Abstract
This study examines how the abuse of a non-profit organization (NPO) intersected with Jemaah Islamiyah’s (JI) foreign terrorist fighter (FTF) mobilization to Syria. It focuses on Syam Organizer and investigates how public-facing fundraising, organizational consolidation, intermediary transfers, internal allocation, personnel preparation, and overseas deployment became connected across selected adjudicated cases. Employs a qualitative documentary research design based primarily on four selected Indonesian court rulings. The rulings were selected purposively because they contain evidence relevant to JI-linked fundraising, financial transfers, internal allocation, personnel preparation, and Syria-related deployment. The documents were read comparatively to identify recurring relationships across these processes. The documentary findings were supplemented by a semi-structured interview with a former JI Amir for contextual triangulation. The study does not rely on financial intelligence data, complete organizational archives, or direct observation of the organizations examined. The analysis suggests that JI-linked FTF mobilization was supported through a broader organizational process rather than isolated individual travel. The rulings indicate that public-facing fundraising through Syam Organizer was connected to regional and central consolidation, intermediary transfers, internal financial arrangements, and Syria-related training and deployment. The evidence further suggests that formally recorded humanitarian fundraising could coexist with confidential contributions designated for jihad-related purposes, without establishing that all humanitarian funds were diverted or that ordinary donors knowingly supported terrorism. The findings support closer attention to organizational relationships, intermediary actors, allocation practices, and continuity of functions across entities, while avoiding generalized suspicion toward NPOs or Islamic philanthropy. The study is limited by its reliance on four selected court rulings concerning defendants and adjudicated cases, together with one contextual interview. Court rulings are legal documents produced for adjudication and do not constitute complete organizational or financial archives. The study bridges terrorism-financing and FTF-mobilization scholarship by showing how resources may be converted into organizational capacity for repeated overseas engagement. Its main contribution lies in reconstructing a case-specific financial-logistical architecture through which public fundraising, consolidation, intermediary transfer, allocation, personnel preparation, and Syria-related deployment became interconnected.