Islamic studies instructor from Euless sentenced to 80 years for child sex abuse
A North Texas imam and Quran instructor, and an Alabama woman, have pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse. They both face decades in prison.
In November 2024, Wisam Sharieff of Euless was arrested and accused of exploiting religion to manipulate a woman into making videos of the sexual abuse of her 7-year-old child in Alabama.
Sharieff was accused of instructing the woman to produce sexually explicit videos of her daughter for him, according to a criminal complaint.
A woman who identified herself as Sharieff’s wife told authorities that she found videos on his phone of a child watching adult pornography, with the child’s mother explaining the sexual acts to her.
The child’s mother told authorities that Sharieff was her online Quran instructor, who said that certain activities “would help her spiritually and allow her to communicate with Allah,” according to the complaint against Sharieff. The woman produced videos of herself and the child performing sexual acts on themselves, the complaint said, and sent the videos to Sharieff.
Sharieff, 44, pleaded guilty to counts of conspiracy to engage in child sexual exploitation, conspiracy to receive or distribute child pornography, and child sexual exploitation. On Jan. 28, he was sentenced to 80 years in prison by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
The child’s mother pleaded guilty and was sentenced by that same federal court in Alabama in October on counts of child sexual exploitation, the distribution of child pornography, and the possession of child pornography. Two other counts of conspiracy to engage in the sexual exploitation of children, and to receive or distribute child pornography, were dismissed. She has been sentenced to 70 years in prison.
The mother also faces a set of over 20 state charges in Alabama.
The Star-Telegram is not publishing the woman’s name to protect the identity of the child.
Both Sharieff and the mother will be on supervised release for life after their prison sentences. They must register as sex offenders and participate in treatment programs, and they are both subject to restrictions on any device capable of using the Internet, according to court records.
Sharieff was an instructor for Al Maghrib, an Islamic education institute, from which he was fired in 2024.
The case was investigated by the FBI Birmingham’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force along with the FBI Dallas-Fort Worth Violent Crimes Task Force, the Shelby County (Alabama) Sheriff’s Office, and the Euless Police Department.
This story was originally published January 30, 2026 at 7:41 PM.
