Although the Catholic Church earns top honors for being the most prolific in terms of the amount of pedophiles in their midst, this doesn’t mean it’s the only religion that has child molesters. Islam too has its fair share, as I’m sure do other religions. But I recently wrote abut a Swedish Imam who was accused of molesting a child, now this story comes from Dubai.
Although initially denying he had molested an 8-year-old American boy, a 26-year-old imam from India eventually admitted he had actually abused the boy, and for that he could spend three years in jail. Once he is done with that, he will be deported, as is usually the case in Dubai. The abuse took place in a Mosque while teaching the boy and his older brother the Quran.
Apparently the father had hired him to teach his boys.
According to the chargesheet, prosecutors said Z.H. lured the boy to a private room adjacent to the mosque where he hugged him and kissed him on his cheeks. The boy’s American father testified that he agreed with Z.H. to teach the Quran to his children for Dh600 per month.
“On the day of the incident, I asked Z.H. to take good care of my boys because I was travelling to America. Later, my son informed me over the phone that the imam abused him sexually,” the father alleged in his prosecution statement.
An Emirati corporal told prosecutors: “During questioning, the father claimed that he ordered his children not to go to the mosque and wait for his return… the elder brother claimed that the imam asked him to read the Quran in a distant corner and took his brother to a side room. Ten minutes later, claimed the elder brother, his younger brother rushed into the mosque and asked him to leave… he seemed frightened and alleged that he was molested.”
The policeman who interrogated the imam, said that after denying the accusations, he confessed, saying “.. that during the molestation, the boy hit him with his elbow and escaped.”
It’s ironic that a man who molests a young boy gets a mere 3 year jail sentence, and a couple gets a month in jail for an innocent peck on the cheek. But imam or not, why would a father leave his children with the man, and where was the mother? I guess the moral of the story is that even men who are supposed to be moral rarely are.
