Plea Deal Possible for Elgin Islamic Leader Accused of Sexual Abuse

By George Houde
Courier-News
August 22, 2016

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/elgin-courier-news/news/ct-elgin-imam-sex-abuse-case-met-20160822-story.html

A possible plea deal is under consideration for the founder of an Islamic school accused of sexual abusing a former student and a former employee.

Mohammed Abdullah Saleem, an imam who founded the Institute of Islamic Education in Elgin, is charged with molesting a female student dozens of times between 2001 and 2003, when she was a student at the school and he was principal.

That allegation of aggravated criminal sexual abuse came after Saleem, 77, had already been charged with groping a woman who worked for him at the school.

Saleem was in Cook County Circuit Court on the case on Monday, arriving in a wheelchair. And though no plea deal was announced after a private conference Judge James Karahalios held with prosecutors and defense attorneys, the judge has called the parties back for another hearing Tuesday.

If the case goes to trial, Saleem faces not just the prospect of the two alleged victims testifying against him in open court, potentially in explicit detail. Karahalios has also ruled that he will allow testimony from two other women who say they also were groped by the imam — a turn that presumably puts more pressure on Saleem to strike a plea deal.

Saleem, who emigrated from India decades ago and now lives in Gilberts, is well-known in the South Asian Muslim community and espouses a conservative form of Islam that forbids men and women who are not married to be alone together in secluded spaces. His arrest shocked members of his religious community and has prompted some Islamic groups to speak out against him. He also has many supporters among his followers, a number of whom have been present at his pretrial hearings. The imam is free on bond pending trial.

Imam Mohammed Abdullah Saleem is wheeled into court in Rolling Meadows on Aug. 22, 2016. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

The imam was first arrested in February 2015 after a 23-year-old woman told authorities that he forced her to sit on his lap and fondled her when the two were alone in his office at the Elgin school.

That October, authorities lodged additional charges against Saleem that he molested a female student at the institute, a boarding school. Authorities similarly allege that the imam made the girl sit on his lap and touched her in a sexual manner. He has pleaded not guilty.

George Houde is a freelance reporter.