A North Texas imam is facing a child pornography-related charge, according to court documents.
FBI special agent Eric Salvador alleged in a sworn affidavit that Wisam Sharieff, a Quran instructor based in Euless who had taught 25,000 students worldwide with the AlMaghrib Institute, had conspired to produce child pornography between Sept. 27 and Oct. 15.
According to the Oct. 29 affidavit, Sharieff told an Alabama-based student during her training that “achieving an orgasm would help her spiritually and allow her to communicate with Allah better.”
The unidentified woman allegedly created videos of her and her minor daughter — who she also wanted to be “closer to Allah” — performing sexual acts on themselves as well as videos of her daughter watching adult pornography. She then allegedly shared the content with Sharieff through Telegram, a messaging app, so that he could “guide them and let them know how far they were progressing on their quest to become closer to Allah.”
On Oct. 15, an individual identified as Sharieff’s wife contacted the Alabama Department of Human Resources after seeing the videos and recognizing the woman and her daughter, according to the affidavit.
The authorities subsequently seized electronic devices and sex toys from the woman’s residence.
Sharieff was then arrested on Oct. 30 in Texas, according to the press officer for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Alabama.
The Dallas Morning News couldn’t immediately reach Sharieff for comment on Friday.
Sharieff had a public defender in Texas, but that attorney no longer represents him after the case was moved to the Northern District of Alabama earlier this month. The court docket also currently doesn’t list an attorney for him.
As news broke about the allegations against Sharieff, AlMaghrib Institute said in a social media post on Nov. 4 that it is “horrified.” The institute added that the allegations took place outside of its educational platform and the authorities didn’t contact it prior to filing the complaint against him.
It also organized a webinar three days later to help members process the news.
“We are all experiencing a mix of emotions: feelings of anger, pain, and betrayal,” the institute wrote in a Nov. 7 post on social media platform X. “Everyone feels deeply shaken and unsettled by the recent events, so we want to provide a safe space to process these feelings.”
