Islamic scholar has deadline to accept sex abuse plea deal

ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill. – A suburban Chicago judge has given an Islamic scholar until Sept. 12 to accept a plea deal on sexual abuse charges.

Mohammad Abdullah Saleem, founder of the Institute of Islamic Education in Elgin, will go to trial Sept. 12 if he doesn't take the deal. He was accused in February 2015 of sexually abusing a then 22-year-old employee of the institute. In December 2015 he was charged with abusing a student of the school. Saleem has so far not accepted the deal and has pleaded not guilty in both cases.

The (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald reports (http://bit.ly/2bn3kB7 ) that Judge James Karahalios said Saleem can reconsider and accept the deal before Sept. 12, but not afterward because Saleem will have "pushed the state to great expense and inconvenience."

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Information from: Daily Herald, http://www.dailyherald.com