Supposedly, the "new manual helps make clear that harmful traditional practices often falsely associated with Islam, such as FGM/C and gender discrimination in education, are not mentioned in the Koran and have no basis in Islamic law. It reflects the broader vision for children that has emerged over the past two decades." But what does the new manual have to say about suicide bombing and jihad, if anything, and does it address other issues such as the Islamic agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood and similar Islamic groups, and what does it have to say about true tolerance of non-Muslims, and non-violence?

And how about all the anti-Christian violence and theft of Christian's property by Muslims in Iraq, perpetuated by imams, is that criticized in the "manual"?

"In the city of Mosul, Sunni Wahhabi groups have threatened priests, Dominican friars, and the entire Christian population, ordering them to leave the city and their belongings. But the few Christians who want to sell their businesses cannot find buyers, because in a Friday sermon the imam said: 'Don't buy anything from the infidels, because tomorrow they will be forced to leave the city and we will be able to take everything they have for nothing'."

But the 14-year-old Ali, tired of his hometown of Halabja, where graveyards are filled with the victims of Saddam Hussein's 1988 chemical attack, started out for the Iranian border, with plans to get construction work in Tehran.

Ali was stopped in Biyara by a checkpoint set up by members of Ansar al Islam, a radical Islamic group that had taken hold in the high reaches of the mountains of northern Iraq. They told him he was in big trouble. Before long, he had joined the group.

Ali's story took place between the summer of 2001 and the winter of 2002, but it's consistent with descriptions of how Ansar recruits, indoctrinates and trains fighters. Indeed, the lack of work and poor living conditions in Iraq, the ready supply of disaffected youth and the seduction of religious fanaticism haven't changed at all.

The Ansar members accused Ali of being a spy, of being an infidel. They shouted at him. They beat him. They threatened to kill him. For two hours, the threats and screams continued.

Then an older man walked in the room and in a calm, kind voice began to speak about Islam.

Trembling and crying, Ali was so shaken that he could hardly make sense of what the imam, or spiritual leader, was saying.

But slowly, the words began to filter through.

"He told me about paradise, about virgins, about Islam," Ali said.

The imam told him that, as a Muslim, Ali was part of a brotherhood that stretched back hundreds of years. He had an important role to play in the world, one that would bring prestige and glory. There were 70 virgins waiting for him in a promised land, a paradise just for him.

.. . (The) cleric is using live broadcasts on the internet to urge young British Muslims to join al-Qaeda and has condoned suicide terrorist attacks. Omar Bakri Mohammed, who has lived in the UK for 18 years on social security benefits, pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden and told his followers that they were in a state of war with Britain.

The Times monitored Mr Bakri Mohammed's nightly webcasts in which he declared that the "covenant of security" under which Muslims live peacefully in the UK had been "violated" by the Government's tough anti-terrorist legislation, The Syrian-born radical said: "I believe the whole of Britain has become Dar ul-Harb (land of war). In such a state, he added, "the kuffar (non-believer) has no sanctity for their own life or property."

The Imam repeated it several times in Arabic, line by line, encouraging the children to repeat it with him. Shifting back into English, he told them that their task for the day was to memorize this 4-line surah.

He then began to explain the surah, and its importance. He told the children that this surah described the essence of Islam - that there is only one Allah, and that Allah has no children. Then, quite abruptly, he told the room full of children that this surah was what Muslims were dying for in Palestine, and Iraq, and Chechnya. He told them that the Christians were all doomed to eternal hell for the sin of "shirk", or assigning partners or a son to God.

He ranted for around 10 minutes about the "kafirs" and how the ambition of these unbelievers used the name of Christ to work with the Zionists to kill all of the Muslims in the world.

Then, suddenly he shifted gears. He started discussing Jews and Zionists, explaining that they were the most hated creatures by Allah. He told the children that Allah in fact hated them so much that at one point he turned all the Jews into pigs and monkeys.

The focus shifted to politics again. The imam told the children to never forget the struggle of the Palestinians, who were only trying to regain their ancestral land, which has been their home for thousands of years. He told the story of Mohamed Durah, and explained to the audience how the 14 year old had been killed while "innocently going down the street with his father." He emphasized that the killing was an unprovoked murder by the "Jewish sons of pigs and monkeys". He reminded the children that the goal of every Christian and Jew was to kill every single Muslim, even the tiny babies.

The imam explained that although they are in America they have an obligation to help their fellow Muslims elsewhere in the world. He told the kids to save their quarters and dollars and bring them to the center each day, and at the end of the program they would send the donations to their Muslim brothers and sisters in Palestine and Iraq.

Related: Moral Values of the Qur'an: No Love for Unbelievers