Pakistan: Hard line madrassas lure foreigners.

Friday prayers at Jamia Binoria

Well, what do you know. The MSM is waking up to the infamous Jamia Binoria mosque and the American al Qaeda/Taliban crown jewels in training there. (Other alumni? None other than the American Taliban, Johnny Walker Lindh. Also, remember the Karachi Kids? See below.)

From MSNBC:

Anas bin Saleem, a 12-year-old American, spends seven hours a day sitting cross-legged on the floor memorizing the Quran.

He is one of thousands of foreigners who have flocked to conservative Islamic schools in Pakistan, despite a government ban, the Associated Press has found through interviews with officials, documents, visits to the schools and encounters with dozens of students.

Pakistan and foreign governments consider the international students a potential security threat. The students could export extremism back to their own countries, or stay and fight in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan, where the United States is battling a resurgent Taliban eight years after the invasion. Pakistan stopped granting student visas in 2005, but many students still arrive on travel visas and never leave when they expire.

For his part:

"Anas says he's not taught militant Islam at Binoria. But clerics firmly endorse suicide bombings and jihad against Western troops in Afghanistan on the school Web site, and Anas admits he is fed up with anti-American barbs from teachers and pupils. "I get it like every second," says Anas, who left Louisiana last year with his Pakistani-born mother, barely spoke the national language when he arrived in Pakistan and misses Hannah Montana..."

When asked about the problem, Interior Minister Malik Rehman, lied tried to downplay the existence of the problem.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik denied anyone was slipping into the country unawares, and said students suspected of links to militancy were deported. But a senior interior ministry official in the city said the ban was not being fully enforced because of fears of a backlash by the madrassas, which can quickly incite thousands of young men.

"We have a tendency to soft pedal in Pakistan, especially when it comes to Islamic affairs," said the official, who asked for anonymity to discuss the sensitive subject.

Thais and Africans appear to make up the bulk of the foreign students studying in the Madrassas. Happy thought.

Read the whole article here. And if you'd like some additional background on the last time Jamia Binoria was in the news, check these posts out:

American kids trapped in Pakistan Madrassa.
Update: The Karachi Kids.
American Madrassa kids on their way home.
Karachi Kids: A statement by Imran Raza
Karachi Kids: The latest.
American girl still held at Jamia Binoria
I keep thinking about those Karachi Kids
Karachi Kids II: Jamia Binoria and the American kids
Karachi Kids: Finally, word about the Karachi Girl.