KYRGYZSTAN
Huffington Post
Harris Zafar
Last week, the Grand Mufti of Kyrgyzstan was forced to resign amidst allegations of adultery with a woman he says is his second wife. He claimed he had the proper Islamic marriage ceremony with her, but since Article 153 of Kyrgyzstan’s criminal code forbids polygamy, this woman could not have legally been a second wife. Thus came allegations of adultery and calls for his resignation.
It is disappointing to see another religious leader embroiled in a sex scandal. People may remember popular evangelical Christian icon Jim Bakker, whose sexual misconduct with a church secretary was revealed in 1987, followed by convictions of fraud and conspiracy that led to imprisonment. World-famous Christian leader Jimmy Swaggart criticized Bakker for his infidelity but later hypocritically availed the services of a prostitute on multiple occasions and even publicly apologized for having sinned. Ted Haggart — president of the National Association of Evangelicals — was forced to resign in 2006 after it was discovered that he paid a male masseur for sex and crystal methamphetamine for three years. The Catholic sexual abuse scandal exposed priests and even archbishops internationally who had sexually abused their congregants. The 2004 John Jay report found that in the U.S. alone 4,392 priests and deacons were accused of sexually abusing 10,667 victims (all under the age of 18) between 1950 and 2002. Also, two rabbis who allegedly sexually abused more than 20 young students of Yeshiva University High School are among a list of Jewish leaders accused of sexual misconduct — including Rabbi Alan J. Shneur Horowitz, Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman, Rabbi Yehudah Friedlander and many others.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.