Bernard Haykel, Professor of Near East Studies at Princeton University,
rejects the idea that Qatar is trying to install Islamic governments around the
world. “I believe that its policy, which is driven almost exclusively by
its emir, the leader of Qatar, is to basically make Qatar valuable in the region
by having a key role as mediator, as a sponsor, as a patron for different
political forces, especially the Muslim Brotherhood, a movement that it has been
cultivating since the 1950s,” he said.
“I think it's just doing it out of what it sees as its pragmatic national self-interest, which is just to have very strong connections with powerful and dominant political forces throughout the region and then, through them, seem even more important to the outside world,” he added.
The question of Qatar’s support of Islamists in Libya and Syria still needs to be answered, though. Stanford University’s Khatib believes Qatar is motivated by the need to protect itself.
“Qatar perceives groups like the Muslim Brotherhood as allies and wants to maintain influencing those allies,” she said. “Aid is a way to maintain a degree of power over those groups. At the same time, when it comes to other Islamist groups that are of a more, let’s say, non-moderate leaning, Qatar’s support of those groups—again, it’s not because it wants to promote them as much as it is interested in controlling them and keeping the danger away from its own borders.”
Read entire article:
http://www.khouse.org/enews_article/2013/2085/print/
“I think it's just doing it out of what it sees as its pragmatic national self-interest, which is just to have very strong connections with powerful and dominant political forces throughout the region and then, through them, seem even more important to the outside world,” he added.
The question of Qatar’s support of Islamists in Libya and Syria still needs to be answered, though. Stanford University’s Khatib believes Qatar is motivated by the need to protect itself.
“Qatar perceives groups like the Muslim Brotherhood as allies and wants to maintain influencing those allies,” she said. “Aid is a way to maintain a degree of power over those groups. At the same time, when it comes to other Islamist groups that are of a more, let’s say, non-moderate leaning, Qatar’s support of those groups—again, it’s not because it wants to promote them as much as it is interested in controlling them and keeping the danger away from its own borders.”
Read entire article:
http://www.khouse.org/enews_article/2013/2085/print/
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