July 25, 2008	Friday	Rajab 21, 1429

NEW YORK, July 24: The South Asian Foundation for Education Reform (Safer) has called for immediate return of Muna Abanur Mahamed, an American girl currently at the Jamia Binoria madressah in Karachi, says a news report.

In early July, Safer worked with US Congressman Michael McCaul to secure the release of Noor and Mahboob Khan, two brothers from Atlanta who were in the madressah on expired religious education visas.

“Without the intervention of Congressman McCaul, the US State Department and the Pakistani government, the Khan brothers would still be in the Jamia Binoria madressah,” Safer said, adding that the US government must act swiftly to secure release of Muna and other American children.

Last month, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs ordered Maulana Mufti Mohammed Naeem, the madressah’s founder, to return Muna and two other non-Pakistani students to their countries.

The children are stranded due to the expiry of their religious education visas.

“Yes we have received the deportation orders but we will not hand her over,” Mufti Naeem told the Deutsche Presse-Aguntur news service. “No one could dare come near a one mile radius of our compound,” he said.

The 2008 documentary ‘Karachi Kids’ by film-maker Imran Raza found nearly 80 American children at Jamia Binoria

The South Asian Foundation for Education Reform (Safer) is a newly formed non-profit, non-partisan organisation committed to raising global awareness about Islamic seminaries.