OPINION:
Over Thanksgiving weekend, a group of Republican “influencers” was apparently invited to the F1 Qatar Grand Prix in Doha. Everyone was eager to post their similarly composed, heavily filtered trackside selfies to Instagram and X, posing on the luxury hotel balcony overlooking Doha, with dinner, drinks and all-access lanyards.
Hopefully, if any of them were gay, they kept it a secret, as homosexuality is illegal (Penal Code Article 285) in Qatar and punishable with a seven-year prison sentence, possibly even the death penalty, depending on the severity of the, er, gayness. That’s moderately better than yeeting them off rooftops, as the mullahs do in Iran, a pesky reality that I’m sure could be Insta-washed away if Iran began flying in people to market itself through gullible influencer socials at swanky F1 events.
Hopefully, too, none of our designer-clad “influencers” is a Christian, or if they are, they at least kept their views on Jesus to themselves. Christianity in Qatar is heavily restricted to practice only within the walls of the few government-sanctioned “religious complexes.” They are called “religious complexes” because they can’t even identify as churches because of laws about any appearances of proselytism. You can “Christ is king!” your heart out (but only in the buildings, and quietly) in small communities on the outskirts of town, far away from the citizenry.
Heaven forbid any of our “influencers” criticized these policies while enjoying the sanitized high life in Doha, facilitated by the slave labor the country traps through its kafala employment system. One wrong bit of speech, and they’ll be punished under Penal Code Article 259 (punishment for anyone who opposes, questions or doubts Islamic tenets) or Cybercrime Law No. 14 of 2014 (online content that challenges “social values” is a no-no).
Only Muslims can be Qatari citizens, so hopefully none of our starstruck “influencers” wants to make a regular or permanent thing of visiting. But the no-touching romantic, all-desert background makes for totally great Insta-shots! But not alcoholic ones, because alcohol was banned at the Grand Prix in Doha, except for at a few specially licensed hospitality venues such as the Paddock Club, in which several of our “influencers” were sure to get themselves photographed.
The “influencer” F1 Qatar trip coincided with the Doha excursion of a smaller cadre of Republican lawmakers who also reportedly attended, while also meeting with members of the Qatari royal family, major backers of Hamas and the world’s current top financier of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Qatari chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood is currently exempt from President Trump’s executive order, titled “Designation of Certain Muslim Brotherhood Chapters as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists.”
In May, amid delays from Boeing, the administration accepted a luxury jumbo jet from Qatar not unlike the G5 offered by Les Grossman in “Tropic Thunder.”
I’m told all this is only to force Qatar into the United States’ “America First” policy, but it didn’t get our Oct. 7, 2023, American hostages released sooner or get Qatar as a signatory to the Abraham Accords. I’m also told the American Israel Public Action Committee, a pro-Israel American organization of Americans, is the real problem, even though Qatari lobbying, FARA and otherwise, is more than five times greater than that of AIPAC. The seeds of Qatar’s money-drenched lobbying are coming to harvest.
Much has been written on the extensive Qatari influence operation, one that even previously included our own attorney general, who, before her ascent to the Justice Department, was a paid lobbyist for Qatar registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The tiny country’s influence in Washington is far-reaching and almost incalculable.
Qatar is also the top donor to American colleges and universities, beating even China. Qatar owns Al Jazeera, which broadcasts in the United States, promoting Islamist talking points that include Hamas propaganda. Through Al Jazeera, Qatar also purchases placements in U.S. media, including sponsored editorials, and further flexes its soft power through lucrative Hollywood partnerships in a bid to become the Cannes of the Middle East.
The Qataris have harbored terrorists, financed terrorists, shielded Hamas leaders who made billions of dollars while luxuriating in Doha high-rises, funded the Taliban (and hosts its foreign headquarters) and helped fund the Oct. 7 attacks. They function as a bank for terrorists. They do all this while hosting our military at the Al Udeid Air Base (along with the British Royal Air Force and others) to give the appearance of playing both sides.
Qatar hopes the easily influenced “influencers” will help rehabilitate their image, sort of like Democrats less successfully hired content creators to aid President Biden’s clownish administration. Although I highly doubt the easily influenced paid their own way and bought their own expensive VIP F1 access, I’m not ruling it out; whether they were paid additionally is unknown.
Today’s Trojan horse doesn’t look like a giant wooden equine; it looks like this: trips around the world, the opportunity to rub shoulders with celebrities, bragging rights on social media and the appearance of importance.
• Dana Loesch is the host of the No. 1 nationally syndicated weekday talk program, “Dana Show,” a bestselling author and a Second Amendment advocate. She lives in Dallas.
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