A Northwestern University journalism professor has been accused in news reports and court documents of co‑founding an organization that a U.S. court found liable in a civil suit for funneling funds to Hamas.
Ibrahim N. Abusharif, 47, is identified in reporting as a cofounder and former treasurer of the Quranic Literacy Institute (QLI), a nonprofit that billed itself as a translator and publisher of Islamic texts. Court testimony and civil litigation in the 2000s described the group as a conduit for funds that ultimately benefited the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Abusharif was not criminally charged in the matter, and he has disputed that QLI had ties to Hamas.
According to court documents cited in recent reporting, QLI operated from 1990 to 1998 with activities that included translating religious texts and holding property. The organization was named in a wrongful‑death lawsuit filed by the family of a 17‑year‑old killed in a 1996 terror attack in Israel. In a 2004 decision the group and others were found liable and ordered to pay $156 million in damages; that ruling was affirmed on appeal in 2008.
Court testimony from a former FBI counterterrorism analyst, Matthew Levitt, said QLI provided cover for an individual identified as Muhammad Salah, who prosecutors and courts said helped finance Hamas. Documents cited in reporting say Salah had been listed on QLI payroll records with the title of computer analyst despite performing little or no work for the organization. The documents also say QLI purchased a rental property in 1991 using roughly $1 million that was traced to a Saudi financier alleged to be linked to terror financing, and that Salah lived at the property while nominally employed by QLI.
Salah pleaded guilty in Israel in 1995 to funneling funds to Hamas and served prison time there before returning to the United States, where he later served additional time after being convicted of lying about his ties. QLI relinquished about $1 million in forfeiture proceedings in 1998 related to the civil claims, according to reporting.
Abusharif, a Chicago native whose parents immigrated from Palestine, has taught at Northwestern’s Doha campus for more than a decade. He joined Northwestern as a senior lecturer in 2008 and moved to the Qatar campus that fall. His university biography says he teaches narrative journalism, religious studies and the decolonization of storytelling and researches journalistic framing of the Middle East and Muslim minorities in Western media.
Reports say Abusharif served as QLI treasurer from roughly 1990 to 1998 and therefore would have had access to the group’s financial records. The court documents cited in recent reporting assert that his role gives him “first‑hand knowledge” about QLI’s fundraising and expenditures. Abusharif has not been named as a defendant in the civil judgments that found QLI liable.
In 2022, Abusharif told the Chicago Tribune that the organization was contesting the forfeiture and that claims tying QLI to Hamas were unjust. He has also said he later worked for another Islamic book publisher, Starlatch, which he described as having no ties to QLI.
Northwestern University and Abusharif were contacted for comment in reporting cited in the recent article. The university’s public profile for Abusharif lists his academic duties and research interests but does not address the allegations tied to QLI.
The allegations stem from civil litigation and reporting based on court records and testimony; they do not reflect criminal charges against Abusharif. The QLI was a defendant in civil suits that concluded with damages and forfeitures more than a decade ago. The reporting that named Abusharif in connection with QLI’s past activities cites documents and testimony developed in those cases.