The world cannot keep turning a blind eye to Qatar’s funding of terrorism

Qatar remains at the forefront of the world’s attention. While this spotlight has occasionally shed light on abuses of workers’ rights in the build-up to the World Cup, far too little attention has been heeded to perhaps Qatar’s most looming concern — its role as a sponsor of terrorism.

To this day, Qatar remains one of Hamas’s largest funders and supporters. Qatar has pledged more than $1.1 billion to Hamas since 2012.

Other benefactors of Qatari funding include Ahrar Al Sham, a Syrian militant group intent on establishing an Islamist state in the country, and Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-sponsored Shia militia bent on advancing the objectives of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. In 2017, Qatar paid hundreds of millions of dollars, including $25 million to Kataib Hezbollah and a suspected $50m to the leader of the IRGC, to release 25 Qataris taken hostage during a hunting trip in southern Iraq.