Two American children were escorted by the American consulate officers in Karachi, Pakistan Tuesday night Pakistan time and boarded a flight to Dubai, UAE and then boarded a direct flight to NYC, Noor Elahi Khan and Mahboob Elahi Khan are expected to arrive in Atlanta on a Delta flight this afternoon at 4:30 PM.
The two brothers have been in a Pakistani madrassa for four years and are the focus of a newly released documentary entitled "The Karachi Kids".
Updated --see end of text
"I have been working for months to secure their exit from the Madrassa and from Pakistan," said Imran Raza, writer, director and executive producer of the Karachi Kids documentary. "This is great news, but we need to get the other American children out of there, now. There are nearly 80 other Americans currently at this Jamia Binoria madrassa -- that teaches Deobandism -- the religion of the Taliban. Our government, and the Pakistani government, has more work to do to get the other American children out of there."
Raza discovered the two children from Atlanta while filming a documentary about madrassas. He returned to the madrassa three times in four years to film their transformation in the hands of the radical mullahs. Children in the documentary film "
The Karachi Kids" describe beatings and human rights violations for those who reject the radical teachings of their Taliban masters. Children from California and Georgia are interviewed in the film from inside the madrassa and discuss coming back to the United States to spread extremism within our borders.
The trailer of the documentary can be seen at
www.KarachiKids.com.
The headmaster of the Binoria madrassa personally recruits American children to his institution during Ramadan, and says on camera that: "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." The headmaster of the Binoria madrassa also states that he has already graduated 100 American children from his madrassa.
Update
STATEMENT OF IMRAN RAZA REGARDING RELEASE OF AMERICAN CHILDREN FROM PAKISTANI TALIBAN MADRASSA
(Atlanta, GA) - Imran Raza, the director and executive producer of the documentary "Karachi Kids" who discovered up to 80 American children in a Taliban-backed madrassa in Pakistan released the following statement regarding the return of two American children to Atlanta:
I am grateful for the safe return of the two American children from Atlanta from a Taliban- backed madrassa but the mullah claims to have up to 78 more in his institution. The headmaster comes to the United States once a year and personally recruits American children to enroll in his madrassa.
The remaining 78 children must be returned to the United States. This pipeline to jihad must be closed.
Let me be clear - these children do not learn math, or science, or liberal arts. They learn one thing - they memorize over the course of seven years every verse of the Koran coupled with the radical interpretation of their teachers.
This is just the first step in integrating these children back to American society. I am proud we did our part so we could say 'Welcome Home."
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 madrassas in Pakistan. Hundreds remain behind.
The Karachi Kids is a documentary about American children in the Jamia Binoria madrassa in Karachi Pakistan. A trailer of the film is available at [url=http://www.karachikids.com]http://www.karachikids.com[/url].
Facts About the Binoria Madrassa
Located in Karachi, Pakistan, the Jamia Binoria madrassa was founded by Mufti Muhammed Naeem and espouses Deobandism -- the religion of the Taliban.
The institution houses over 3,000 students including children from the United States and Canada.
Selig Harrison, the Director of the Asian Program for the Center for International Policy recently gave a speech reafng the link between the Jamia Binoria and the Taliban: "In Karachi, the Jamia Binoria, withsome 10,000 students enrolled in eight afted madrassas, displays a banner at its main gate urging Muslims to join the Taliban."
A large number of graduates from the Binoria have become seniores in the Taliban.
Right before 9/11, Osama bin Laden addressed the students emphasizing the importance of jihad.
Mufti claims to have graduated over 100 Americans from his institution and asked what they teach the children, Mufti relied, "Islam, not math or anything else, only Islam."
