JUST days after a Stoke-on-Trent imam – Mohammed Hanif Khan, 41 – was remanded in custody after being charged with serious sexual offences against two young boys, an imam from a small Spanish mosque in El Algar (Murcia) has gone missing after being accused of sexually abusing minors.
A TV cameraman filming the El Agar Islamic centre
According to this report, a nationwide police hunt has been launched for the 47-year-old of Moroccan origin.
He has been accused of sexual abuse by the parents of five children who were in a group of 12 who attended religious classes in the town’s small mosque and cultural centre, located seven kilometres from Cartagena.
According to testimony given by the children, the teacher allegedly abused them in a room adjacent to the classroom.
The man arrived at the small mosque in El Algar in September as a substitute for the regular imam, who was absent during the period of Ramadan. He then remained there, continuing to teach religion classes.
The court of Cartagena, which has imposed judicial secrecy on the case, has called for the Murcia juvenile court to intervene.
A TV report, in Spanish, can be viewed here.
Meanwhile, it is reported here that an imam at a London mosque has been jailed for 12 weeks after he was convicted of assaulting a nine year old boy.
Gulam Hussain punched and kicked the boy and beat him with a bamboo stick.
Walthamstow Magistrates Court heard that Hussain, who was an Imam at The Jamia Mosque in Leyton, had previously been cautioned in 2005 for inflicting actual bodily harm on an 11-year-old. The Chair of the magistrates, Dr Paul Davis, told Hussain through an Urdu interpreter that he was being jailed, “for the protection of the public”.
Hussain’s mitigation was that “cultural differences” meant he had not realised the beating was wrong. Rosalind Fox, prosecuting, told the court that Hussain punished the child because he had been misbehaving. She said:
The defendant punched the boy on the shoulder and kicked him on the leg with the flat of his foot. The victim said he cried to get the defendant to stop.
In relation to the second incident, she told the court:
The defendant took a bamboo stick and told him to sit on the floor, then he hit his bare feet several times causing reddening on the feet, which made it painful to walk.
The court heard that the boy did not sustain any serious injury, but was embarrassed in front of his friends. Victoria Burgess, defending, told the magistrates that the parents of the victim had given the defendant permission to punish their son in this way, so he didn’t know it was wrong.
She said:
He believed that by having his father’s permission made it acceptable. Clearly it doesn’t and he realises that now. The offence originated out of cultural difference – a misunderstanding of what he could do with the permission of a parent.
A spokesman for the Waltham Forest Islamic Association which runs the mosque, Tariq Mohammed, said the Imam was suspended when police launched an investigation into the assault, and he will no longer work at the mosque. Mohammed said:
We condemned his actions from day one. This man has done wrong and the law has taken its course of action, and we support the law. He will not be part of our association now, or in the future.
Hat Tip: Alan (for the Spanish report).
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
February 15th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
No surprises here.
Any job that gives access to children will attract paedos.
February 15th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
The phrase ‘told Hussain through an Urdu interpreter’ sums up much of the problem. Ability to pass a fairly challenging English language test might do something to reduce the number of clowns from the back of beyond wielding far too much power over British kids.
February 15th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
Call me cynical, but in all likelihood that Urdu interpreter was probably just to further the impression of it being about a cultural difference. He didn’t speak the lingo and so didn’t understand that such behaviour is unacceptable.
February 15th, 2010 at 6:59 pm
“had previously been cautioned in 2005″
“he had not realised the beating was wrong”
Did the judge not recognise the contradiction here?
Of course he knew it was wrong. He also appears to have had more than enough time to learn the language!
February 15th, 2010 at 7:34 pm
The Spanish drove out Islam before. Hopefully they do it again and show us how it is done.
February 15th, 2010 at 7:46 pm
At least he went to prison. If that had been Cherie Blair he would have been let off because “he didn’t know it was wrong”(?).
February 15th, 2010 at 11:52 pm
Its amazing how people trust someone if he has a fancy, uncomfortable collar, or special type of dress & pointy hat, or job label.
When I meet one of these types I automatically distrust them. I’d trust a scruffy biker before a priest. Ya I know I’m lumping all under the same label. But then again how many bikers have been accused of child abuse and how many holey men?
February 16th, 2010 at 9:14 am
Nothing wrong with us long haired scruffies…
Far more likely to be against authority figures (corrupt or otherwise) and almost certainly never to be seen in church!
February 17th, 2010 at 1:40 am
Abrahamic religions teach that if a child becomes uncontrollably disobedient, the town should drag him or her outside the walls and stone him or her to death. Does it really surprise any of you that those who hang on to the old fundamentalist values, particularly with parental consent, would cane the bottom of a student’s feet?
I think the freethinker solution would be that the father be sat on his self righteous ass and have the soles of his feet caned until he cannot walk. Who knows. It may bring back flashes of his childhood, ahhh, the good old days.
NeoWolfe