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Qatar is not a large country, but lately it occupies an astonishing magnitude of abstraction successful the imaginativeness of a increasing ecosystem of far-right influencers, pseudo-journalists, pro-Israel deliberation tanks and dubious analysts. According to them, Qatar is orchestrating assorted planetary conspiracies.
Two figures exemplify this signifier rather well. Laura Loomer, a US-based influencer who acts arsenic an unofficial loyalty enforcer for US President Donald Trump, has reinvented herself arsenic an adept connected “Qatar infiltration” and the Muslim Brotherhood. In caller months, Loomer has tweeted astir Qatar astir doubly per day, according to my investigation of her feed. Of the apical 100 astir shared URLs mentioning some Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood successful the past year, I recovered that 35 beryllium to her.
Tommy Robinson (also known by his existent sanction Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) is somewhat little eloquent but nary little vitriolic. The British anti-Islam activistic has posted tweets saying “F**k Qatar” 3 times successful the past fewer days, on with a video helium made lamenting Qatari investments successful the UK.
This fixation isn’t random. Over the past 2 years, Qatar has been formed arsenic a catch-all villain, the hidden designer of Western decay: Bankrolling pupil protests, driving immigration, manipulating US diplomacy, and advancing the “Islamification” of the West. It’s partially recycled Islamophobia, but besides a coordinated power campaign, 1 that weaponises pre-existing fears to undermine Doha’s mediation relation successful Gaza, weaken its narration with Washington, and resurrect the aged “Eurabia” phantasy to usage arsenic a governmental tool.
United by narratives
Loomer and Robinson person agelong histories of Islamophobic activism. Loomer’s marque is built connected being a “proud Islamophobe”, a stance that has won her an assemblage among achromatic nationalists. Yet portion Loomer’s admiration among traditionally anti-Semitic achromatic nationalists has prompted interest from immoderate members of the American Jewish community, her fierce pro-Israel authorities sometimes override concerns astir the extremism she channels.
Despite her Islamophobic history, Loomer’s obsession with Qatar is comparatively new. Before 2025, she lone mentioned Qatar astir 5 times connected X, but she has done truthful 460 times since May 2025.
According to Loomer, Qatar is secretly backing thing “from BLM [Black Lives Matter movement], ANTIFA, to Islamic unit successful America”. She argues that regular diplomacy, specified arsenic aviator grooming successful Idaho, equates to “genocidal Muslims being trained to alert combatant jets connected US soil”. She adjacent described arsenic “invaders” injured Palestinian children being flown for aesculapian attraction to the US connected a Qatar Airways flight.
Loomer has directed overmuch of her ire against blimpish figures who don’t stock her newfound hatred of Qatar. She has called blimpish pundit Tucker Carlson “Tucker Qatarlson” and suggested that podcaster Theo Von’s displacement successful code connected Israel is owed to a “brain-rotting” travel to Doha. She has besides claimed that astir blimpish podcast hosts and journalists are “owned by Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood”.
Even Republican leaders are folded into the conspiracy, with baseless claims that Congresswoman Lisa McClain and her unit leaked interior questions from a committee proceeding connected anti-Semitism to the Qatari embassy.
For his part, Robinson has precocious embarked connected a caller “F**k Qatar” campaign. He is getting a batch of mileage retired of a video helium filmed successful London. In the video, Robinson accuses Qatar of “funding the destruction” of the United Kingdom.
The phantasy of ‘Eurabia’
The signifier successful these narratives fuses 2 older conspiratorial narratives: the “Red-Green alliance” story – claiming a covert ideological pact betwixt the extremist near (red) and Islamists (green) – and the early-2000s “Eurabia” mentation fashionable successful Islamophobic and hardline pro-Israel circles, which alleges that European elites had secretly colluded with Arab states to Islamise the West.
The operation of this enactment of reasoning has helped foment narratives that overseas “hordes” of Muslims are seeking to “replace” Western civilisation. Ironically, this conspiratorial reasoning is rooted successful the anti-Semitic “great replacement” conspiracy mentation espoused by achromatic nationalists.
This Eurabia trope has mutated into a caller storyline: Qatar, arsenic the puppeteer of Western decline, is buying power to smuggle Islamism via the Muslim Brotherhood into the bosom of Europe and the United States. Thus, Muslims (and Qatar) go the greater of the 2 “Abrahamic threats”, displacing older anti-Semitic hierarchies without dismantling the conspiratorial worldview beneath them.
Anti-Muslim tropes are not conscionable fashionable among achromatic nationalists; they are besides often weaponised arsenic governmental tools. Here, it is important to constituent retired that the likes of Loomer and Robinson whitethorn presumption themselves arsenic autarkic activists, but their finances are often opaque.
One DC-based lobbyist described Loomer arsenic a “pay-to-play Tasmanian devil”. In the past, some Robinson and Loomer person reportedly been financed by Robert Shillman, a US tech billionaire who besides backed anti-Islam movements successful the UK and the US. Shillman, a erstwhile committee subordinate of Friends of the IDF, a US-based nonprofit that fundraises for the Israeli army, has agelong supported hardline Zionist causes.
Robinson, a convicted fraudster, has besides received fiscal enactment from pro-Israel deliberation tanks, including the Middle East Forum (MEF), tally by anti-Islam activistic Daniel Pipes.
Although Robinson enactment retired anti-Qatar contented aft October 7, 2023, his involvement successful Qatar appeared to intensify aft a caller travel to Israel, astatine the invitation of Amichai Chikli, Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs. Since the sojourn successful October, Robinson has tweeted astir Qatar astatine slightest 9 times, acold much than usual. Loomer met Chikli past month.
Chikli’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs is important successful this story. In 2024, it was revealed that it paid a Tel Aviv-based PR steadfast to make an anti-Muslim and anti-Arab integer media run targeting North America. The crux of the run was to beforehand fearfulness of Islamic migration.
Chikli himself has been described by Haaretz arsenic “neo-Nazi curious” for courting historically anti-Semitic far-right European politicians and parties. He has appeared astatine acold events and claimed that Europe is financing “its ain death” by supporting Islamism.
Think tanks similar MEF, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), and the Israel-funded Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) person developed an progressively unhinged obsession with Qatar. Both the FDD and ISGAP besides person a adjacent narration with a determination Arab state that is “uniquely obsessed with the Brotherhood”.
Dark wealth is besides progressive successful this campaign. From precocious 2023 done mid-2024, an chartless entity ran a multimillion-dollar run to propulsion a communicative that Qatar was plotting the demolition of Europe by supporting Muslim immigration. The “Qatar Plot” remains unattributed, though immoderate parts of the run were promoted by salient evangelical figures.
Even now, sponsored videos astir however Qatar is “destroying” Western civilisation done Islamic migration are getting millions of views connected YouTube and Facebook.
Why Qatar
At its core, the anti-Qatar run serves aggregate agendas. For some, it’s ideological: Qatar is the lightning rod and avatar to boost longstanding Islamophobic fantasies astir “Eurabia”, migration and civilisational decline.
For others, it’s geopolitical: Qatar’s relation arsenic a mediator with Hamas frustrates Israeli hardliners who would similar isolation implicit negotiation, portion different determination powers’ longstanding rivalry with Doha’s power successful the Arab satellite gives an inducement to amplify hostility and thrust a wedge betwixt Qatar and the United States.
More importantly, this communicative allows Israel and co to presumption themselves arsenic defenders of Western civilisation against alleged Islamic extremism.
In the US, there’s besides a home governmental calculation: Framing Qatar arsenic the hidden sponsor of field protests, left-wing movements and adjacent blimpish dissenters gives civilization warriors a convenient outer force to rally against. There’s besides wealth to beryllium made, for lobbyists from each sides.
Qatar’s overseas policy, similar immoderate state’s, is not beyond scrutiny. But the propaganda obsession with coating Doha arsenic the nucleus of a planetary Islamist crippled is an absurd conspiracy mentation designed to entreaty to the Republican Party, which, arsenic Mike Rothschild argues, is progressively beholden to conspiracy theories.
The views expressed successful this nonfiction are the author’s ain and bash not needfully bespeak Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.
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