Chicago Muslim Leader Accused Of Spreading “Islamophobia” For Reporting On Sexual Abuse Charges Against Imam…Allegations of sexual abuse by the longtime president of a leading Chicago-area Islamic school have roiled the region’s Muslims and raised questions about the reporting of sexual abuse in a close-knit religious community.
The allegations that Abdullah Saleem of the Institute of Islamic Education in Elgin, a Chicago suburb, sexually abused an adult female school employee surfaced in December, when a leading Muslim scholar referred to them in a blog. […]
Junaid Afeef, a lawyer and Muslim leader in Chicago, said religious and community leaders, especially among the older generation, initially had a “circle-the-wagons” response to the allegations. He said at first they largely ignored them, then chose to investigate them themselves rather than go immediately to the police.
Some Muslims also worry that public allegations against a prominent leader could compound anti-Muslim sentiment, which Muslim Americans have struggled with since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and even more so lately with the rise of the Islamic State radical group in Syria and Iraq.
Afeef said that when he started publicly discussing the allegations against Saleem on a popular Listserv, he was criticized by some who told him that he was “playing into the hands of Islamophobes.”
“I’m sure that’s true,” Afeef said. “There are people who have an agenda to malign Muslims. But that’s beside the point. There is a victim here, and her safety and protection trump any bigotry that might result from reporting this.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/sex-abuse-allegations-against-chicago-muslim-religious-leader-roils-community/2015/02/14/7cbfe639-093e-4c7c-b88b-a8dab3b76f6e_story.html----------------------------------------------------------------
"Don't be a puppet in the hands of those islamophobes. Don't forget, as a woman, she needs two witnesses to prove she was a victim anyway. That's our law..."
