These boys are reciting the Quran 12 hours a day with pauses only for prayers and meals inside a Madrassa in Layyah, Pakistan.

The students are between 5 and 17 years old - and often originate from poor families.

They get free (religious) education, food and medicine. Many of them sleep inside this Madrassa. After 4-5 years they have learned the Quran "by heart".

After this period many of them study another 4-5 years

to understand what the Muslim's holy writings are about.

When the boys are finished with their education, they are highly admired in the society.

Madrassas are spread all over Pakistan in large numbers.

Especially in Pakistan these Madrassas are deemed as ideological and political

training grounds for hatred against moderate movements inside Pakistan and the Western world. The events that took place in the Red Mosque in Islamabad are a sad example of what fanaticism is able to do with young people.

According to the principal this Madrassa was opened in 2001 and is founded out of unknown sources in Saudi Arabia.

Layyah, Punjab, Pakistan.

March 2006.