7/17 UPDATE:

The family of two American teenagers freed from a Pakistani madrassa have kept a low profile during the week since the boys returned home to Atlanta. But 17-year-old Noor Elahi Khan and his 16-year-old brother Mahboob are prominently featured in a new documentary about the Jamia Binoria madrassa and its alleged ties to radical Islamic groups.

Imran Raza, an American of Pakistani descent, produced and directed the film Karachi Kids. Click on the video to hear his comments.

The filmmaker interviewed the Khan brothers in 2005. At that time, they described routine beatings at the madrassa and said they wanted to go back to America, the country in which they were born.

Their story prompted U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) to personally lobby Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf for the boys’ return.

But three years after that 2005 film interview, and four years after their father enrolled them in the school — allegedly against their will, the Khan brothers appear to have had a change of heart.

During the trip home, Raza said he asked Mahboob what he thought of the documentary and the 16-year-old replied, “I was very saddened because you were very mean to the madrassa.”

In the film, Jamia Binoria’s headmaster Mufti Mohammed Naeem insists his school does not promote hatred and that it is the unfair target of the Western media. But Raza said the madrassa teaches a radical and dangerous interpretation of Islam, with no other academics.

This troubles Ericka Pertierra, the film’s co-producer and founder of the South Asian Foundation for Education Reform, an advocacy group. Noor Khan “should be an upcoming senior,” she said. “He hasn’t been in school since the 7th grade. So, what is Noor supposed to do when he gets back here?”

Atlanta’s private Islamic schools offer secular academic classes in addition to religious studies. But Raza said the boys’ father, a taxi driver, felt he could not afford tuition in the States. So, he sent his sons to his native country to learn to memorize the Quran.

Raza said the Khan brothers are good kids who pose no threat to society. But he worries about a small minority of madrassa students who return to their Western homelands filled with rage.

On July 7, 2005, Raza was working on an unrelated film in London, when terrorists of Pakistani descent set off a series of deadly bombs in the transit system. Raza said witnessing terrorism firsthand is what inspired his latest documentary.

These kids were British-born kids who went back to Pakistan. Two of them studied in a madrassa. And they came back to want to blow themselves up. So, that immediately sparked curiosity on my part. What is a madrassa? And what is it that could possibly shape people in this direction?

The heightened international concern over madrassas that followed the 2005 London transit bombings prompted President Musharraf to ban foreign students from his country’s religious schools. Yet many Pakistani madrassas continue to recruit students from around the world. Jamia Binoria’s headmaster makes routine visits to the U.S., Raza said.

Rep. McCaul’s communications director Mike Rosen explained the leaders consider their religious schools to be above Pakistan’s secular law.

Raza added, “Certainly they believe that they answer straight to God.”

7/11 8:40 AM UPDATE:

Two American teenagers, allegedly held against their will in a Pakistani madrassa, are back in the United States.

17-year-old Noor Elahi Khan and his 16-year-old brother Mahboob landed at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport late last night. Stormy weather delayed their arrival by several hours.

They were escorted off the plane and into an SUV waiting on the Tarmac by, what appeared to be, two FBI agents. A family member told Fox News the two brothers were taken to a local hotel.

More details to follow

7/10 4:40 PM UPDATE:

While two American teens may be free from a Pakistani madrassa where they were allegedly held against their will for four years, there may be dozens, if not hundreds, of other U.S. citizens still studying under similar circumstances.

Six-hundred American boys are being educated in 22 madrassas throughout Pakistan, according to the office of Congressman Michael McCaul (R-TX), who was one of the key players in bringing 17-year-old Noor Elahi Khan and his 16-year-old brother Mahboob back home. That figure includes 78 American children reportedly still studying at the Jamia Binoria Institute, which the Khan brothers had attended since 2004.

While most of Pakistan’s madrassas have not been linked to terrorism, Binoria has come under fire for alleged connections to the Taliban and a visit by Usama bin Laden, who reportedly spoke to students there prior to 9/11.

Filmmaker Imran Raza, who profiled this madrassa in his new documentary Karachi Kids, issued this written statement late today:

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 Quran coupled with the radical interpretation of their teachers

7/10 1:46 PM:

Two American teenagers, allegedly held against their will in a radical Islamic madrassa in Pakistan, are returning to U.S. soil.

We’re reporting live from Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport, where 17-year-pld Noor Elahi Khan and his 16-year-old brother Mahboob Elahi Khan are expected to arrive late this afternoon.

Their father, an Atlanta taxi driver who was born in Pakistan, sent his sons to the Binoria Institute in Karachi, Pakistan in 2004 to memorize the Quran. But in a new documentary entitled Karachi Kids, the Khans tell filmmaker Imran Raza they wanted to return to America since arriving at the madrassa, where they claim to have been subjected to routine beatings.

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) said he found out about the boys’ plight from Raza and met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to help get the boys released from the school and returned to America.