Approaching Sodom > UNHRC Interfering in Internal Affairs; USAF and Gender Pronouns; Ex-Cop Wins Right to Criticize Xgenders; Governor Out to Destroy Families

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UN Human Rights Office to Litigate LGBT and Abortion

in Latin America

By Stefano Gennarini, J.D. | 

December 17, 2021

NEW YORK, December 17 (C-Fam) The UN human rights office has launched a new initiative to promote judicial activism on gender issues in Central and South America, including abortion and the LGBT agenda.

The UN human rights office established an organization to promote strategic litigation, legal reforms, and legal education on gender issues in Central and South America, regions where laws remain highly protective of children in the womb. While the organization, called the Latin American Network for Gender-based Strategic Litigation, focuses mostly on violence against women, it also promotes abortion as an international right following the recommendations of the UN human rights bodies.

The UN report on which the organization’s work is based describes “access to safe and legal abortion” as a human right and calls on advocates across Latin America to promote the denial of abortion as a criminal act of “reproductive violence.”

“To change laws, judicial practice, and the patriarchal culture that surrounds the investigation and punishment of crimes of sexual and gender based violence remains the central challenge,” said the coordinators of the group and American University professors Susana SáCouto and Claudia Martin in a blog.

The website of the organization promotes the rulings of Latin American courts promoting abortion as models to be followed, including controversial cases that have been dubbed judicial activism, or attempts by judges to impose their policy preferences in disregard of the will of the people as expressed by their elected representatives.

Despite much international pressure, Central and Latin America remain stubbornly pro-life, and democratic votes as well as referendums on abortion tend to yield pro-life results. That is why abortion advocates and the governments who back them are turning more and more to the judiciary and law-enforcement, even if this technically is a form of interfering in the internal affairs of countries, something prohibited by the UN Charter.

The initiative of the UN human rights office is only the latest effort of the UN office and powerful western countries to train judges, lawyers, activists, and law-enforcement personnel in the region to promote abortion.

Several UN agencies have long promoted the notion that denial of abortion should be a crime under international law. Ongoing programs from the UN human rights office as well as other programs carried out in the region with money from western donors link gender-based violence with the enforcement of abortion laws.

According to a 2014 Latin American Model Protocol for the investigation of gender-related killings of women prepared by the UN agencies, “deaths due to unsafe or clandestine abortions” should be considered “passive or indirect category of femicides.”

What about the deaths of the children being aborted? Are they not infanticide?

The UN rights office and UN agencies run workshops in the region for legal and law-enforcement personnel every year, according to reports prepared by the UN human rights office. In Central America, the regional offices of the UN human rights bureaucracy routinely promote abortion. And internal evaluations of the UN human rights office praise the role of “gender advisors” within the UN bureaucracy for promoting abortion and the LGBT agenda in Latin America and across the world.

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US Air Force embraces gender pronouns

19 Dec, 2021 16:27

FILE PHOTO © Reuters / Shannon Stapleton

The US Air Force has authorized the use of gender pronouns in electronic signature boxes, further embracing the controversial woke lexicon that other branches of government were criticized for adopting earlier this year.

The military division authorized using gender pronouns in a piece of correspondence earlier this month, which was made public over the weekend. The document states that while the “use of pronouns (he/him, she/her, or they/them) in an email signature is authorized,” it is “not required.”

The signature block in Air Force email templates is otherwise restricted to name, rank, service affiliation, duty title, organization name, phone numbers, and social media contact information. Under the new rules, pronouns will be added to that list.

It’s unclear if there was a specific incident that provoked the move on behalf of the Air Force or if this was simply part of the US military’s onward march toward wokeness under President Joe Biden and his Pentagon chief, Lloyd Austin, who has pledged to cleanse the military of “deep-rooted racism and discrimination.”

Biden’s pick to lead the Defense Department has ruffled some feathers in the military, as Austin has repeatedly suggested that some of the nation’s worst enemies “lie within our own ranks.” That image hasn’t improved with the department moving to dishonorably discharge those service members who choose not to receive the Covid-19 vaccine.

The Biden administration is determined to roll out the red carpet for LGBTQ recruits, running ads featuring a lesbian wedding and a Pride parade as well as ones featuring new military members describing themselves in ‘intersectional’ terms. Another video, this one the animated story of a real person, illustrated the upbringing of an army corporal with “two mommies.”

The administration’s embrace of woke-speak – especially gender pronouns – has attracted derision from political opponents. The State Department was mocked for celebrating ‘International Pronouns Day’ in October even as chaos seemingly broke loose around the world, from the ongoing failure to rescue Americans trapped in Afghanistan under Taliban rule to reports of China’s hypersonic missile launch. 

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‘Gender critical’ ex-cop wins free speech judgment

20 Dec, 2021 19:52

Police officers stand guard during a demonstration outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

October 28, 2021. © AFP / Tolga Akmen

A former police officer has scored a legal victory over a UK police policy that records “gender critical” views as “non-crime hate incidents,” after a court ruled it unlawfully interferes with the right to freedom of expression.

In January 2020, Harry Miller was visited by former colleagues at Humberside Police after a member of the public complained about his allegedly “transphobic” tweets. The complaint was designated as a non-crime hate incident and recorded on a national database.

On Monday, however, the Court of Appeal in London ruled that the guidance – issued by the College of Policing – had been unlawfully used, and noted it’d had a “chilling effect” on Miller’s freedom of speech. The presiding judges also found that, while the guidance had legitimate crime prevention purposes, those aims could be met through less intrusive means.

Following the verdict, Miller said that being offensive was one of the “cornerstones of freedom” and that it “is not, and cannot, and should not be an offence” unless “speech turns to malicious communication or targeted harassment against an individual.”

According to the guidance on hate crimes, a ‘non-crime hate incident’ can be “any non-crime incident which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice.”

The complaint against Miller was in relation to a number of his tweets about transgender issues as part of the debate about reforming the Gender Recognition Act 2004. In one tweet, he reportedly wrote, “I was assigned mammal at birth, but my orientation is fish. Don’t mis-species me.”

Last year, the High Court had upheld Miller’s challenge against Humberside Police’s actions, ruling that they were a “disproportionate interference” with his right to free expression. However, it dismissed his case against the guidance on the grounds that it “serves legitimate purposes and is not disproportionate.”

However, Justice Victoria Sharp said on Monday that the “recording of non-crime hate incidents is plainly an interference with freedom of expression” and that the “knowledge that such matters are being recorded and stored in a police database is likely to have a serious ‘chilling effect’ on public debate.”

Mr Miller belongs to a group of people who could easily be stigmatized for their opinions and be subject to complaints by those offended by his views.

After the ruling, Assistant Chief Constable Iain Raphael of the College of Policing said it had tried to strike a balance “between the need to protect vulnerable people and communities from harm with the need to facilitate and protect freedom of speech.”

This is a brilliant judgment, although if Miller was an active policeman I can see problems with it.

Illinois Governor Signs Law Letting Teen Girls Get an Abortion

without Parents Knowing

Michael Foust | 

ChristianHeadlines.com Contributor | 

Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Saying he was “protecting reproductive rights,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill into law Friday that allows teenage girls to obtain an abortion without notifying their parents.

The new law, dubbed the “Youth Health and Safety Act” (HB 370), repeals a 1995 law that required minors to notify their parent or guardian 48 hours prior to having an abortion.

“With reproductive rights under attack across the nation, Illinois is once again establishing itself as a leader in ensuring access to healthcare services,” Pritzker said. “This repeal was essential, because it was the most vulnerable pregnant minors who were punished by this law: victims of rape and physical abuse in unsafe homes.”

Despite Pritzker’s reasoning, the 1995 law included an exception for victims of sexual abuse. It also allowed minors to petition for a court waiver if, for example, the minor came from an abusive home.

The new law’s legislative findings pointed to abortion restrictions in Mississippi and Texas and asserted that Illinois “again is called to be an example for the nation in the protection of reproductive health care” while also “working to establish healthy family communications, protecting the health and safety of youth including those who are pregnant and parenting, and investing in individuals throughout their lives.”

Of course, this law does the complete opposite. Communications breakdown between parents and children when one starts to lie to the other. This law encourages that to happen.

Supporters of the 1995 law, though, said the new law harms parent-child relationships.

“I am the father of a teenage girl. I love my daughter, and I care very deeply about what goes on in her life,” Jon Jones, a pastor at the Tinley Park campus of Christian Life Center in Illinois, said in urging legislators to back the ‘95 law. “If she were to get pregnant and consider an abortion, I would want to know so my wife and I could help her deal with the unexpected situation because we love her. We feel it is our duty to protect and guide her. We are family, and we deal with matters together. The state should not seek to interfere with our relationship.”

“The current law requiring that a parent or an adult family member be notified when a minor girl is seeking an abortion to us just makes common sense in a supportive family, which is the bedrock of society,” Jones said.

A March 2021 poll found that 72 percent of Illinois voters – including 58 percent of pro-choice voters – supported the parental notification law.

But, of course, the governor knows better!

The legislative findings of the 1995 law said, “the medical, emotional, and psychological consequences of abortion are sometimes serious and long-lasting, and immature minors often lack the ability to make fully informed choices that consider both the immediate and long-range consequences.”

The new law takes effect on January 1, 2024.

There's still time to reverse it!

Dennis Hastert’s Alleged Victim Wants to Change Law on Child Sex Abuse

by Chris White, Law Newz

A man who claims he was a victim of sexual abuse in his teens by disgraced former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is now asking legislators in Illinois to change the statute of limitations on sex crimes.

Scott Cross claims he was sexually abused by Hastert when he was 17-years-old. ABC News reports Cross testified before Illinois lawmakers on Tuesday, asking them to change the statute of limitations to ensure a “monster” like Hastert is never allowed to be let off the hook for sex crimes again.

“Hastert inflicted unbelievable pain on the lives of the youth he was entrusted to care for, yet he got a slap on the wrist… As hard as it is to continue to live through the events of the past, the laws of Illinois and across the country have to change,” Cross testified, according to ABC News.

The statute of limitations in Illinois for sex crimes against minors generally runs out 20 years after an alleged victim’s 18th birthday. Cross is now asking legislators to reconsider whether a statute of limitations is appropriate in sex abuse cases.

“It should offend everyone’s faith in the judicial system that Illinois laws today would still allow sexual child molesters to avoid prosecution from heinous acts of sexual abuse because a survivor didn’t come forward in time,” Cross said during his testimony.

He added, “[Sexual predators] know no bounds, have no decency and are devoid of morals. That’s why Illinois General Assembly should provide sexual predators no safe harbor based on the law based on arbitrary deadlines established by the stroke of a pen.”

However, critics say removing the statute of limitations would likely be unconstitutional. In fact, a prominent Chicago defense lawyer told the news outlet the existing 20-year statute of limitations may already be unconstitutional.

“I personally find the long statute of limitations unconstitutional in that it violates equal protection of the law and due process law both found in the 14th Amendment,” defense attorney Michael Ettinger explained. “How does anyone defend themselves against an allegation of misconduct 20-plus years ago? Put an alibi defense together 20 years later? Statutes of limitations are enacted for that very reason.”

The very nature of child sex abuse means most people will not be able to deal with the sexual abuse in less than 20 years at a level that will allow them to go to court. So, while it may be unfair to ask a pervert to try and defend himself 20 or 30 years later, it is even more unfair to tell the victim that he has no redress in court because he's 39 or 40 years old.

To make matters worse, the more extreme the child sex abuse, the less likely the victim will disclose in time to meet the statute of limitations deadline. Consequently, the worse the criminal behaviour, the more likely the pervert is liable to get away scott-free (pardon the pun). 

There ought to be a place in criminal law where the victims have rights that exceed the criminal's, rather than the other way about.

Illinois Attorney General Asks to End Statute of Limitations for Child Sexual Abuse

Wake up Illinois!

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan

By Marcia Lense

CHICAGO, Ill. (KWQC) – Attorney General Lisa Madigan and the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault are calling on on Illinois lawmakers to eliminate the statute of limitations for felony criminal sexual assault and sexual abuse crimes against children.

Madigan and the advocacy group say Illinois law should allow children who have been victims of sexual assault and abuse the time to come forward and report their crimes.

The statement was issued in wake of the sentencing of former House Speaker and Illinois Congressman Dennis Hastert. This week, He was sentenced to 15 months in a federal hush-money case. He pleaded guilty to breaking banking law while trying to pay someone millions to conceal sexual abuse that occurred while he was a high school coach.

He was never charged with child sex abuse despite admitting it, because the statute of limitations had run out. Were it not for the hush-money, he would never have served a moment in jail.

Illinois needs to get rid of this dumb and cruel law that re-victimizes child sex abuse survivors. And so does every other jurisdiction that still has one.

Another Pastor Charged With Child Sex Abuse

It's just disgraceful how many times I report stories of Pastors sexually abusing children

C'mon, if you have sexual desires for children, get some help, now,

 for God's sake

NORTH AURORA, Illinois (WLS) -- A pastor at a North Aurora church was charged with sexually abusing a child, according to the Kane County State's Attorney's Office.

Ralphael Robinson, 39, pastor of the Kingdom Church in the 100-block of South Lincolnway, allegedly sexually abused a victim under the age of 18 at the church, authorities said.

Robinson faces one felony count of criminal sexual assault and one felony count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. His bail was set at $100,000 and if he makes bond he will be prohibited from having contact with the victim or any person under the age of 17, the state's attorney's office said.

He is due to return to court on April 28.

North Aurora, Illinois

Another Infuriatingly Sweet Plea Deal for a Pedophile

Illinois man gets 6½ years in prison for child sex abuse

Cesario Hernandez-Lozano, 31, of the 7100 block of Springbrook Drive in Aurora was sentenced to 6½ years in prison this week after admitting to sexually abusing a girl younger than 13 that he knew, according to Kane County court records.

Harry Hitzeman

An Aurora man was sentenced to 6½ years in prison this week after admitting to sexually abusing a girl younger than 13 that he knew, according to Kane County court records.

Cesario Hernandez-Lozano, 31, of the 7100 block of Springbrook Drive, had been held at the Kane County jail since his arrest in January 2014.

He pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a child younger than 13, a felony that carries a prison term of three to seven years, in exchange for prosecutors dismissing the most severe charge of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child younger than 13, which is punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

Why would a prosecutor and a judge agree to this? That's absurd! He'll end up serving less than 1/5th of the sentence he could have received.

Kane County Judge James Hallock accepted the plea agreement, which also requires Hernandez-Lozano to pay $1,780 in fines, register as a sex offender and have no contact with the victim.

Hernandez-Lozano was accused of sexually assaulting and molesting the girl from May 2012 through Jan. 16, 2014, shortly before his arrest, court records show.

Hernandez-Lozano must serve 85 percent of the remainder of his sentence.

So, for more than a year and a half he molested this little girl, and he gets to plead to a single count of CSA? How crazy is that? Now, he has to serve 66 months out of 78 before parole; that's 3 years 5 months from now. The maximum age the victim could be then would be 17. How can the prosecutor and the judge not see that they are putting her in danger?

2nd Woman, 3rd Person Sentenced for Incest Against 3 Children

Michigan woman sentenced in child sex abuse case

JACKSON COUNTY, Illinois
A Michigan woman was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to criminal sexual assault Friday in Jackson County, Illinois, according to the state's attorney's office.

The attorney's office says 35-year-old Armanda Gordon, of Ludington, Michigan, pleaded guilty to the felony charge on Nov. 18. The charge stems from an investigation into allegations of the sexual abuse of two children. In that investigation, the children said Robert Pleasant, with whom the attorney's office says Gordon was in a relationship, abused them sexually over a number of years. Pleasant was sentenced last week to 75 years in prison.

The attorney's office says one of the children also said Gordon committed acts of sexual abuse against the child. The attorney's office says Gordon admitted to participating in the abuse between 2003 and 2010, directed by Pleasant. 

Gordon was sentenced to serve six years in prison. She will have to serve at least 85 percent of that sentence, followed by a mandatory supervised release period of three years to natural life. She will also have to register as a sex offender for life. 

Robert Pleasant

Husband, wife charged with child sex assault

Jackson County
Jun 19, 2014  0
A husband and wife living in Wolf Lake, both formerly of Murphysboro, were arrested Wednesday night on sex crime charges.

Robert Pleasant, 36, faces two counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child. 

Bethany Pleasant, 25, faces one count of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and criminal sexual assault. 

They were arrested at their residence in Wolf Lake on outstanding Jackson County warrants.

The warrants were obtained after a nearly month-long investigation of alleged sexual abuse involving three minors. 

Two of the minors are Robert Pleasant's biological children. The other is his ex-girlfriend's child, who now lives in Michigan. 

His biological children were not currently living with the couple.

Both were taken to Jackson County Jail. Each has a $1 million bond.

Murphysboro Police, DCFS and the Michigan Child Protective Services Agency conducted the initial investigation. Union and Jackson County sheriff's offices and Illinois State Police assisted in the apprehension of the suspects.

Bethany Pleasant

Wolf Lake, IL woman sentenced for criminal sexual assault

Updated: Feb 03, 2015 2:18 PM PST
Amber Ruch

WOLF LAKE, IL (KFVS) -
A Wolf Lake, Illinois woman has been sentenced for criminal sexual assault.

According to Michael C. Carr, Jackson County State's Attorney, Bethany R. Pleasant, 25, was sentenced to prison on Monday, Feb. 2.

Pleasant entered a guilty plea on Nov. 13 to criminal sexual assault, a class 1 felony.

Carr said on Feb. 2, after a lengthy sentencing hearing, Pleasant was sentenced to 12 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. This sentence is subject to 85 percent truth-in-sentencing legislation, meaning she must serve at least 85 percent of the sentence.

Pleasant will serve three years to her natural life of mandatory supervised release after her release from the IDOC. She will also have to register as a sex offender for the rest of her natural life.

Starting in May 2014, officers and detectives with the Murphysboro Police  Department started a large-scale investigation into alleged inappropriate sexual contact between Pleasant and the victim, who was about 13 years old when the acts happened. The victim told authorities about the acts of sexual conduct.

Detectives also interviewed several witnesses and executed some search warrants related to the investigation.

According to Carr, a large amount of digital evidence was collected during the investigation, which helped investigators with corroborating the abuse allegations.

On June 18, 2014, Pleasant was taken into custody.

The investigation was conducted by the Murphysboro Police Department. Assistant State's Attorney Casey Bloodworth prosecuted this case.

A Pastor, A Teacher and 2 Other American Perverts in News Today

Iowa man sentenced to prison for child sex abuse

KWWL
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) - A 48-year-old Council Bluffs man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for sexually abusing a teenage girl.

Steven Cain

The Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil reports (http://bit.ly/1N37YC2 ) that Steven Cain pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree sexual abuse. In exchange, prosecutors dropped other sexual abuse charges against him.

Police say the abuse started in 2006 and continued until last year. Cain's victim is now 18.

So she was 9 years old when it started. 20 years is not enough!

During a search of Cain's home, investigators found naked pictures of the victim among Cain's collection of pornography.

Once Cain is released from prison, he will have to register as sex offender and remain on parole for the rest of his life.

Forest City is about 200 km north of Des Moines

Iowa ex-teacher to plead guilty in child sex abuse case

KWWL
Mary Pieper
FOREST CITY, Iowa (AP) - Court records show a former North Iowa Community School District kindergarten teacher accused of inappropriately touching a child will plead guilty in the case.

Allen Twait

The Mason City Globe Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/1N35QKo ) that 62-year-old Allen Twait, of Forest City, will enter the plea at a hearing set for Tuesday. Online court records to not indicate to what charge Twait will plead guilty.

He had been set to be tried on Dec. 9 in Winnebago County District Court on a charge of lascivious acts with a child.

Prosecutors say a criminal complaint alleges Twait fondled a child under 14 last February, but that the incident was not alleged to have occurred at the school where Twait worked.

Twait was placed on administrative leave after he was charged.

Man arrested in California for child sex abuse

Amanda Gomez, Anchor, KION

SALINAS, Calif. -
Salinas police officers have arrested a man accused of sexually abusing children.

According to police, one victim was 11-years-old when the abuse began.

There are also two other victims who are minors. One victim is 17-years-old and the other is 11-years-old. Detectives are now looking into the possibility of a fourth victim.

39-year-old Guadalupe Martin was taken into custody Friday night.

Martin is in the Monterey County Jail and is facing multiple counts of child molestation.


His bail has been set at $2 million.

Illinois church pastor pleads not guilty to 

child sex abuse

Samuel Kee, 39, of Lake Zurich, a former Deerfield church pastor,
is charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving a child and
aggravated criminal sexual assault of a child. (Deerfield police photo)

Duaa Eldeib and Jim Newton
Tribune Newspapers

Church pastor accused of sexually abusing girl between 13 and 17 years old

A pastor at an evangelical church in Deerfield was charged with the sexual abuse of a minor after he approached police and confessed to the inappropriate relationship, authorities said.

The pastor, Samuel Kee, "just walked into the police station and said he had to confess to a crime," Deerfield Deputy police Chief Tom Keane said. "We had to kind of work backward and locate the victim and talk to the victim and build the case."

Deerfield, IL

Kee, 39, who has since resigned from the North Suburban Evangelical Free Church, appeared Wednesday in Lake County court, where he pleaded not guilty to aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

Authorities said the allegations involve a 16-year-old girl who was a member of the church. Kee was charged Oct. 15, a day after police said he first contacted them.

Ten days later, the church's Elder Board accepted Kee's resignation from his role as pastor of teaching and discipleship, according to a statement released by the church.

The statement said the church could not provide further comment on the charges, adding: "Church officials are fully cooperating with the Deerfield police on their investigation."

Kee is free from custody after posting 10 percent of a $300,000 bond.

According to a court document filed by Kee's defense, he has asked to be allowed to clear out his desk at the church because the senior pastor requested Kee do so. One of Kee's bond requirements is that he have no contact with the church.


A woman who answered the door Wednesday at Kee's Lake Zurich home said he was not there and declined to comment.

Pedophile Sentenced After Victim Saw a Presentation from Erin's Law

40 years for Illinois man's 'systematic' child sex abuse

By CHELSEA McDOUGALL
Northwest Herald

WOODSTOCK – A Lake in the Hills man will spend the next three decades behind bars under a sentence issued Thursday for what a prosecutor described as “systematic” sexual abuse of two young family members.

Otto L. Bobadilla was sentenced to a total of 40 years, but he could be released in about 34 years. According to prosecutors, 48-year-old Bobadilla had sexual encounters with two female family members over a number of years.

The abuse began when the girls were 7 and 9 years old and happened at least three times a week. One of the girls alerted authorities after a class presentation, Assistant State’s Attorney Robert Zalud said.

That class presentation was a function of Erin's Law. Illinois is Erin's home state and the first to adopt Erin's Law.

Bobadilla later made admissions to Lake in the Hills police.

Lake in the Hills, Illinois

“I know what it feels like to be in fear and to be hurt all the time,” one of the victims said in a statement before the judge.

Zalud called him an “absolute horror of a human being.”

“He used them like sex toys,” Zalud said. “… It boils the blood to speak about.”

Zalud said Bobadilla in a sex offender evaluation blamed the two girls for “coming on to him.”

Bobadilla’s attorney Assistant Public Defender Rick Behof said Bobadilla didn’t mean that, and it “couldn’t be further from the truth.”

“Ever since I first met Mr. Bobadilla, not one time did he blame [the victims],” Behof said, later pointing out that his client took responsibility for his actions by pleading guilty.

The sentence was issued by McHenry County Judge Sharon Prather.

“You probably caused irreparable damage to those girls,” Prather said.

It was the third significant sentence Prather handed out in the past two weeks on unrelated sex cases. On April 9, Jeffrey Vesely was sentenced to 38 years in prison, and Sandro Gomez to 22 years. Bobadilla’s 40-year sentence brings the total to 100 years.

Good job Judge Prather, you're my hero today. Erin Merryn is my hero of the decade.

Sexual Abuse Allegations Against Imam Stir Rifts in Insular Illinois Community

A woman  says she was sexually assaulted by Mohammad Abdullah Saleem,
an imam who headed the Islamic school where she worked in Illinois

ELGIN, Illinois — She ordinarily did not wear a veil. But it was required at the Islamic school where she worked, and she remembers being surprised when the head of the school, a conservative imam, suggested that she remove it.

When the imam, Mohammad Abdullah Saleem, came into her office, she said, he would sometimes touch her cheek or put an arm around her shoulder. Mr. Saleem was revered in her close-knit community, and she did not object at first. But simply being alone together represented a forbidden intimacy, and looking back, she said those first gestures should have been more alarming.

“It’s not something that gets done,” the 23-year-old woman said recently. “Men and women don’t even shake hands.”

Over time, she said the touching became more aggressive, reaching a point that she did something almost unheard-of in her community. She told people: her family, a social worker, an Islamic scholar.
Recently, she went to the police. As word spread of what she had told them, three other women came forward, telling detectives that as young girls they had been molested by Mr. Saleem.

Mohammad Abdullah Saleem in a screen shot from a
YouTube video  that has since been removed the site

In the next few days, the women will name Mr. Saleem in a lawsuit that accuses him of decades of assault and child sex abuse, according to Steven A. Denny, their lawyer. But the accusations are already widely known and deeply felt within the community of Indian and Pakistani Muslim immigrants and their families in the Chicago area for whom the Institute of Islamic Education, the school that Mr. Saleem founded, is a focal point. They have highlighted the kinds of tensions that divide a small, cloistered segment of Mr. Saleem’s followers from a more assimilated generation that bristles at the notion that such matters should be handled privately.

Abuse allegations against Catholic priests and Jewish rabbis have brought similar anguish to insular communities suddenly exposed to outsiders, in a crisis. But the Chicago case comes with added baggage in a community where discussion of sex is taboo and many girls are forbidden to attend school health classes. Dating is uncommon or secretive, many marriages are arranged, and a blemish on a young woman’s reputation can render her unmarriageable.

The accusations are particularly jarring because of Mr. Saleem’s stature. “In the South Asian community, he is like Billy Graham. He’s the archbishop of Chicago,” said Omer Mozaffar, an Islamic scholar who serves as the Muslim chaplain at Loyola University Chicago and who acted as a mediator between Mr. Saleem and his first accuser last year.

Mr. Saleem said in a brief phone interview that his accusers “are lying.” He referred questions to his lawyer, Thomas T. Glasgow, who said that after an internal investigation by the school, “I have not seen any evidence to substantiate anything.”

In a statement posted on its website, the Institute of Islamic Education attributed the accusations to “individuals outside our community” seeking to discredit the school’s beliefs. “The individuals involved do not wish to seek privacy and resolution, but are actively seeking publicity for their claims,” the statement said, which has since been removed from the site.

The Institute of Islamic Education in Elgin, Ill.

Mr. Saleem, 75, was part of a generation of immigrants from India and Pakistan who settled in the Chicago area in the 1970s and 1980s. They shared apartments, prayed in a basement mosque and socialized almost exclusively among one another. Mr. Saleem was a student of the Deobandi school, a movement originating in India that espouses a fundamentalist version of Islam. He had the title maulana, an honorific given to prominent scholars. Friends let him stay in a spare room, where he taught children the Quran.

The community retained many of its beliefs and customs. Purity and honor were paramount. Girls wore head scarves, kept their arms and legs covered, and were excused from school health classes where puberty and reproduction were discussed. In some families, talking about sex in any way was unthinkable.

“A lot of the attitudes around sexuality and marriage, I would literally describe them as ultra-Victorian,” said Hamzah Maqbul, the imam of a mosque in Rockford, a nearby city.

Mr. Saleem founded his school in 1989 to teach students to memorize the Quran “in accordance with the Islamic values and traditions of the earlier periods of Islam,” according to its bylaws. It has grown into one of the country’s most prominent schools of its kind and one of the few in which the students, typically ages 10 to 17, are boarded for several years. Subjects like math and English are offered, but primarily through computer programs and never at the expense of Quran studies. The school is not recognized by the state and does not award accredited diplomas.

As the Muslim community grew, most families assimilated, finding no conflict between their faith and their adopted homeland, said Muhammad Shamsi, 70, who helped organize the school but is no longer involved with it. Raising children in America accelerated that process, he said.

Omer Mozaffar leading a prayer service at the American Islamic College.
Mr. Mozaffar acted as a mediator between Mohammad Abdullah Saleem
and his first accuser last year

But others, including some of Mr. Saleem’s most devoted followers, resisted, said Mr. Mozaffar, the scholar and Loyola chaplain. “The fear is of becoming Americanized,” he said. “And that includes a decline in morality, losing a person’s Islam, a person’s faith. And so faith gets mixed in with culture.”

The young woman who first accused Mr. Saleem was born in the United States to Indian parents and graduated from an American college. She hoped the secretarial job at the school would be a springboard to a corporate human resources position.

While she was making copies in April, she said, Mr. Saleem pulled her onto his lap and held her there, lifting her dress as he groped her. “I just looked at the wall or the ceiling and just kept saying, ‘This is very uncomfortable,’ ” she said. After he left, she said, she found something sticky on the black pants she wore beneath her dress.

She confided in her cousin, her mother and a social worker, and ultimately Mr. Mozaffar. She quit her job, and though she said she was reluctant to press the issue, she wanted an admission and an apology. Mr. Mozaffar agreed to mediate.

Hanging over the entire process was the threat that the allegations would destroy her reputation. Such concerns are common in abuse cases but are particularly acute in a community that values virginity so highly, said Nadiah Mohajir, executive director of Heart Women and Girls, a sexual health advocacy group for Muslim women.

Nadiah Mohajir, executive director of Heart Women and Girls,
a sexual health advocacy group for Muslim women

“There is this fear of ‘Who’s going to marry you now?’ ” she said. “We can say, ‘You don’t want a man who would hold that against you.’ But in practice, that decreases their pool so much that it’s completely unfair to even say.”

Ms. Mohajir said educating Muslim women about sexual health could make people so uncomfortable that she did not talk about her job with some family members. Getting her programs accepted in mosques has been difficult, she said, and fund-raising is “incredibly challenging.”

Mr. Mozaffar said he had ultimately brokered a settlement in which Mr. Saleem signed a handwritten document saying he had apologized and “admitted to his actions.” But the document does not specify what actions. Mr. Saleem indicated that he was apologizing for the sin of zina, or consensual extramarital sexual contact, Mr. Mozaffar said.

That agreement was supposed to end things, but word spread through the community, and Mr. Mozaffar addressed them on his blog, writing that it was “public knowledge” what Mr. Saleem had done and that he had “admitted the details to me, face to face.”

Angry commenters accused him of undermining Mr. Saleem. “Dear brothers and sisters this matter does not concern you,” one wrote. “Regardless if the allegations are true or false he is a much better Muslim than all of us. Please stop spreading information regarding him. He has reached a very old age. You should be instead focusing on how you can spend more time in his presence.”

A Community Mediator

acted as a mediator last year when a woman accused a prominent local imam,
Mohammad Abdullah Saleem, of sexual assault

Mr. Mozaffar deleted his post, but not before two women in their 40s saw it and told advocates that Mr. Saleem had abused them in the early 1980s, when he was teaching from his bedroom. One woman said Mr. Saleem began touching her when she was 12. Once, she said, he sat on a bed, covered in a brown blanket, and put her hand on his genitals while he taught her a chapter of the Quran called al-Qari’a, about the Day of Judgment when people will be held to account for their good and evil deeds.

“The Quran is right on top of us and he is doing this,” she said. “What disrespect he had in front of the Quran.”

A second woman said that, when she was in sixth grade, Mr. Saleem kissed her and touched her, remarking, “You’re really growing up.”

The new allegations prompted the former secretary to go to the police, despite the concerns of some family members. She took with her the pants with the dry, white stain. “If this happened in my parents’ generation, nobody would’ve ever found out,” she said.

The Elgin police and prosecutors have interviewed the three women. A fourth, who declined to be interviewed, told the authorities that Mr. Saleem molested her while she was a student in 2002 and 2003, according to Mr. Denny, her lawyer. Mr. Glasgow, the lawyer for Mr. Saleem, said he was unaware of these allegations. The statute of limitations has expired on the claims dating to the 1980s.

“It’s an ongoing investigation into allegations of sexual offenses,” said Cmdr. Ana Lalley of the Elgin police.

Mr. Saleem said in the interview that he was still teaching at the school, though he officially retired in October, and that his son Ubaidulla had replaced him. “These are good, peaceful, kind, conscientious people trying to do the right thing in the face of some pretty nasty allegations against a former employee,” Mr. Glasgow, the lawyer, said.

Mr. Mozaffar said he had heard criticism that he had brought negative attention on Muslims at a time when terrorism fears have made many Americans suspicious of them. “There is a notion that we are already under assault. Why add more fuel?” he said.

But he said none of this had to do with Islam. “The Catholics aren’t the only ones who have pedophiles, and the Muslims aren’t the only ones who have terrorists,” he said.

No, just 99.99% of terrorists are Muslim. That other 0.01% is important.