The former AlMaghrib Institute Quran teacher, Wisam Sharieff, has been arrested and charged with a felony involving a minor.
Sharieff, who was sacked by the AlMaghrib Institute earlier this week, is currently being detained in a Texas jail pending trial because a judge considers him to be a flight risk, and because of the nature of the alleged offence and the potential danger to minors in the community.
According to Alabama court documents seen by 5Pillars, Sharieff was recently arrested by an FBI agent for conspiracy to produce child pornography.
An affidavit by the agent testifies that Sharieff’s wife told the police that she had seen videos of a minor female child watching adult pornography on his phone. Sharieff’s wife stated that the child’s mother (an Alabama resident who was Sharieff’s student) was explaining sexual acts to the child in the video.
The affidavit further states that Sharieff told the child’s mother that “achieving an orgasm would help her spiritually and allow her to communicate with Allah better.”
The mother then proceeded to buy a sex toy and showed her child how to use it on herself, before streaming adult pornography which she shared with Sharieff.
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Sharieff was a specialist in teaching Quran recitation and retention, and led the AlMaghrib Institute’s Quran Revolution program. He taught over 25,000 students worldwide.
Earlier this week AlMaghrib sacked Sharieff for violating its code of conduct.
“AlMaghrib Institute is horrified at the news of the criminal allegation against Wisam Sharieff. The safety and protection of AlMaghrib Institute’s students and community continues to be our top priority. This criminal allegation against Wisam Shariff is a jarring and sickening experience for his students as well as AlMaghrib Institute’s staff and instructors who worked with him…
“The criminal allegations, as laid out by law enforcement investigators against Wisam Sharieff, were conducted outside AlMaghrib Institute’s educational platform via private communication between the accused adult parties. The alleged minor-aged victim was not a student of AlMaghrib Institute. As such, no law enforcement authorities ever communicated with AlMaghrib Institute prior to filing their criminal complaint against Wisam Sharieff.
“AlMaghrib Institute continues to enforce its longstanding policy of zero tolerance for instructors having any romantic relationships with their students. Instructors are expected to abide by AlMaghrib Institute’s strict code of conduct in both their public and private lives. As soon as AlMaghrib Institute was notified of a possible violation of its code of conduct by an instructor in his personal life, AlMaghrib Institute conducted its own investigation but did not have access to law enforcement’s investigation. However, AlMaghrib Institute’s own investigation concluded there was sufficient evidence violating AlMaghrib Institute’s code of conduct to terminate the instructor’s employment and immediately publicly disclosed it.
“AlMaghrib Institute has catered to the needs of 250,000+ students and will continue to provide a safe-space on its educational platform for all students by enforcing its strict code of conduct policies.
“We encourage any students who have further concerns due to this news to reach out to us at [email protected]. Our nation’s justice system will now deal with Wisam Sharieff, and we ask Allah to bring solace to the victims and to bring healing to our community.
“Allah’s religion is not reliant on any one individual, and the Quran Revolution program will continue with our students as scheduled.
Wisam Sharieff has yet to issue a statement on the matter.
