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A religious leader at a mosque in Jamaica, Queens, stands accused of the most grotesque betrayal imaginable: the sexual abuse of children placed in his care. According to the New York Police Department, Tajul Islam, 55, was arrested on the night of Monday, April 27, by detectives from the Queens Child Abuse Squad.
He was booked at the 113th Precinct for sexual offenses involving multiple victims, including two ten-year-old girls, inside his own Masjid Bilal Queens Islamic Center at 121-03 Sutphin Boulevard.
Islam was arraigned the following day in Queens Criminal Court on a complaint charging him with four counts of sexual abuse in the first degree, four counts of forcible touching, and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child. The details, as laid out in the criminal complaint, are as stark as they are sickening. Sometime between 5:30 and 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 21, inside the storefront mosque, Islam is alleged to have approached a ten-year-old girl and grabbed her breast and touched her inner thigh. He is said to have committed the same act at around 6 p.m. on Monday, April 27, with another ten-year-old girl. Members of the NYPD’s Queens Child Abuse Squad arrested him roughly four hours later. His mosque sits on Sutphin Boulevard, two blocks west of Baisley Pond Park.
At his arraignment on April 28 before Queens Criminal Court Judge Sharifa Nasser-Cuellar, Islam pleaded not guilty. Bail was set at $25,000 cash and $25,000 bond, with temporary orders of protection issued. He has no prior arrests. The NYPD, rightly, has put out a call for any other potential victims to come forward.
This is not some abstract failing of “society” or a random crime. It is the alleged violation of the vulnerable by a man whose authority derived, at least in part, from his position as a religious leader in a community mosque.
Islam was arraigned the following day in Queens Criminal Court on a complaint charging him with four counts of sexual abuse in the first degree, four counts of forcible touching, and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child. The details, as laid out in the criminal complaint, are as stark as they are sickening. Sometime between 5:30 and 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 21, inside the storefront mosque, Islam is alleged to have approached a ten-year-old girl and grabbed her breast and touched her inner thigh. He is said to have committed the same act at around 6 p.m. on Monday, April 27, with another ten-year-old girl. Members of the NYPD’s Queens Child Abuse Squad arrested him roughly four hours later. His mosque sits on Sutphin Boulevard, two blocks west of Baisley Pond Park.
At his arraignment on April 28 before Queens Criminal Court Judge Sharifa Nasser-Cuellar, Islam pleaded not guilty. Bail was set at $25,000 cash and $25,000 bond, with temporary orders of protection issued. He has no prior arrests. The NYPD, rightly, has put out a call for any other potential victims to come forward.
This is not some abstract failing of “society” or a random crime. It is the alleged violation of the vulnerable by a man whose authority derived, at least in part, from his position as a religious leader in a community mosque.
Islam was taken into custody on Monday by the Queens Child Abuse Squad. He has been charged with sexual abuse, forcible touching, and endangering the welfare of a child, according to police. He is a leader at the Masjid Bilal Queens Islamic Center in Jamaica.
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