Quran Class
Pupils read and learn the Koran during the holy fasting month of Ramadan, at a mosque in Kheraisia, east of Algiers July 8, 2014. Reuters

If the Catholic and Christian Churches have paedophile priests, the Islam faith too has religious leaders who are wolves in sheep clothing by allegedly molesting young followers.

The Nation reports that police arrested on Tuesday morning in Elgin, Illinois, a 75-year-old imam for sexual assault. The imam, Mohammad Abdullah Saleem, was charged with felony criminal sexual abuse.

The sexual attack allegedly happened in April 2014 when the 23-year-old female complainant was employed with the Institute of Islamic Education in Elgin. She contacted authorities about the abuse in December.

Saleem is no ordinary imam. He is the president and founder of the institute in Elgin and considered a prominent figure in the South Asian Muslim group in the US.

But it seems the unnamed complainant is not the first alleged victim of the imam. Three other women claimed they too were sexually molested by Saleem when they were still young children.

“Sandy,” who was 10 or 11 when she was sexually abused, told Elgin Police that she thought he was a holy man, Al Jazeera reports.

“Amber” said they were sitting on the floor reading the Quran when he touched her inappropriately. “It shifted to the bed, where he would take my hand and make me touch his private part, and I knew at that point it was wrong and disgusting,” recalls Amber.

She added that being followers of the Islam faith “does not make us immune from their kind of activity.”

Muslims were aghast by the allegations against their imam. Mohammed Kaiseruddin, chairman of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, told the Chicago Tribune, “This person has been a religious leader and scholar and adviser to many people … For a person like that to be alleged to have done things like that, it was a big shock for everybody.”

Thomas Glasgow, the lawyer of the imam, said that his client returned from India to the US to cooperate with authorities. He said Saleem denies the accusations.

However, Muslims who believe the accusation find the imam hypocritical for even opposing male and female followers from shaking hands, banning them from being alone in a secluded space and separating them in gender-specific areas at mosques in accordance with Islamic laws, while he appeared to have indulged in hanky-panky behaviour underneath his white flowing beard and imam’s robes.

To contact the writer, email: v.hernandez@ibtimes.com.au