The Islamic Center of Irving, which operates the Islamic School of Irving, faces a civil lawsuit alleging school officials failed to call police after a woman reported that a 14-year-old former student raped her while she cleaned the school.
The 22-page petition, filed Aug. 24 in Dallas County’s 193rd Judicial District Court under cause No. DC-26-16400, seeks more than $1 million and a jury trial.
The case names the Islamic Center of Irving, doing business as the Islamic School of Irving; Naheed Kunnamal, in his capacity as school board president; the North American Islamic Trust, which the petition says owns the property; and Gaddoor Saidi, in his capacity as the trust’s board chairman.
The civil case remains pending. The defendants have not admitted liability, and the court has not adjudicated Doe’s allegations.
Independent journalist Breanna Morello first reported the lawsuit Monday. “Did the Islamic School of Irving attempt to cover up for a violent rape that allegedly took place there?” Morello wrote on X.
Petition alleges officials failed to summon help
The petition identifies the plaintiff as Janie Doe and the boy by the initials OEA because he was a minor. Doe and her mother were working for a contractor hired to clean the school on the evening of Sept. 27, 2024.
The filing alleges Doe saw OEA loitering in a school hallway during an event at the adjoining mosque. She told him he should not be there because the school was closed, according to the petition.
The petition states that OEA “suddenly ran toward her, grabbed her by the neck, choked her and slammed her body against the door.”
OEA then allegedly pulled Doe back into the classroom, turned off the light, threatened to kill her, strangled and raped her, and took her phone.
After the alleged attack, Doe ran to a security guard in the parking lot and asked him to call police. The guard instead yelled at her to stop crying and alerted school officials, the petition alleges.
School officials took Doe to an office and said they would “handle it.” They did not call 911, according to the filing. Officials instead asked Doe to show them the room, photographed it and showed her a picture of OEA. The filing alleges they said he had previously been suspended for attempting to rape a female student.
The lawsuit alleges no one at the school or mosque summoned help. Officials instead asked whether Doe was a U.S. citizen and offered her money, according to the petition.
Doe eventually found her mother, who called Doe’s manager. The manager contacted police, the filing states. Officers allegedly arrested OEA while he remained on the property and took Doe to a hospital for a sexual assault examination.
The petition further alleges OEA had been expelled from the school for exposing himself to a janitor and sexually assaulting a peer. It says Tarrant County authorities charged him in June and July 2024 with at least three indecent exposure counts involving female strangers and placed him on electronic monitoring.
The petition states that OEA pleaded guilty on Dec. 1, 2025, to aggravated sexual assault of Doe and received a 25-year prison sentence on Feb. 16, 2026.
The Dallas Express could not access the related juvenile records and therefore could not independently confirm the petition’s statements about OEA’s prior criminal history, plea or sentence.
Doe accuses the defendants of negligence, premises liability, negligent hiring and training, and gross negligence, among other claims. She also seeks exemplary damages.
Previous cases at Islamic Center of Irving
The lawsuit follows prior sexual misconduct cases involving other individuals associated with the Islamic Center of Irving, which shares the Esters Road campus with the school.
In May 2019, Irving police arrested Islamic Center of Irving security guard Syed Humzah Hashmi on an aggravated sexual assault of a child charge after a boy who attended the Islamic School of Irving reported abuse. An arrest warrant alleged Hashmi took the boy, who had attended the school as a third-grader, into an empty classroom and attempted to sodomize him, CBS Texas reported.
Hashmi later pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault of a child and three offenses of possession of child pornography. A 2022 court opinion affirmed the judgments.
Another case involved former Islamic Center of Irving imam Zia ul-Haq Sheikh. A woman identified as Jane Doe alleged Sheikh began counseling her when she was 13 and used the trust developed through that relationship to groom her. The appellate record states that the sexual encounter occurred at a motel when Doe was 19.
Sheikh challenged the judgment, but the Texas Fifth Court of Appeals affirmed it in a 2021 appellate opinion. The opinion states that the trial court awarded Doe $1.5 million for mental anguish, $750,000 in exemplary damages and $300,000 in attorney’s fees.
Those cases involved different individuals and do not establish liability in the new lawsuit.
Morello said she made several attempts to contact the Islamic School of Irving before publishing her report but was unsuccessful.
The Dallas Express reached out to the Islamic School of Irving and Islamic Center of Irving for comment regarding the lawsuit and allegations but did not receive a response by publication.
Provided by Dallas Express
