Texas imam arrested and charged in child pornography case

Wisam Sharieff

A Texas imam, Wisam Sharieff is in custody in Talladega County, Texas, and is facing federal charges of conspiracy to produce child pornography. Court documents accuses him of soliciting disgustingly explicit videos of a child from a Shelby County resident.

Sharieff is considered a flight risk and is being held without bond.

The mother of the child, Blake Miller Barakat, was arrested in Chelsea last month on child sexual abuse charges and is being held on nearly $2 million bond. 

Court documents indicate Barakat identified Sharieff as her online teacher who taught her about the Quran and used religion to discuss sexual topics as Islam is wont to do, and children are not out of bounds as the prophet of Islam, Mohammed, set the example as he was married to Ayisha when she was 6-years-old, and consummated the marriage when she was 9. 

Sharieff eventually expressed interest to Barakat about a child and court documents allege that Barakat and the imam began making pornographic videos of her and the child which she sent to Sharieff.

The Shelby County Sheriff's Office said the county DHR office informed deputies it received as anonymous tip from a resident in Euless, Texas who reported Sharieff was receiving videos of a minor. It is my belief that it was the wife of Sharieff who discovered the videos sent to her imam husband, and reported it to authorities.

The sheriff's office said investigators were led to Barakat and they requested help from Birmingham FBI with identifying and locating Sharieff.

Tweet