You might think, based on the warm relationship between Washington and Qatar, that the wealthy Gulf nation, awash in natural gas, is an outpost of democracy.
After all, Qatar hosts the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East. It will also be home to a new Trump International Golf Course and has given the White House a $400 million 747 jetliner.
However, Qatar is an emirate, basically a kingdom, and according to critics, no defender of Western values.
"Qatar is the opposite of all that," warns Yigal Carmon, the head of the Middle East Media Research Institute or MEMRI, which monitors what Qatar's leaders say in Arabic. "Qatar is an Islamist ideological emirate that seeks in every single step of its activities to promote jihad."
Carmon calls Qatar a hub of Muslim extremism and a