As Georgetown University’s interim president, Robert Groves, is set to be questioned about campus antisemitism on Tuesday morning by the House Education and Workforce Committee, the university is contending with several thorny issues centered around the Jesuit school’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, one of the country’s leading centers for Islamic and Middle Eastern studies. 

Until now, Georgetown’s handling of campus antisemitism has been largely overlooked by the federal government, compared to other elite schools that have recently faced slashed grants and accreditation threats. But several studies published in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks have put a renewed spotlight on Georgetown’s Qatar campus and the more than $1 billion from Qatar the school has received. 

Earlier this year, Georgetown renewed its contract for its Doha campus for another decade. 

Among the unresolved matters that could come up when Groves takes the hot seat is the university’s lack of a disciplinary response to incendiary comments from the center’s chair of Islamic Civilization in the School of Foreign Service, Jonathan Brown, who advocated for Iran to conduct a “symbolic strike” on a U.S. military base. Brown, a tenured professor who has a history of spreading anti-Israel vitriol, is the son-in-law of convicted terror supporter Sami al-Arian.     

One day after the U.S. struck three Iranian nuclear facilities last month, Brown posted on X, “I’m not an expert, but I assume Iran could still get a bomb easily. I hope Iran does some symbolic strike on a base, then everyone stops.” 

A Georgetown University administrator told Jewish Insider at the time that the school was “appalled” by Brown’s since-deleted tweet and said it was “reviewing this matter to see if further action is warranted.” 

On Monday, the administration did not respond to several inquiries from JI asking whether the review is still underway and if further action was taken. 

Georgetown’s administration was already under the microscope following its statements made in March supporting Badar Khan Suri, a professor who was detained by federal authorities and alleged to have ties to Hamas.

Sam Westrop, director of the Middle East Forum’s Islamist Watch project, told JI he wants to see the committee question Georgetown over “why it’s acceptable that such a major, prestigious university should be able to embrace a terror-linked partner.” 

A recent MEF report, written by Westrop, claims that the Safa Network — a Virginia-based group of charities, businesses, and think tanks run by Islamists previously investigated by federal law enforcement agencies over alleged involvement with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Al-Qaida — established and funded the Alwaleed Center.

“Georgetown in this department, controlled by this network, trains diplomats, civil servants, intelligence agents, law enforcement and other academics who go on to radicalize future generations,” Westrop said. “This is a major failure of higher education to remain impartial and objective. Worst of all, it’s not just domestic. This domestic network is the glue that brought Georgetown into contact with the Qatari, Turkish and Malaysian regimes.” 

The center’s founder, John Esposito, who is a professor of religion and international affairs and of Islamic studies at Georgetown, has a history of defending and collaborating with terrorist groups, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Esposito was previously a member of the advisory board of the United Association for Studies and Research, an American think tank founded by future Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook and future Hamas spokesman Ahmed Yousef, according to a report by the George Washington University Program on Extremism.   

In a statement to JI, Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI), chair of the Republican conference, said that at the hearing she will “hold university presidents accountable for their troubling silence and inaction in the face of rising hate on campus.” 

“It is unacceptable that these institutions have allowed antisemitic incidents to persist without a meaningful response. I will be seeking clear answers on what steps they are taking to ensure intolerance has no place in our universities — including their faculty and student organizations,” McClain said.  

Officials from the University of California, Berkeley and the City University of New York are also expected to be probed over their handling of campus antisemitism at the hearing on Capitol Hill.