Pakistani cleric hints at return of American girl at seminary

Aug 1, 2008, 11:45 GMT

Karachi - A radical cleric on Friday softened his stance on an American girl student holed up in his madrassa in Pakistan's southern port city Karachi, saying he would allow the teenager to return to her homeland if the government comes to terms with him.

Muna Abanur Mohammed, an American girl of African origin, is among eight foreign students studying at Jamia Binoria who were blacklisted by Pakistani authorities and asked to leave the country immediately following the expiration of their visas.

However, the head of the seminary, Mufti Naeem, refused last week to serve the order to the students while vowing to resist any attempt by police to round them up.

The talks between the madrassa administration and the Pakistani government, which is under growing pressure from Western governments to expel their students from Pakistani seminaries that promote jihad in their education, remained deadlocked.

'We have no objection if they want to go to their countries on their own will, but we are concerned about their well-being,' Naeem told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Friday.

He said the madrassa administration did not want the expelled students to be investigated in their own countries as suspects of terrorism. 'We desire a peaceful resolution,' he added.

Besides, Muna, two more teenage Americans, four girl students from Thailand and one male student from Fiji are among the blacklisted students.

Two American teenage brothers were taken out of the country early in July by US Federal Bureau of Investigation agents after a documentary movie, Karachi Kids, showed the them studying there under force.

The Jamia Binoria has around 500 foreign students, including around 80 American students, while all over Pakistan around 600 American students are getting religious education in some of the country's more than 12,000 seminaries.