Qatari opposition leader Sheik Khalid Al-Hail conducted his first English-language interview with staunchly conservative Australian podcast host Erin Molan, blistering the Qatari government for its support of terrorist groups around the world.
Molan asked Al-Hail, the leader of the Qatar National Democratic Party (QNDP), which advocates for a constitutional monarchy, about his movement, noting, “I would hazard a guess most people listening have never heard of such a thing, did not realize it existed. And that is for good reason, because the powers that be in Qatar don’t want the world to know that you exist.”
“Our movement started in 2010 within Qatar,” Al-Hail, who currently lives in exile in the United Kingdom, recalled, pointing out his group held a 2017 conference in Egypt where they spoke about the support of the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt. “A lot of people that are affiliated with the Qatari opposition … are banned from traveling from Doha,” he stated. “Those who are outside the country have a genuine fear of prosecution. They cannot come back to the country.”
He said that in 2013, he was given a promise by the Qatari leadership, recalling that they stated, “You can come back to Doha. It will be safe. Everything will be fine.”
“And it was an absolute nightmare for me,” he said. “I went back to Doha. I’ve been tortured; I’ve been in the high-security intelligence prison for no reason. They started to accuse me of some lies. I managed to run from the country. I didn’t leave the country legally, but I managed to run outside the country because I had some influence within the regime in that time. So I left Qatar, and I established the movement in that time.”
“The way they operate is like a criminal organization just hunting and undermining people,” he declared.
The New York Times reported in 2016 that poet Muhammad al-Ajami was serving a 15-year sentence “after a secret trial in 2012, for ‘criticizing the emir’ in a poem that praised the Arab Spring,” adding, “Mr. Hail was jailed by the Qatari regime in 2010 and 2014, he said, and in the state security agency’s headquarters, he was beaten, deprived of sleep and electrocuted.”
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“Talk to me about why this regime is not legitimate, why they are not what they paint themselves to be in the Western world,” Molan prompted.
“They painted themselves as these peacemakers that were there to help when they themselves funded the October 7 attacks. They harbored the leaders of Hamas, yet they pretend to be the ones that care deeply about trying to create peace in a region where they are, on the other side, creating all the chaos,” she added.
“It’s not an accusation; it’s a factual information. The Qatari regime’s existence is based on terrorism,” Al Hail replied.
“The regime of Qatar are trying to undermine us in every single movement,” he continued. “They are smart. They’re spending their money to do one thing. In the West, in America, I was shocked to know a few days ago that they are promoting to some people in America that I am a front for the Qatari regime. Without saying it, they pay people to say, ‘Oh, this guy has been created by the Qatari regime to go and just pretend there is an opposition of Qatar.’ And that’s an absolute bullsh*t. What they’re trying to do is undermine every single opposition they face. They are hacking people. They are terrorizing people.”
“Talk to me about the people on the ground in Doha,” Molan suggested. “You look at the Iranian regime, over 80% minimum despise that illegal regime. They are not the legitimate leaders of Iran. Is it a similar situation in Qatar? Do the majority of people want there to be democracy? Do they want their leaders harboring terrorists?”
“Qatar has something called original Qataris,” Al-Hail explained. “And the Qataris, the migrant Qataris who came recently — like 20, 30 years ago. So Qatar, to make balance, to control the country, they replaced the original people with outsiders. … When the first democratic election happened in Qatar in 2021 — which they promised from 2013 — the whole election was based on the original Qataris. They excluded the other people. So when that happened, the majority of the seats went to the people that oppose the Qatari regime and the Qatari mentality. And what happened after? They canceled the election. They canceled the whole election. Even in the army of Qatar, they intentionally mixed foreigners with the locals because they know, for fact, that the Qatari people, the original Qatari people, they condemn the Qatari government actions.”
“The Qatari people are not Muslim Brotherhood,” he said. “We are not Muslim Brotherhood. We are not Islamists. We are not extremists. It’s the regime and their affiliates. That’s the problem. So if you talk about legitimacy, let me come back to you and say, my promise to the world, this regime will not stand for long. … Renting loyalty and renting influence is temporary. It’s for today, tomorrow, and after tomorrow. But things are changing. The world is changing. Money will buy silence for a short period of time. But to stop a terrorist regime like the Qatari regime, you have to go to the source of the issue. They have an enormous access to money, and that’s the problem. So if you stop that, you stop terrorism in the world.”
“Let me get this from you now,” Molan said. “You would end every cent were you to somehow form a government in Qatar to go in and lead. Under your leadership, there would not be a cent going to Muslim Brotherhood or any Islamic extremist group, any extremist group at all. Is that what you promise?”
“What I promise to the world, I am not acting alone,” Al Hail responded. “So Qatar is a monarchy system. We appreciate that and we respect that as Qataris. We have a group from the royal family of Qatar who believe exactly what we say. For the sake of the stability of the nation, we are leading a movement now that leads to the change of what’s happening in Qatar.”
He said the U.S. military base in Doha would remain unaffected, adding, “Nothing would be changed. The only thing that would be changed is that there is no more Hamas in Doha. There is no more Muslim Brotherhood. There is no more extremists in Qatar. Our promise to the world that we will be the best solution for the West. And our money will be focused on developing our own people. We were not going to spend our money anymore to support Hamas or to support these terrorist organizations. Our movement is a peaceful movement.”
“Khalid, as someone who believes in the complete opposite of what that regime currently promotes, I hope and pray you are right. Thank you so very much. Thank you for being so brave. Thank you for fighting for what matters,” Molan stated, then concluded to her audience, “Please share with everyone because this voice needs to be amplified if we ever want to change what is happening in the Middle East and, of course, as an extension of that, because the pain that terrorism causes goes well beyond those borders.”
