A well known Islamic religious leader in Texas has been busted for sexually assaulting four children — although authorities imagine he’s victimized others.
Mohamed Omar Ali, a 59-year-old Somali nationwide, was arrested Friday on prices of sexual assault of a kid and sexual indecency of a kid after an investigation was launched in September, Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls instructed reporters at a press convention Monday.
Nehls described Ali as a preferred “religious leader” who hung out at a number of mosques in Fort Bend County, in addition to in higher Houston. Investigators imagine Ali additionally victimized different children relationship again to 2013 after he arrived in the US.
“We do know that there are different victims on the market,” Nehls stated. “And it’s our plea at this time to these victims to please attain out to us so we are able to conduct additional investigation.”
Ali met his alleged victims by their dad and mom, who invited him into their properties and paid him to show their children the Quran, Detective Michael Alexander stated.
All of Ali’s purported victims had been juveniles on the time of the alleged abuse, in line with Alexander, who declined to specify whether or not they had been boys or women.
Shariq Abdul Ghani — who runs the Minaret Basis, a gaggle designed to extend the “civic engagement” of Muslims — stated Ali was not employed by any mosque in Fort Bend County however traveled to varied locations of worship and faculties in the world.
“He would go to totally different properties and train Quran,” Ghani instructed reporters. “Primarily, we’d name him a freelancer. He was checked out as a religious leader probably by his victims. However so far as the Muslim group, he was unknown to us.”
However Ali’s “fluent understanding” of the Quran and his grasp of the Arabic language made him a super trainer, Ghani stated.
Ghani later instructed the Houston Chronicle that Muslim leaders in Houston didn’t know Ali. The president of the Islamic Society of Higher Houston stated Ali was not a volunteer or a worker at any of its services, the newspaper reported.
Ali remained jailed on $125,000 bond however had an immigration detainer positioned on him for dwelling in the US illegally, Nehls stated.
“He’s not going to be launched from custody,” the sheriff stated.
