McCaul's Islamic 'Rescue'

In recent weeks, Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Austin has been championing a documentary, Karachi Kids, that purportedly told the story of two American boys being held against their will at a radical madrassa (Islamic holy school) in Pakistan after being sent there by their father, an Atlanta cab driver. The representative of Congressional District 10, which stretches from Austin to Houston, even went so far as to introduce legislation “Encouraging the United States Secretary of State to work with the Govern-ment of Pakistan to secure the return to the United States of all American children being educated in madrassas in Pakistan,” and he met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to secure the boys’ release.

But in the famous words of Gilda Radner’s Emily Litella character: “Oh. Never mind.”

On Sunday, CNN aired a report showing that the filmmaker, Imran Raza, apparently focused on the wrong madrassa. The teenage boys, Noor Elahi Khan and Mahboob Elahi Khan, were sent to the Jamia Binoria SITE madrassa in Karachi, but CNN received documents, actually sent to them from McCaul's office, noting that, "because of its name, this madrasa is often confused with the more prominent and powerful Binori Town Madrasa" – an avowedly radical and pro-Taliban madrassa located right across the street. CNN also quoted U.S. State Department officials saying, "The Jamia Binoria SITE Madrassa is known to U.S. officials as a moderate institution favored by Pakistani-Americans for its moderate and tolerant Islamic instruction."

According to CNN, the boys' father, Fazal Khan, was "astonished" by the allegations made by the film and said McCaul never contacted him. The boys said that they never received any sort of militant training and were only taught to read the Quran. "I wasn't brainwashed at all," said one of the boys. McCaul may have some apologizing to do: On Fox News, McCaul said, "I think we have to question the loyalty of this father."

Filmmaker Raza stands by his depiction of the teens' education, but, "I take responsibility" for "errors that sort of spun out of control" in Karachi Kids, including allegations that Osama bin Laden spoke at the school before 9/11. He said he'll be re-editing the film.

At press time, McCaul's office had not responded to the Chronicle, but told CNN: "The Taliban is known to recruit from Deobandi [an Islamic revivalist movement] madrassas, including Jamia Binoria, and train their recruits as terrorists. ... Any Americans among the recruits represent a potential threat to the United States because of their unfettered access to this country."

Jon Niven, spokesman for McCaul's Demo­cratic opponent, Larry Joe Doherty, called McCaul's actions a "failed publicity stunt." McCaul, he said, "has been proclaiming 'Mis­sion Accomplished' for weeks, and now we find out it was all a fraud. Just as the director of this documentary is taking responsibility, Michael McCaul must take responsibility instead of shifting the blame."