Tajul Islam faces criminal charges, including four counts of first-degree sexual abuse and other sex-related offenses involving multiple victims, two of whom are 10-year-old girls, at his Jamaica mosque.
Photo courtesy of the NYPD
A religious leader at a Jamaica mosque is accused of being a child sex abuser, according to the NYPD.
Tajul Islam, 55, was arrested on the night of Monday, April 27, by detectives from the Queens Child Abuse Squad and booked at the 113th Precinct in Jamaica for sexual related offenses involving multiple victims, including two 10-year-old girls, inside his Masjid Bilal Queens Islamic Center at 121-03 Sutphin Blvd.
Islam was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court the following day 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.
According to the criminal complaint, sometime between 5:30 and 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 21, Islam approached a 10-year-old girl inside the storefront mosque and grabbed her breast and touched her inner thigh. Islam committed the same act at around 6 p.m. on Monday, April 27, when he approached another 10-year-old girl and grabbed her breast and touched her inner thigh. Members of the NYPD’s Queens Child Abuse Squad arrested Islam about four hours later.
His Masjid Bilal Queens Islamic Center is on Sutphin Boulevard, two blocks west of Baisely Pond Park. Photo via Google Maps
Islam pleaded not guilty at his April 28 arraignment before Queens criminal Court Judge Sharifa Nasser-Cuellar, who set bail at $25,000 cash and $25,000 bond and issued temporary orders of protection.
The NYPD is asking any other victims to come forward by calling the NYPD’s Sex Crimes Hotline at 1-212-267-7273 or 1-646-610-7272, the Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are strictly confidential.