Qatar-Funded Curriculum Materials in NYC Erases the Truth About 9/11 Jihad Attacks, Funds the 9/11 Cover-Up

By Robert Spencer | December 20, 2025

Explosion following the plane impact into the South Tower (WTC 2). Photo by Robert Levine – Flickr, Public Domain, Wikipedia

Many people have noted the irony: New York City, which jihadis hit so hard on September 11, 2001, have now elected as mayor a man who is a Twelver Shi’te Muslim, the same sect whose adherents among the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran regularly scream “Death to America.” How could New Yorkers have elected such a man as mayor, when New York City, above all other cities in the United States, knows what jihad is all about? The answer to that question is that New Yorkers don’t actually know what jihad is all about. They’ve been systematically lied to, most egregiously in New York City schools. Now, a New York Republican is trying to bring this travesty to an end.

The New York Post reported Wednesday that “Rep. Elise Stefanik and House Oversight Chairman James Comer are demanding Gov. Kathy Hochul provide transparency about curriculum and teaching materials funded by Qatar or ‘malign domestic actors’ being used in New York schools.” Such demands must be issued because “the New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE) has refused to release the curriculum,” which raises the inevitable question: what does it have to hide?

Stefanik and Comer wrote: “The [NYC] DOE has refused to provide copies of teaching materials that twist the narratives of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks and the Hamas-led massacre on October 7, 2023, in Israel.” They “raised concerns about curriculum and other content funded by Qatar and teaching materials from ‘malign domestic actors’ that could give students a distorted view of 9/11.”

Indeed: Stefanik and Comer pointed out that the Qatar Foundation International forked over a cool $1 million to P.S. 261, which is an elementary school in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, as well as to P.S./I.S. 30, another public school in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn that goes from kindergarten through eighth grade.

That fact of this funding in itself ought to give every American pause. Why is Qatar funding a couple of public schools in Brooklyn? Could it be that the Muslim Brotherhood-sponsoring regime wants to make sure that the children are indoctrinated with a rosy, whitewashed view of Islam that puts as large a separation as is possible between the 9/11 attacks and the religion that inspired and justified those attacks?

The Post also noted that at the same time, Stefanik and Comer “raised concerns about teaching material from Bridging Cultures, an education contractor led by Dr. Debbie Almontaser, who is also in charge of the Muslim Community Network (MCN) and has a ‘long history of soft-pedaling violence.’” That is, it soft-pedals jihad violence.

Indeed. Dabah “Debbie” Almontaser was the principal of Khalil Gibran Academy, the Arabic public school in New York City, until she endorsed the “initifada,” the same violent jihad against Israel that Zohran Mamdani refuses to denounce. Later she appeared at a demonstration in favor of a Muslim Brotherhood mosque in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. The Muslim Brotherhood is dedicated in its own words to “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within.” Almontaser, Stefanik and Comer warned, will become newly influential when Mamdani takes office.

The Post explained that “Bridging Cultures offers a course on teaching the history of 9/11 in the classroom. But Stefanik and Comer underscored how MCN has a history of vilifying ‘those who want to recognize radical Islam’s role in the attacks.’” It would, in fact, be hard to find a curriculum anywhere, at least in public schools, that admitted that Islam played any role in the attacks. That should not, however, let MCN off the hook. Why is an Islamic group in charge of teaching children how to understand what happened on 9/11?

MCN, after all, even “petitioned to scrap federal funding for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, contending that it conflates ‘all Islam with specific terroristic ideologies.’” Anyone who has been in the National September 11 Memorial & Museum knows how laughable this is, as the Museum scrupulously avoids giving the impression that Islam had anything to do with the attacks.

MCN and Bridging Cultures are lavishly compensated for their distortions: they “have received at least $14.7 million from New York City since 2014, public records cited by Stefanik and Comer show.” With Mamdani about to become New York City’s mayor, that amount is more likely to increase than to decrease. Stefanik and Comer have their hearts in the right place, but when it comes to New York, they’re struggling against the prevailing winds.