Offbeat Father of N.M. child-abuse suspects speaks out: They ‘cut ties’ and disappeared

© Mary Altaffer/AP Photo Imam Siraj Wahhaj speaks to reporters, Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018, in New York. Wahhaj, the grandfather of a missing Georgia boy, says the remains of the child were found buried at a desert compound in New Mexico. Abdul-ghani Wahhaj was found Monday, on what would have been his fourth birthday, after he went missing in December in Jonesboro, Ga. near Atlanta.

A Brooklyn imam whose relatives were arrested in a raid of a New Mexico compound spoke out Thursday to combat rumors that have transformed what he described as a months-long family drama into allegations of terrorism.

Law enforcement officials raided the barren compound in northern New Mexico last week and found the body of a young boy and 11 hungry children, who officials said were clothed in filthy rags and living without running water or electricity.

What we know about the New Mexico compound suspects

The case broke with a tip about starving children in a squalid New Mexico compound. Investigators discovered 11 emaciated children wearing rags and no shoes. They also found the decomposed remains of a young boy.It's still not clear whether the remains are those of Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, a boy allegedly abducted by his father. He would have turned four the day the remains were discovered.But now the boy's father, his wife, his two sisters and another man are each accused of 11 counts of child abuse for the horrors inside the rural compound.

If you suspect that a child is undergoing abuse , it’s critical to report it—and to continue reporting each separate incidence if it continues to recur. Each report you make is a snapshot of what’s going on in the family. The more information you can provide, the better the chance of the child getting the help they

2. Both abuser and spouse can be mentally ill people who collude out of mutually shared sadism. Patients have reported to me that parents, when confronted by their adult child with the abuse they committed, tell their son or daughter that their memory is wrong.

They arrested the imam’s son, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, who was wanted since last year on suspicion of abducting his critically ill 3-year-old son, as well as four other adults who were with him. The imam confirmed Thursday that those adults were also family members.

The child’s body has not been identified, the Taos County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday.

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All five adults have been charged with 11 counts of felony child abuse.

County authorities have alleged, without publicly releasing evidence, that the adults were training the children to carry out school shootings, and that the group subscribed to “extremist” Muslim beliefs.

Siraj Wahhaj, the Brooklyn imam, confirmed during an impromptu news conference on Thursday that he is the father of suspects Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 40; Hujrah J. Wahhaj, 37; and Subhannah A. Wahhaj, 35. He said he also is the father-in-law of Lucas Allen Morten, 40, and Jany N. Leveille, 35, who also were suspects taken from the compound. All 11 children found on the compound are his grandchildren, two of them through his daughter-in-law’s previous marriage, Wahhaj said.

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Philip Wilson, the former archbishop of Adelaide, covered up sexual abuse committed in the 1970s.The decision means Philip Wilson, who resigned as archbishop of Adelaide after his conviction, will avoid jail.

Children who lose a father to death or incarceration suffer much as those who have uninvolved fathers do, but they represent an easier community to study than the abandoned. Making healthy decisions before conceiving so that your kid has the best shot in life, genetically speaking .

Child abuse defined and explained with examples. Child abuse is the physical, emotional, or sexual Emotional child abuse is usually a pattern of behavior that causes greater and greater damage over Additionally, not listening to the child when he speaks , cutting him off in conversation, and failing to

But he said he had no knowledge of the group’s intentions when they disappeared last December, and that they quickly “cut ties, not only with me, with their brothers and their sisters and their mother,” and that the family has had “no direct contact with any of them” since then.

After Siraj Ibn Wahhaj disappeared with his son, Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, the boy’s mother filed a missing-person report in the Atlanta suburb where they live.

Hakima Ramzi, the mother, said the boy suffers from a severe brain condition that causes seizures and that his father did not have the boy’s medication.

Ramzi’s attorney said Thursday that Siraj Ibn Wahhaj had been acting “differently” and “more argumentative” for a few weeks before his disappearance, but gave no other warning of what was coming.

Wahhaj said Thursday that his son was “a little bit high-strung” and sometimes prone to anger, and that he was licensed as a private security guard to carry guns.

Governor opposes release of NM compound suspects

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez and other state Republicans are criticizing a judge's decision to allow the release of five defendants accused of child abuse at a ramshackle desert compound where authorities found the remains of a boy.10:55 a.m.

If you suspect child abuse , it’s important to report it. It isn’t a private matter or a family problem. If you suspect it, call your local child protective services, police, a hospital, or a hotline, such as the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 800-422-4453.

According to sociobiology, genetic preservation is at the core of human behavior. Because it is inherent in our genetic structure to ensure survival, individuals are predisposed to take measures to guarantee their genetic survival.

Wahhaj said he was unaware of any political or religious beliefs, or violent intentions, that could have motivated his son and daughters’ disappearance.

“I don’t know what his thinking is, because to do something as extreme as this, it doesn’t make sense,” he said. The idea that his son was plotting school shootings “sounds crazy,” he added. “But I don’t know. I’m not making any judgments yet because we don’t know.”

Hints of the circumstances surrounding the disappearances emerge in Facebook posts and message exchanges between relatives over the months, but many details remained unclear.

The posts indicate that Ibn Wahhaj and Hakima Ramzi were experiencing marital strife, and that another brother, Mohammed Wahhaj, had been involved in trying to mediate before Ibn Wahhaj’s sudden departure.

The group disappeared without warning last December, and Wahhaj and other family members have worked closely with local law enforcement and the FBI ever since in an effort to track them down, he said.

“We have been meeting with law enforcement since day one,” Wahhaj said. “They’ve been in my house: FBI, law enforcement from Atlanta, Georgia.”

The search came to an end last week, after Subhanah Wahhaj contacted another family friend, he said.

“She said, ‘We need some food, we’re starving,’ ” the imam said. Subhanah provided a location to send food, and the family turned that over to the police.

“That’s why the police came in,” he said. “Because of the information we gave them.”

Alice Crites and Eli Rosenberg in Washington, Neda Semnani in New York, Sonam Vashi in Atlanta and Ben Neary in Albuquerque contributed to this report.