Nouman Ali Khan, a renowned Pakistani-American Muslim preacher and lead instructor at his religious studies institute, Bayyinah, has become embroiled in a rather disgusting controversy.

On Thursday, Nouman’s friend of 20 years, Omer M. Mozaffar, revealed Nouman’s alleged impropriety

“He (Nouman Ali Khan) confessed inappropriate interactions with various women, violating agreed-upon bounds of Islamic law. He also told lies to cover up those relationships, and filed threats of litigation against multiple parties to further hide his misconduct,” wrote Mozaffar in his Facebook post.

Given that Nouman has a huge following, many of his supporters cried slander on the post

Nouman’s supporters urged others to report Omer Mozaffar’s profile and get him blocked, some called him out on revealing it all on social media instead of covering it up for his friend, for spreading rumors without proof while others just cried foul.

The very next day, Nouman Ali Khan shared a clarification on his official Facebook page, trying to dispel the rumors as falsehood

According to Nouman, Omer M. Mozaffar is just an acquaintance and he is nowhere close to being a moderator in this case.

“He claims I’ve known him for twenty years. I’ve spoken to him in friendly ways no more than a couple of dozen times in that entire span… To claim he’s my friend of 20 years to insinuate that he knows my personal life is really far from the truth. A mediator isn’t supposed to be an instigator,” Noman wrote.

Supporters of the religious scholar rejoiced

Those criticizing Nouman for manipulating his position of power and sexual misconduct were equated to Muslims being hateful to each other

Some called the whole thing really heartbreaking because, according to them, Khan was being dragged through mud because he’s a famous name

However, there were some who did actually think that there needs to be accountability of Khan

That was a surprise.

US based attorney Rabia Chaudhry shared screenshots, allegedly, from victims of Khan’s sexual harassment

Khan himself stated in his Facebook post that the interactions were carried out after mutual consent but ‘there was no questionable intent behind them’.

It is imperative to note that he did own up to the inappropriate interactions.

All this while, people continue asking to just forgive him and move past it because people commit mistakes and that’s what makes them human

While it is totally agreeable that we should be able to move past people’s mistakes, the only question here is: why is the same logic not applied when it involves people other than men in positions of power? Why is it that Mahira Kahn was bullied and frowned upon for sharing a cigarette with a fellow actor while Nouman should be forgiven because ghalti ho gaye, maaf kardo.The former wasn’t even harming anyone in the process while the latter is alleged to have harassed a number of women; a total opposite of what he preaches. This isn’t about us forgiving a human being for making humanly mistakes, this is about our hypocrisy and double standards when it comes to treating women and men in public spaces.