By Nabimara Benson

An American public university helped a Turkish nonprofit later designated by the U.S. Treasury as a “sham charity” operating inside Hamas’s international funding apparatus improve its ability to raise money just months before federal sanctions exposed the group’s role in bankrolling the terrorist organization.

The Muslim Philanthropy Initiative (MPI), housed inside Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, co-organized at least two multi-day fundraising training programs with Hayat Yolu Association. The events took place in Istanbul in July 2025 and Jakarta, Indonesia, in January 2026. Faculty from MPI, led by director Dr. Shariq Siddiqui, taught participants primarily Islamic nonprofits how to “refine their fundraising strategies, improve performance, and more effectively advance their missions.”

On March 12, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) formally designated Hayat Yolu (also known as Hayat Yolu Kalkınma Yardımlaşma Eğitim ve Kültür Derneği) for providing “significant material support” to Hamas. Treasury officials stated that the group is “involved in Hamas’ international funding network that enables Hamas to generate external revenue in direct support of Hamas’ military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.” Internal Hamas documents cited by Treasury show the network funneled money to individual fighters and construction projects that directly benefited the group. Treasury also identified Hayat Yolu as “an operational headquarters, banking and financial hub for the Muslim Brotherhood.”

The timing is striking. The partnerships occurred before the designation, but the Treasury’s action confirms that while Hayat Yolu was allegedly moving funds to Hamas, an official Indiana University program was providing it with professional-grade fundraising expertise. MPI’s own annual report thanked Hayat Yolu for its “generous support.” Following media inquiries, Siddiqui deleted a LinkedIn post promoting the Istanbul event, and MPI removed its annual report from its website.

This is not an isolated lapse. In 2022, MPI hosted Sami Al-Arian a convicted supporter of Palestinian Islamic Jihad who pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization to speak on Muslim charities post-9/11. The school later admitted it “failed in our due diligence” and apologized. Lawmakers now point to a pattern. In a letter to IU President Pamela Whitten and School Dean Amir Pasic, eight Indiana state representatives, led by Rep. Andrew Ireland (R-Indianapolis), demanded a formal investigation, preservation of all records, and answers on due diligence, funding, and oversight.

In response, IU’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy announced it is “ceasing all training activities, reviewing all current partnerships and collaborations, and suspending any new partnerships with the Muslim Philanthropy Initiative.” The university has launched a formal internal investigation.

According to its own description, the Muslim Philanthropy Initiative was created to “empower the Muslim philanthropic sector” through research, training, and convenings at the nation’s first dedicated school of philanthropy. Its mission focused on ethical, effective fundraising for Muslim-led nonprofits.

Instead, as one critic put it in a viral post that first highlighted the story: “Indiana University’s Muslim Philanthropy Initiative was supposed to teach nonprofits how to raise money ethically and effectively. Instead, it partnered with Hayat Yolu, a group the U.S. Treasury later designated a ‘sham charity’ that allegedly helped fund Hamas. While Hayat Yolu was allegedly funneling funds to Hamas, Indiana University was helping train it in fundraising. This is not just a lapse in vetting. It is an American university serving as a high-level fundraising engine for a global terror-financing network.”

U.S. officials have repeatedly warned that Hamas exploits “sham charities” to launder money under the cover of humanitarian aid to Gaza. The March 12 designations were part of a broader campaign targeting this exact network. By providing training on donor relations, campaign structuring, and performance metrics to an organization later confirmed as part of that network, MPI whether wittingly or not lent the prestige and expertise of a major American university to groups now under federal sanctions.

Indiana University is a public institution funded by Hoosier taxpayers. Its School of Philanthropy trains the next generation of fundraisers who will steward billions of charitable dollars. When that same institution partners with an entity the U.S. government later identifies as a terror-financing front and does so twice, across two continents it raises serious questions about institutional safeguards, donor vetting, and ideological blind spots inside academia.

The investigation now underway must answer the hard questions: What due diligence was performed? Was any IU money or in-kind support exchanged? Did MPI leadership know or should they have known about Hayat Yolu’s activities? And why does this appear to be a recurring issue?

Until those answers come, the case stands as a cautionary tale: even well-intentioned academic programs can become unwitting (or worse) cogs in networks that fund terrorism unless rigorous, ongoing vetting is non-negotiable.