NY Times She
ordinarily did not wear a veil. But it was required at the Islamic
school where she worked, and she remembers being surprised when the head
of the school, a conservative imam, suggested that she remove it.
When
the imam, Mohammad Abdullah Saleem, came into her office, she said, he
would sometimes touch her cheek or put an arm around her shoulder. Mr.
Saleem was revered in her close-knit community, and she did not object
at first. But simply being alone together represented a forbidden
intimacy, and looking back, she said those first gestures should have
been more alarming.
“It’s not something that gets done,” the 23-year-old woman said recently. “Men and women don’t even shake hands.”
Over
time, she said the touching became more aggressive, reaching a point
that she did something almost unheard-of in her community. She told
people: her family, a social worker, an Islamic scholar. Recently, she
went to the police. As word spread of what she had told them, three
other women came forward, telling detectives that as young girls they
had been molested by Mr. Saleem.[...]
Abuse
allegations against Catholic priests and Jewish rabbis have brought
similar anguish to insular communities suddenly exposed to outsiders, in
a crisis. But the Chicago case comes with added baggage in a community
where discussion of sex is taboo and many girls are forbidden to attend
school health classes. Dating is uncommon or secretive, many marriages
are arranged, and a blemish on a young woman’s reputation can render her
unmarriageable.
The
accusations are particularly jarring because of Mr. Saleem’s stature.
“In the South Asian community, he is like Billy Graham. He’s the
archbishop of Chicago,” said Omer Mozaffar, an Islamic scholar who
serves as the Muslim chaplain at Loyola University Chicago and who acted
as a mediator between Mr. Saleem and his first accuser last year.
Mr.
Saleem said in a brief phone interview that his accusers “are lying.”
He referred questions to his lawyer, Thomas T. Glasgow, who said that
after an internal investigation by the school, “I have not seen any
evidence to substantiate anything.” [...]
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