CHICAGO (AP) – The longtime head of a suburban Chicago Islamic school has been arrested and charged with sexually abusing a 23-year-old woman who worked at the school, police said Tuesday.
Mohammad Abdullah Saleem, 75, of Gilberts, was arrested Sunday without incident and is charged with felony criminal sexual abuse, the Elgin Police Department said in a news release. The well-known Islamic scholar, or imam, is due to appear in Cook County bond court on Tuesday in Rolling Meadows.
Police with Elgin’s Major Investigation Division said they started investigating Saleem after the woman contacted authorities in December. She told them the abuse happened while she was working at the Institute of Islamic Education in Elgin in April 2014.
The school teaches students grades six through 12 and is located 25 miles northwest of Chicago.
No one answered the phone at the school Tuesday morning. A phone number listed under Saleem’s name in Gilberts was disconnected.