Upcoming Al Jazeera Conference Features Hamas Operative & Professors from Northwestern University in Qatar
Promotional materials for the conference dismiss the documented cases of rapes committed by Palestinian terrorists and children being burnt to death on October 7th as "false Israeli reports"
Al Jazeera Centre for Studies and Qatar’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University are convening an academic conference in Doha on November 29-30 that brings together an Israeli-designated Hamas operative and alleged Muslim Brotherhood affiliates with faculty from Northwestern University’s campus in Doha to discuss international media coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. The gathering takes place just days after President Trump signed an executive order initiating the designation of certain Muslim Brotherhood chapters as foreign terrorist organizations.
The conference, titled “International Media and the War on Gaza: Modalities of Discourse and the Clash of Narratives,” aims to explore what organizers call “functional semantic mechanisms that reveal the implicit meanings in international media coverage of the war on Gaza,” according to promotional materials. However, conference documents reveal a predetermined narrative that dismisses documented atrocities as false Israeli reports.
Conference Promotes Dismissal of Hamas’ Oct 7 Atrocities
Conference documentation explicitly frames Hamas’s massacre as an “attack on settlements” while dismissing verified atrocities as Israeli fabrications. One document states that “most Western media, and even some Arab media, promoted, especially in the early months of the war, the Israeli narrative and its false reports about ‘burning children’ and ‘raping Israeli women’ during the Hamas attack on settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip.”
The materials criticize media outlets for reporting on “Israel’s right to self-defense” and for describing Hamas’s actions as terrorism, positioning these factual characterizations as biased coverage rather than accurate reporting of the October 7 massacre that killed over 1,200 people.
These claims contradict extensive documentation, including UN findings of “reasonable grounds to believe” sexual violence occurred, forensic evidence confirming 27 children were shot and burned alive, and multiple independent investigations documenting the atrocities.
Israel-Designated Hamas Operative Serves on Organizing Committee
Arafat Madi Shoukri, listed as a member of the conference’s organizing committee, was designated by Israel in 2013 as one of Hamas’s main operatives in Europe. Shoukri previously directed the Council for European Palestinian Relations (CEPR), which was also banned in 2013 by the Israeli Ministry of Justice, which identified it as serving as Hamas’ representative in Europe.
Social media images from Shoukri’s Facebook account show him pictured with former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and attending a meeting between a CEPR delegation and Muslim Brotherhood representatives. According to the Global Muslim Brotherhood Watch, Shoukri later relocated from Britain to Qatar, where Arabic media reported he assumed a position at Al Jazeera.
Keynote Speaker: Former Al Jazeera Director & Alleged Hamas Official
Conference keynote speaker Wadah Khanfar, who served as Al Jazeera’s director-general from 2006 to 2011, publicly praised Hamas’ October 7 attack. Khanfar currently serves as President of Al Sharq Forum.
Khanfar allegedly held positions for Hamas in Sudan and South Africa. The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs reported that Khanfar was a Muslim Brotherhood member in Jordan, where he was arrested. Former Al Jazeera colleagues who resigned from the network complained that Khanfar packed the network’s staff with Islamists, many sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Khanfar appears to have maintained a close relationship with Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s now-deceased spiritual leader who advocated for suicide bombings against Israelis and was banned from entering the United States and several European countries before his death in 2022.
NU-Q Professor Who Says Israel Worse Than Hamas
Marc Owen Jones, an Associate Professor of Media Analysis at Northwestern University in Qatar, will speak at the conference. Through his social media platforms, Jones has posted anti-Israel content that appears to justify terror attacks against Israelis.
Days after the October 7 massacre, Jones shared a post stating: “if killing civilians makes you ISIS, what does that make Israel?” During the June 2025 Israel-Iran war, he justified Iran’s targeting of Beer Sheva’s Soroka Hospital because it “treats IDF soldiers.” Jones has also claimed “Israel is worse than Hamas” and referred to Hamas terrorists as “fighters”, suggesting they deserve consideration in the same light as IDF soldiers.
Hamas Money Laundering Case Links to Northwestern Qatar Faculty
Ibrahim Abusharif, an Associate Professor in Residence at Northwestern University Qatar’s Journalism and Strategic Communication Programme and a conference speaker, served as co-founder and treasurer of the Quranic Literacy Institute from 1990 to 1998. During the 2000’s, a federal jury found the organization liable for laundering over $1 million to Hamas, resulting in a $156 million judgment in the landmark Boim terrorism financing case.
The case arose after parents of David Boim, an American teenager killed in a Hamas attack, sued QLI under the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act in 2004. The jury initially awarded $52 million, which was later tripled to $156 million under the statute’s provisions. A federal appeals court upheld the judgment, calling it “the most significant judicial opinion on material support to terrorism.”
Abusharif teaches the required “Doha Seminar” for all American students studying at Northwestern’s Qatar campus.
Qatar University Professor Celebrates October 7 as “Rehearsal” for Jerusalem’s Liberation
Dr. Mutaz al-Khatib, Director of the Master’s Programme in Applied Islamic Ethics at Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s College of Islamic Studies and a conference speaker, posted a status on Facebook on the day of Hamas’s October 7 massacre stating: “What happened was merely a rehearsal indicating that the liberation of Jerusalem is possible.”
The Middle East Media Research Institute has identified al-Khatib as a member of the Qatar-funded International Union for Muslim Scholars, a global network founded mainly by Muslim Brotherhood clerics. Former Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani sponsored the IUMS’s creation in 2004, with Yusuf al-Qaradawi serving as founding chairman.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt jointly placed the IUMS on a terrorism blacklist in 2017. The organization has provided unstinting support for Hamas since the October 7 massacre, even featuring the former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at IUMS events.
Al-Khatib worked closely with al-Qaradawi on Al Jazeera from December 2004 until August 2013, collaborating on al-Qaradawi’s “Sharia and Life” program. Video footage from 2007 shows al-Khatib speaking at an event where both al-Qaradawi and Hamas official Khaled Meshal were present. The IUMS official website has featured articles written by al-Khatib and has promoted his content on “How to Read Jihad in Islamic Sources.”
U.S. Academic Speakers Highlight Qatar’s Influence on American Universities
The conference also includes Dr. Nader Dagher as a speaker, an Assistant Professor of Communication at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee, who joined the faculty in 2025 after completing his doctorate at the University of Florida.
Northwestern University’s Qatar campus operates under Qatari law and receives substantial funding from the Qatari government. A Middle East Forum investigation released in September 2025 documented extensive concerns about terror-linked faculty at the institution, with multiple Northwestern Qatar professors speaking at the Al Jazeera conference.
Hamas can be tackled theologically as well as militarily:
https://hellish2050.substack.com/p/allah-is-a-zionist-part-1