(D Magazine) In August of 2017, Alia Salem and Huma Yasin decided to launch something for Muslim parishioners to go for help. They’d seen enough. An imam in Irving had been accused of “sexually grooming” an 18-year-old congregant, beginning when she was 13. He was fired by the Islamic Center of Irving, one of the largest mosques in Texas, but had been recently hired by the Grand Prairie Islamic Society. He got the job despite his previous mosque having sent a letter to 2,000 institutions urging them to stay away. And yet, he found a new position just miles away.
This spiritual abuse — when an imam, sheikh, or a Muslim uses their power to harass, assault, or otherwise manipulate a member of the community — is rarely discussed, and victims and their families have few resources after it happens to them. And so Salem and Yasin set about changing that. They launched a nonprofit called Facing Abuse in Community Environments, or FACE, which helps survivors work through their experience and connects them with services like counseling and even the police — so long as the victims are welcoming of a criminal investigation.
