Qatar’s Sponsorship of Duke/UNC K-12 Programs Under Investigation

The Lawfare Project (LP) has filed document requests to compel the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies---recently under investigation by the Dept. of Education regarding meeting Title VI funding requirements---to turn over documents pertaining to Qatar Foundation International’s sponsorship of K-12 teacher-training and curricula.

The Washington Free Beacon quotes the Middle East Forum’s Gregg Roman, who, at a recent MEF conference on the subject, pointed out that Qatar has “spent billion of dollars in the U.S. trying to influence not just colleges ... but also public schools and police departments,” as well as Oren Litwin, formerly with MEF, who noted that “Qatar has become the single highest [foreign] funder of American universities.” Indeed, LP hopes the documents will reveal how the Islamist monarchy “has worked to spread its propaganda inside the American education system.”

Cinnamon Stillwell analyzes Middle East studies academia in West Coast colleges and universities for Campus Watch. A San Francisco Bay Area native and graduate of San Francisco State University, she is a columnist, blogger, and social media analyst. Ms. Stillwell, a former contributing political columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, has written on a wide variety of topics, including the political atmosphere in American higher education, and has appeared as a guest on television and talk radio.
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