[Reader-list] US kids in Taliban-backed madarsas in Pak (Karachi Kids)

[Kshmendra Kaul]

1.     Statement of Imran Raza Regarding Release of American Children From Pakistani Taliban Madrassa : http://www.karachikids.com/blog/statement-of-imran-raza-regarding-release-of-american-children-from-pakistani-taliban-madrassa.html
 
2. From : http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080056895
 

US kids in Taliban-backed madarsas in Pak
 



Press Trust of India

Sunday, July 13, 2008 (Islamabad)
 

A Pakistani filmmaker has launched a campaign to secure the release of 78 American teenagers from a Taliban-backed madarsa in the country and asked the US to step in to check students enrolment in radical seminaries to close ''the pipeline to jihad''.

Imran Raza, who helped secure the release of two US teenagers of Pakistani origin, found up to 80 other such boys and girls in Karachi-based Jamia Binoria madarsa while shooting Karachi Kids a documentary on American children in Pakistan's seminaries that will be released next week.

Raza's film focuses on Noor Elahi Khan, 17, and Mahboob Elahi Khan, 16, the two brothers from Atlanta who were forced to study at Jamia Binoria.

When he met them three years ago, the brothers wanted to take the ''first plane back to America''.

Three years later, the boys had been ''brainwashed'' and said the madarsa had made them ''better human beings''.

The siblings, who were enrolled in Jamia Binoria, considered one of the most radical seminaries in Pakistan, in August 2004, were well into their high school years when they were sent to Pakistan by their father.

''I am grateful for the safe return of the two American children to Atlanta from a Taliban-backed madarsa but the mullah claims to have up to 78 more in his institution. The headmaster comes to the US once a year and personally recruits

Children brainwashed

American children to enrol in his madrassa,'' Raza said in a statement on his website shortly after the release of the Khan brothers two days ago. 

''The remaining 78 children must be returned to the US. This pipeline to jihad must be closed....It is imperative that members of Congress and the State Department undertake an accounting of just how many Americans are in the other 20,000 madarsas in Pakistan. Hundreds remain behind,'' Raza said.

Raza's documentary Karachi Kids has been getting rave reviews and he is also running a campaign on his website karachikids.com asking people to help ''spread the word''.

He encourages Internet surfers to display a Karachi Kids Banner on their blogs or join an affiliate programme to help free other American children of Pakistani descent who are still at madarsas.

Raza decided to make the documentary shortly after it was found that three of the four suicide bombers who carried out bombings in London were British nationals of Pakistani descent and two attended madarsas in Pakistan.

US-based Raza has since been joined by many others in his campaign. US Congressman Michael McCaul personally urged Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to help free the Khan brothers and have them returned to the US.

McCaul is also calling for the return of others children like them.

The NGO South Asia Foundation for Educational Reform has been floated to raise global awareness about madarsas, specifically their growing attraction to and recruitment of Americans and boys from other Western nations.

SAFER is focused on the growing number of American youngsters, predominantly of Pakistani descent, being sent by their parents to madarsas in their ancestral homeland.

Jamia Binoria prominently displays a banner supporting the Taliban and it is documented that Osama bin Laden spoke to students at Jamia Binoria before the 9/11 attacks.

''Another distinguishing feature of Binoria is that it is known to recruit Americans most aggressively, probably for their fluency in English which will help them 'hide' back in American society when they are graduated,'' wrote Bernard Kerik, the contributing editor of FamilySecurityMatters.org, who has also joined Raza's campaign.

''It is believed that there are another 600 American boys currently being educated in 22 madarsas throughout Pakistan... They are known to mass-produce extremists with a political agenda, including a cripplingly narrow view of society and zero tolerance of western culture. They radicalize Muslim youth and are seminaries for violent jihad.''

In a trailer for Raza's documentary, the headmaster of Jamia Binoria states, ''We work on altering the mindset of the students we are training, so when they return to their home countries, their mindset is such that they will work on altering the minds of others.
''That is why I'm appealing to you that at least 1000 to 2000 boys come to us so we can train them and they will go back to their home countries and do the work and make people understand.''

More than 100 American children have already graduated from his indoctrination programme.