklyn. They have turned it into political muscle. They’ve been at it since the 90s, when they were just 320,000 Bedouins sweating it out in a desert just about thrice the size of Goa. Now, they’re the Gulf’s slickest operators, owning more of London than the Windsors and outspending Saudi Arabia on Western influence. What is their secret sauce? A mix of cash, connections, and a knack for spotting the West’s soft underbelly — greed. Of course, you must not forget to add Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in the mix, and you’d have a recipe for a takeover so smooth it’d taste like molten butter.
The Biggest Fish & Qatar
Let us start with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist granddaddy founded in Egypt in 1928. Qatar has been cozying up to this outfit since the 1950s. The Brotherhood’s pitch is unique; it calls for blending Islamic governance with modern politics. This kind of makes it catnip for disaffected Muslims worldwide. Of course, Qatar has been visionary enough to propose being their sugar daddy, when no one was willing to look at them. And today, the kingdom funnels cash through Al Jazeera’s sympathetic coverage and provides direct funding to MB-linked groups.
In Europe, where Muslim populations have grown to 45.6 million (a 2020 estimate), the MB has built a sprawling network of mosques, charities, and think tanks, often with Qatari dough. Take the European Council for Fatwa and Research, led by MB bigwig Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who was Qatar’s pet cleric for decades till his death. Based in Dublin, this outfit issues religious rulings that keep MB ideology humming among Europe’s Muslims. Qatar bankrolls it, ensuring their version of Islam gets prime billing.
The Small Fries
Then there’s the Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF), an MB-linked group that controls over 250 mosques and cultural centres. French intel pegs it as a Qatari proxy, flush with Doha’s cash to push a “moderate” Islamist vibe that’s just radical enough to keep the kids listening. France of course has no clue on how to contain it.
Across the Channel, the Muslim Association of Britain, another MB offshoot, got £1.2 million from Qatari charities to build community centres. These aren’t just prayer halls; they’re influence hubs, shaping how second-generation Muslims see the world. And if you are thinking “containment”, then understand this clearly: Britain looks ready for an Islamic political takeover by 2040.
Germany’s got its own MB problem too. And the country suffers from the same cluelessness (a very West European disease) like France. Groups like the Islamic Community of Germany (IGD) are tied to Qatar via funding trails that German cops cannot quite crack (you can laugh at that one). The MB’s not storming parliaments, but they’re playing the long game: grooming local leaders and swaying votes, cementing political ROI for when the time comes.
Around the World
Globally, it is the same playbook. In the US, the MB’s fingerprints are on groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which Qatar’s indirectly funded through intermediaries, per a 2014 UAE report. CAIR’s got clout, lobbying Congress and shaping media narratives on Islamophobia.
In Africa, Qatar’s poured $1.4 billion into MB-linked charities in places like Sudan and Somalia, building schools and clinics that double as recruitment centres. Even in Asia, MB offshoots in Malaysia and Indonesia get Qatari grants to run “educational” programs that spread the Brotherhood’s gospel. But this is not about charity; it is about buying hearts and minds, one mosque at a time.
Now, let’s zoom out to Qatar’s broader hustle.
Money Flows in Qatar
They’ve dropped $6 billion on U.S. universities — Cornell, Georgetown, you name it. These have all set up Doha campuses that churn out Qatari-friendly academics. It is like buying the West’s brain trust at a discount. When Gaza flared up, Congress started sniffing around, wondering why these schools sounded so pro-Hamas. They finally woke up after months to realize “Oh, it’s the Qatari cash!”, greasing the skids for MB talking points.
Meanwhile, Qatar’s spent $225 million since 2017 on D.C. lobbying, outspending Israel and China combined. That buys you ex-senators like Bob Menendez, who got busted for taking Qatari bribes (gold bars, seriously?), and think-tank suits (that too, Brookings, no less!) like John Allen, caught shilling for Doha during a Gulf spat. It is not corruption; it is a fire sale on Western spines.
Qatar: Real Estate Mogul
Real estate is their flex. The Qatar Investment Authority owns half of London’s skyline — Harrods, the Shard, Canary Wharf, you name it. It is like they are playing Monopoly, but with actual cities! They are the UK’s 10th biggest landowner, with 23 million square feet. You call it bricks, I’d call it leverage. When you own the rulers’ backyard, he’s not gonna yap about your extremist buddies.
And by the way, don’t forget Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar’s $8 billion gift to the U.S. military. It’s got 10,000 GIs and CENTCOM’s keys, meaning Uncle Sam’s gotta smile when Doha hands over a $400 million Boeing for Trump’s Air Force One. Same deal with jets for Erdogan and Saddam back in the day. So? Qatar’s not gifting; they’re buying IOUs.
Pop Influence
Soft power’s where they shine. Al Jazeera’s 430 million viewers get a steady diet of MB-friendly spin, dressed up as journalism. The 2022 World Cup? A $200 billion sportswashing scam to make you forget the 6,500 dead migrant workers. Owning PSG and eyeing Formula 1 just seals the deal. Its like Qatar’s the coolest kid now, not some desert Bedouin riding a camel into your party.
But most of all? They are untouchable. Criticize their Muslim Brotherhood ties or Hamas flirtations, and you are screwing with the folks who fund your universities, your military bases, your news media, and sometimes, even your cities! Western elites are too busy counting Qatari cash to notice they’re being played, like my friend Papan plays the harmonica. Qatar is not just in the game; they are the damn referee. And we are all too busy cheering their jets and their football clubs to notice them laughing their collective ass off at the enormity of our cluelessness.
