Indiana University has shut down its Muslim Philanthropy Initiative for good after an investigation revealed the program's executive director accepted travel reimbursements from an Istanbul-based nonprofit the U.S. Treasury sanctioned for funneling money to Hamas's military wing.
State Rep. Andrew Ireland, a Republican and former deputy attorney general, announced Monday that the university had permanently shuttered the initiative, which operated within IU's Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Ireland led a coalition of eight Indiana lawmakers who demanded a formal investigation into the program's partnership with the Hayat Yolu Association, an organization the Treasury Department sanctioned in March for raising money "in direct support of Hamas' military wing," the al-Qassam Brigades.
The closure caps a pattern of red flags stretching back years. And it raises a blunt question: how did a taxpayer-supported university end up collaborating with an outfit the federal government now calls part of Hamas's international fundraising network?
Indiana University's investigation found that Hayat Yolu reimbursed Shariq Siddiqui, the initiative's executive director, for airfare, lodging, meals, and other travel expenses. Those expenses were tied to training conferences the Muslim Philanthropy Initiative co-organized with Hayat Yolu in Istanbul in July 2025 and in Jakarta in January 2026. The university has not disclosed the dollar amounts involved.
At the Jakarta conference, Hayat Yolu Deputy Director Ahmad Abu Adam described the organization's broader ambitions in an event report:
"As we have done in Turkey, we are working to enhance the capabilities of our partners in Indonesia. This includes learning new techniques in management, leadership, and fundraising based on the latest research."
The Muslim Philanthropy Initiative, for its part, thanked Hayat Yolu for its "generous support" in an annual report. The program said it "aspires to have a transformative impact on Muslim philanthropy" in the United States and abroad, and it worked closely with some of the largest Islamic nonprofits in the country. Leaders from Islamic Relief USA and the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding served on its advisory council until the program's demise.
Indiana University did not respond to a request for comment from the Washington Free Beacon.
Ireland framed the closure as overdue accountability. In a post on his X account, the state representative laid out the stakes plainly:
"Indiana University made the right decision by closing the Muslim Philanthropy Initiative. A taxpayer-supported university should never lend its name, expertise or credibility to an organization connected to the financial network of a terrorist group."
That language tracks closely with the Treasury Department's own characterization. When Treasury sanctioned Hayat Yolu, it described the group as raising money in direct support of Hamas's military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, and placed it within Hamas's international fundraising network. The designation means U.S. persons are generally prohibited from transacting with Hayat Yolu, and any assets it holds in American financial institutions are frozen.
This was not the first time the Muslim Philanthropy Initiative drew scrutiny for its associations. In 2022, the program hosted a conference on Islamic fundraising that featured Sami Al-Arian, a former professor who pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide services to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a designated terrorist group, and was subsequently deported from the United States.
Public criticism followed. Amir Pasic, dean of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, acknowledged at the time that the school had failed to conduct adequate due diligence before inviting Al-Arian. He pledged stronger review procedures going forward.
Those pledges did not prevent the initiative from entering a partnership with Hayat Yolu, an organization that would later be sanctioned by the federal government for financing a terrorist group's military operations. The Istanbul conference took place in July 2025. The Jakarta conference followed in January 2026. And the initiative's own annual report publicly thanked Hayat Yolu for its financial support.
Whatever review procedures the school put in place after the Al-Arian episode, they failed to flag a relationship with an organization the Treasury Department ultimately identified as a sham charity serving Hamas.
The university's silence leaves significant gaps. Indiana University has not said whether Siddiqui faces any disciplinary action or whether his employment status has changed. The full findings of the formal investigation, beyond the travel reimbursements Ireland described, have not been made public. And the identities of the other seven lawmakers in Ireland's coalition have not been disclosed.
Nor is it clear whether any further legal exposure exists. Siddiqui accepted reimbursements from an entity that the Treasury Department has now sanctioned for supporting a designated terrorist organization. Whether those transactions occurred before or after the sanctions designation, and what legal implications follow, remain unanswered.
The initiative's closure removes the program from Indiana University's portfolio. But it does not explain how a major public university managed to partner with a Treasury-sanctioned Hamas fundraiser, accept its money, co-host conferences in Istanbul and Jakarta, and publicly thank it for its generosity, all while pledging, after a previous embarrassment, that it would do better.
When institutions promise accountability and then repeat the same failures, the promise itself becomes the problem. Taxpayers who fund public universities deserve better than pledges that expire the moment no one is watching.
