Qatari influence over American academic institutions and beyond is no secret. The Muslim Brotherhood-supporting country is infamous for buying influence. It doesn’t stop at America. It’s in Canada, too, affecting kindergarten kids to high schoolers in grade 12. “Edmonton schools renew Arabic course tied to board’s Qatari partnership,” by Melanie Bennet, Juno News, June 19, 2026:
Edmonton Public Schools has renewed an Arabic Language and Culture course that has been operating in the school board since 2011, while maintaining a longstanding partnership with a Qatari charity—Qatar Foundation International.
The organization recently announced it was winding down its U.S. operations after American researchers alleged it had used language programs, teacher training, and educational partnerships as a vehicle for advancing Qatari soft power in schools and universities.
Edmonton schools told Juno News that the course has operated since 2011 and currently serves 168 students, but did not answer questions about whether QFI has played any role in Arabic programming delivered by the board…..
But a Global News report entitled Bilingual studies programs in Edmonton Public Schools offers more than just second language showed that the Edmonton Public School Board and Muslim Brotherhood-supporting Qatar were in a partnership for over a decade:
In a library packed with teachers, dignitaries and family, dozens of Grade 6 students from Glengarry School performed a traditional Arabic song and dance. It’s part of a unique language and culture-based Arabic/English bilingual program offered through Edmonton Public Schools.
“The classroom looks dramatically different than it did 30 years ago,” Edmonton Public School Board Chair Michael Janz said Tuesday, after celebrating a new agreement with the Qatar Foundation International.
The memorandum of understanding between the school district and QFI will promote the teaching and learning of Arabic language and culture….
Islam is the state religion of Qatar, and Sharia is its primary source of legislation. The Edmonton Public School Board justifies its Arabic program as “knowledge and appreciation of different cultures,” with no previous knowledge of Arabic necessary to participate. The schools even provide some transportation for the younger elementary kids to get to where Arabic courses are offered. Although the Edmonton Public School Board offers a range of language classes, Qatar’s ties with the Muslim Brotherhood are a paramount problem, as is Qatar’s history of supporting Muslim Brotherhood offshoot Hamas. So what message is the Edmonton Public School Board sending to its students, from kindergarten through grade 12, under the banner of DEI? And where are the parents of the grade school kids? They likely don’t even know.
Recall above, in the Global News report, that Edmonton Public School Board celebrated “a new agreement with the Qatar Foundation International.” According to the Lawfare Project website:
The Lawfare Project has been examining the nature and extent of Qatar’s involvement in the American education system. Qatar’s involvement through its agent, Qatar Foundation International (QFI), is substantial and significant. Students are learning about the Middle East in a biased way that emphasizes only the positive aspects of Islam while omitting a balanced discussion of other religions or belief systems, most notably Judaism.
The Lawfare Project’s research suggests that the Foreign Agents Registration Act, 22 USC 611-621 (FARA), applies to Qatar’s activities, and requires that the institutions and individuals benefiting from its funding register as agents of Qatar. The Lawfare Project has submitted a memorandum on this issue to the Department of State, and is advocating that the government require these pernicious foreign influences to register as foreign agents….
In 2024, under the Liberal Government of Canada, Canada and Qatar signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate “in areas of common interest, as well as in countries where both have active development programming.” These areas included “policy dialogue” and “enhancing institutional linkages.” The primary focus was on the “Education Above All Foundation,” which “will allow both parties to collaborate on education projects.”
The Edmonton Public School Board’s “language course sequences” are now described as “widely available,” and Qatar can be thanked, as the country continues to buy its way into the child and youth education process at American and Canadian educational institutions, from kindergarten right through university level.
ploome says
as David wrote in pervious comment section,
The tipping point is far closer than standard estimates.
and we opposition to islamic jihad is being actively restricted and often criminalized in the west.
ploome says
Some claim the maxim comes from St. Ignatius Loyola himself. Yet the idea later proclaimed by the Jesuits is very old —
<b. give us a child till he’s 7 and we’ll have him for life.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-power-rest/201303/give-us-kid-till-shes-7-and-well-have-her-life
Wellington says
Qatar represents smart evil and Iran represents dumb evil.
owensgate says
It would be wiser to teach Greek and Hebrew.
somehistory says
And they would if they were to heed the Proverbs from chapter 1
“2for gaining wisdom and discipline, for comprehending words of insight, Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives, to help them do what is right, just, and fair 4To impart prudence to the simple and knowledge and discretion to the young, 5 let the wise listen and gain instruction, and the discerning acquire wise counsel “
40 rounds says
It is amazing, and quite frankly terrifying , what people and organizations will do for money. You are selling your souls for filthy lucre.
somehistory says
Just this morning early, the Beatles’ song, “Can’t Buy Me Love,” was rolling along through my brain.
But one can buy influence, status, office, propaganda….and blind eyes. And even children’s bodeis.
OLD GUY says
So true and Qatar has billions of dollars to help, just astray have with the higher education system in America. Beware of wolves in sheep clothing.
Morticiaa says
MASSIVE 80 million + MOSQUE AND SCHOOL BEING BUILT IN NORTH EDMONTON…this will attract lots of MB folks and Sharia complaints to the area.
40 rounds says
I’m surprised these filthy creatures would live where there’s extreme cold. But here in the US the leeches will live anywhere to get free housing, etc. PIGS
abu taleb says
It is a good thing,because then people can read the Arabic Quran and see it directly the evil of Islam instead of hearing the lies from Islam apologists.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Teaching Arabic is just one vector of spreading islam. If Canadians want to learn a foreign language that’s useful to them in getting employment abroad, why not learn Espanol instead, which would open up Mexico to Argentina? Or dare I say it – Russia, where once this war ends, they can go there just across the Bering Sea and find jobs in Russia’s Far East?
How many Canadians are going to work in Qatar, Emirates, Saudi Arabia,…. that would make this arrangement make sense?
very old white guy says
As a Canadian I can’t comment on this?
John Pepple says
Well, I learned some Arabic because I thought it would be useful in the struggle against the Islamofascists. One difficulty is in finding a teacher who isn’t Muslim.
Another is that “Arabic” is actually a bunch of languages, some of which are mutually unintelligible. There is the formal language (called Modern Standard) and then each country’s colloquial language, and they are different. A word I learned in Modern Standard meaning “overcrowded” in connection with a traffic jam was not understood by a cab driver I talked to in Cairo. Plus, the colloquials are not mutually intelligible. I talked to Palestinians in Jerusalem who admitted they could not understand people from Sudan.
Then there is the claim by Nassim Nicholas Taleb that Levantine Arabic shouldn’t even be called “Arabic” because it has roots in other Semitic languages. See here:
https://medium.com/east-med-project-history-philology-and-genetics/no-lebanese-is-not-a-dialect-of-arabic-e95320c164c
My pessimistic view is that the West is going to be under Islamic law sooner or later, and so learning Arabic now will be a benefit.