In Salt Lake City, controversy is up in the Moslem community; recently deposed imam Shuaib-ud Din is bringing charges of conspiracy against Iqbal Hossain, Sheikh Maqbool Ahmed, Abdul Rashid Afridi, Salman Masud and Mohammed Hammad, charging that they “led a campaign designed to destroy [his] personal, professional and spiritual life.”

The lawsuit claims economic interference, libel, slander, emotional distress and “alienating and destroying the love and affection between Din and his wife.” 

Din was relieved of his duties following his plea of guilty on charges on domestic violence on January 2. In April, Din pleaded guilty to one third-degree felony and two misdemeanors. Din’s complaint begins about two weeks about the night of the incident; the former imam alleges that his wife was “pressured to file charges” and eventually divorce Din, even though she “repeatedly stated. . . that she wanted to stay married.”

Din boasted quite a high profile in Utah’s largest city, doing work as religious leader of the Islamic Society of Greater Salt Lake and West Valley City’s Khadeeja mosque, and as an advisor and teacher at Islamic day school the Iqra Academy.

In a statement, the defendants said that “We are absolutely confident that truth will prevail, as it has in the criminal cases against Shuaib-ud Din in which he has pleaded guilty.”

Din left Utah the same day his wife filed charges with local police, but has since returned to the state and has opened his mosque, Sandy’s Utah Islamic Center.

Though it sounds strange to be discussing Moslem socio-politics in the Mormon stronghold of Utah, there is actually a decent-sized bunch of Moslem folks now calling the Beehive State home. In 1990, census totals had the population of Utah’s Moslems at – or extremely near – zero. After the 2000 census was taken, up to 15,000 Muslims – many of them refugees from the former Yugoslavian territories – have been claimed to be living in Utah.