Andrew Ireland@AndrewIrelandIN
🚨 Today I led a coalition of Indiana lawmakers in demanding an immediate investigation into reports that an Indiana University program partnered with a "charity" allegedly tied to the radical Islamic terrorist group Hamas.
Hoosiers deserve answers. Letter below.
President Whitten and Dean Pasic:
We write with grave concern regarding recent reporting that Indiana University’s Muslim Philanthropy Initiative (“MPI”), a unit housed within the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, organized fundraising and training events with Hayat Yolu Association, an Istanbul-based organization that the United States Department of the Treasury designated on March 12, 2026 as a “sham charity” that provided significant material support to Hamas. Treasury further stated that Hayat Yolu was involved in Hamas’s international funding network and functioned as an operational, banking, and financial hub for the Muslim Brotherhood. These are not minor or technical allegations. They go to the heart of whether an Indiana public university lent its credibility, brand, and institutional resources to a foreign organization the federal government has now identified as part of a terrorist financing apparatus.
According to public reporting, MPI worked with Hayat Yolu in July 2025 and again in January 2026 on events designed to help Islamic NGOs “refine their fundraising strategies,” improve performance, and better advance their missions. The same report states that MPI’s annual report thanked Hayat Yolu for its “generous support.” If that reporting is accurate, the public deserves immediate answers as to whether Indiana University helped a now-sanctioned entity improve its fundraising capacity, whether IU accepted any money or in-kind support tied to that entity, and what due diligence—if any—was performed before entering into or continuing the relationship.
This matter is even more troubling because it does not appear to be an isolated lapse. In 2022, your school publicly acknowledged that it “failed in our due diligence” after hosting Sami Al-Arian. That history matters. When an institution has already been warned by experience that it must scrutinize extremist-adjacent programming with exceptional care, the standard for oversight is higher, not lower. A second controversy of this magnitude suggests a systemic failure in vetting, governance, supervision, or all three.
Indiana University is not a private club free to operate behind closed doors while taxpayers, students, faculty, alumni, and the broader public are told to trust the process. It is a public institution, and the people of Indiana have every right to know whether university personnel partnered with, trained, platformed, or accepted support from an organization that the federal government now says bankrolled Hamas. The question is not whether university leaders agree with Treasury’s judgment. The question is whether IU exercised the level of diligence, supervision, and accountability that the public is entitled to expect.
Accordingly, we request that Indiana University immediately take the following actions:
•Open a formal internal investigation into MPI’s relationship with Hayat Yolu Association, including all meetings, trainings, conferences, funding arrangements, travel, sponsorships, memoranda of understanding, and other collaborative activities.
•Preserve all records relating to Hayat Yolu, Shariq Siddiqui, MPI, and any related foreign partners, including emails, text messages, calendar entries, contracts, invoices, reimbursement requests, donor records, promotional materials, annual reports, internal vetting materials, and communications with outside organizations.
•Suspend any ongoing relationship between IU or any IU-affiliated unit and Hayat Yolu Association, as well as any substantially related entity or intermediary, pending completion of the investigation.
•Disclose whether IU or MPI received money, travel support, sponsorships, consulting fees, conference support, lodging, event hosting, or any other thing of value from Hayat Yolu or any affiliated person or entity.
•Identify every IU employee, contractor, fellow, or representative who participated in planning, attending, speaking at, or promoting the July 2025 and January 2026 events referenced in the public reporting.
•Produce the university’s due-diligence protocols for foreign nonprofit partnerships, particularly in high-risk regions or where terror-financing and sanctions concerns may be implicated, and explain whether those protocols were followed here.
•Provide a public accounting of remedial steps, including whether disciplinary action, policy changes, outside review, or referral to law enforcement or relevant federal authorities is warranted.
Please provide a written response no later than ten business days from receipt of this letter addressing, at a minimum, the following questions:
•Did Indiana University, the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, or MPI knowingly partner with Hayat Yolu Association?
•What vetting was conducted before the July 2025 and January 2026 events?
•When did university leadership first learn of Treasury’s concerns or any other red flags involving Hayat Yolu?
•Did IU or MPI receive any financial or in-kind support from Hayat Yolu or persons acting on its behalf?
•Has IU referred this matter to legal counsel, law enforcement, or federal authorities?
•What specific corrective action has IU taken since publication of the March 18, 2026 report?
Let us be clear: Hoosiers should never have to wonder whether a public university in this state helped train up the fundraising operation of an entity now designated by the federal government as a sham charity for Hamas. If IU has a credible explanation, it should provide it. If IU failed in its responsibilities, it should admit it and fix it. What it must not do is hide behind silence, delay, or bureaucratic word games while the public asks obvious questions and receives none of the answers.
We intend to continue reviewing this matter and to pursue whatever oversight is appropriate. We also expect full cooperation from the university and prompt preservation of all relevant evidence.
Sincerely,
Andrew Ireland
State Representative
District 90
Garrett Bascom
State Representative
District 68
Martin Carbaugh
State Representative
District 81
Matt Commons
State Representative
District 13
Craig Haggard
State Representative
District 57
Chris Judy
State Representative
District 83
Jim Lucas
State Representative
District 69
J.D. Prescott
State Representative
District 33
