Qatar's Arab-Islamic Summit: Hypocrites and Cowards
by Khaled Abu Toameh • September 22, 2025 at 5:00 am
Israel's airstrike in Doha was directed against Hamas leaders, not Qatar. There is no reason why the leaders of a terrorist organization, responsible for murdering thousands of Israelis and Palestinians, should feel safe anywhere.
The war could have ended long ago had Hamas agreed to release the hostages, whom it should not have seized in the first place, lay down its weapons, and relinquish control over the Gaza Strip.
Such a celebration could not have taken place without the approval of Qatar's rulers. Qatar's media especially Al-Jazeera, to this day, have been enthusiastically praising Hamas's attacks, as well.
Qatar is not – and has never pretended to be – a democracy that respects and protects free speech and public freedoms. If Qatar's rulers were unhappy with the actions and presence of Hamas's leaders in their country, they would have stopped them or deported them long ago. The country's rulers, the Al Thani family... have placed Al-Jazeera at their disposal to spread their threatening and radical Islamist ideology. Much of it is based on eliminating Israel through Jihad.
Notably, several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt decided in 2017 to cut their diplomatic relations with Qatar because it supports terrorism and extremist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood. These countries issued a list of 13 demands, one of which, most prominently, was shutting down Al-Jazeera.
Qatar is reportedly working to create a second Arab Spring to topple Egypt's government once again.
Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, the network [Al-Jazeera] has banned any criticism of Hamas.
In December 2024, even the Palestinian Authority, after accusing Al-Jazeera of broadcasting misleading reports and stoking divisions among the Palestinians, decided to ban Al-Jazeera in the West Bank.
By failing to denounce Hamas and call on it to lay down its weapons and cede control of the Gaza Strip, the Arab and Islamic leaders actually sent a message to the terror group that it is right to continue its Jihad against Israel.
It would have been more helpful had the Arab and Islamic leaders once again issued an appeal to Qatar to stop supporting Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
The reason Arab and Islamic leaders did not condemn Hamas is because they are afraid that Qatar will use Al-Jazeera to incite violence and terrorism against their regimes.
Some of these leaders, in addition, including the United States, seem to be afraid of alienating a wealthy country such as Qatar.
Leaders of several Arab and Islamic countries held an emergency summit in Doha on September 15 to discuss Israel's "aggression" against Qatar. The reference was to the recent Israeli attack on senior Hamas leaders in Qatar. The summit was held at the request of Qatar, the only Gulf state that has long been providing shelter and financial and political aid to the leaders of Hamas, the Iran-backed terror group that carried out the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. The assault resulted in the murder of more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals and the wounding of thousands. Another 251 Israelis and foreigners were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, where 48 – dead and alive – remain in Hamas's captivity.
