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Lindh Showed Zeal of Converts, Admired Taliban, Planned to Take Four Wives
Ap via TBO ^ | 1/25/2002 | By Hamza Hendawi Associated Press Writer

Posted on 01/25/2002 11:15:48 AM PST by KQQL

HASSANI KALAN SURANI, Pakistan (AP) - During his six months of study at an Islamic school here, John Walker Lindh expressed admiration for the Taliban and even talked of taking four wives as permitted under Islam, according to those who knew him.

Lindh, known here by his Muslim name, Sulayman al-Faris, is remembered in this Pakistani village 165 miles southwest of Islamabad as a kind and earnest young man devoted to his religious studies.

But, according to the recollections of some here, Lindh showed the telltale signs of militancy and even shared some of the radical Taliban interpretations of his new faith.

"He often told me that the Taliban's Islam was complete and they don't fear anyone except God," said Mufti Mohammed Iltimas, the headmaster of the Madrassa-e-Arabia, or Arabic School, where Lindh studied until May 15.

Iltimas said the 20-year-old Californian also expressed a desire to take four wives - a practice allowed by Islam but discouraged by many Muslim clerics.

"He was speaking seriously," Iltimas said. "He is a man and every man has desires."

Lindh was arraigned Thursday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., on charges including conspiring to kill his fellow Americans in Afghanistan. He faces life imprisonment if convicted.

He was captured in November near the Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif fighting with the Taliban and survived a bloody prison uprising a few days later in which CIA operative Johnny "Mike" Spann was killed.

During his months studying Islam in Pakistan, Lindh became fascinated with the Taliban, whose strict brand of Islam banned women from most jobs and education and outlawed movies and television.

Pharmacist Kareem Khan used to provide Lindh with medicine for stomach aches and allergies. "I pointed to a cinema and told Sulayman 'look, it's a movie house,'" Khan said. "His reply was: 'No, this is a house of Satan."

Sitting in a carpeted room where Lindh studied and sometimes slept during his time at the school, Iltimas recalled that Lindh enjoyed listening to Taliban radio broadcasts whenever someone was available to translate for him.

"He also started to learn Pashtun and even dress like Pashtuns," Iltimas said, referring to the language spoken by most of the Taliban.

Still, the faculty and students were stunned to learn of Lindh's capture and that he had joined the Taliban. When he left, Iltimas said, he told his friends he was heading into the northern mountains to spend the summer. Lindh left behind a stack of letters, all from his mother, and other personal effects, including a suitcase full of clothes and a shelf of Islamic books.

"Many were in tears and I, and all the faithful, prayed for his deliverance after the evening prayers at the mosque," Iltimas said.

In the months before Lindh's capture, Iltimas corresponded with the American's mother, Marilyn Walker, who sent anguish-filled letters to the school in search of her son. Then, Iltimas tried to reassure her that Lindh was well but made no mention of his whereabouts.

A visit to the religious school shows the influences under which Lindh lived during his months of study here. On most days, the sounds of the estimated 40 young pupils reciting verses from the Quran, Islam's holy book, echo through the small, dusty school yard.

The school, built two years ago with money donated by a Kuwaiti charity, is modest. The mosque's walls are whitewashed and its floor is covered with a cheap blue carpet.

In the courtyard, a row of water taps standing knee-high line one corner, where worshippers can take the ritual wash required of Muslims before they perform their five daily prayers.

The curriculum taught at the school is exclusively Islamic, and the course on Arabic literature is geared toward improving the students' Arabic, the language of the Quran, rather than literary appreciation.

"No literature for literature's sake in this school," said Iltimas, a cheerful 32-year-old with a hearty laugh. The gate of the school opens to a dirt road, a field, a handful of palm trees and a narrow canal filled with murky water.

The village itself suggests an austere and conservative Islamic lifestyle. Women must be covered from head-to-toe when in public and most men wear full beards, two hallmarks of fundamentalist Muslims.

They seem to bury their dead virtually anywhere. Graves marked only by heaps of rocks can be found outside dwellings and on the edge of fields - a practice harking back to the early days of Islam.

AP-ES-01-25-02 1438EST


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: alfaris; hassanikalansurani; lindh; pakistan; sulayman; sulaymanalfaris; suleyman; taliban; walker
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To: KQQL
I did it all for the nookie...for the nookie...
21 posted on 01/25/2002 12:19:32 PM PST by Delbert
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To: KQQL
Perhaps we'll all be lucky and he'll be meeting those 72 virgins.....sooner rather than later.
22 posted on 01/25/2002 12:19:37 PM PST by OldFriend
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To: AUgrad
Actually, there is an old Arabic saying. "If you must take more than one wife, take four. Two will fight and three will plot against you."
23 posted on 01/25/2002 12:21:35 PM PST by A_perfect_lady
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To: cajungirl
we finally get to the crux of his problem....
24 posted on 01/25/2002 12:22:13 PM PST by is_is
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To: NativeNewYorker
ROFLMAO!
25 posted on 01/25/2002 12:23:50 PM PST by Howlin
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To: OldFriend
I wonder if he wanted all those women to prove something to himself after he found out about his father! (Don't you know they are DYING to use that in his defense, but they can't! HA)
26 posted on 01/25/2002 12:26:10 PM PST by Howlin
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To: KQQL
Iltimas said the 20-year-old Californian also expressed a desire to take four wives

Totally different from his dad, huh? He might have opted for 4 husbands, LOL.

27 posted on 01/25/2002 12:28:27 PM PST by Teacup
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To: Sunshine Sister
It's funny how a "man has needs" but if a woman is raped, she's a gonner! What a disgrace.

In quite a number of Muslim countries, men are regularly executed for adultery. Rape is also a capital crime. Most of the "honor killings" of rape victims we've heard about are cultural peculiarities of certain Muslim countries and are quite rare in others. Certainly the Koran does not prescribe any such thing.

28 posted on 01/25/2002 12:28:50 PM PST by Restorer
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To: Howlin
There is an old saying about children.....Pay attention now or you'll pay attention later. These parents were no doubt glad to get this kid out of their lives. Both went on to new relationships and had no time for Johnny!
29 posted on 01/25/2002 12:29:15 PM PST by OldFriend
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To: cajungirl
How the hell can I get 4 girls in California I need one girlfriend.
30 posted on 01/25/2002 12:29:55 PM PST by weikel
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To: OldFriend
I would have never admitted on national TV that I hadn't seen my son in two years, would you?
31 posted on 01/25/2002 12:30:56 PM PST by Howlin
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To: OldFriend
Looks like Walker had his bases covered. It was to be either 4 wives or 72 virgins depending on how things turned out. Oh well, he needs another plan.
32 posted on 01/25/2002 12:31:24 PM PST by bytesmith
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To: KQQL
Four wives? A fate worse than capital punishment. But if we get to choose for Mr. Walker, might I suggest Rosie O'Donnell, Hillary Clinton, Janet Reno, and Patricia Ireland?
33 posted on 01/25/2002 12:41:34 PM PST by Young Rhino
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To: KQQL
That's it. He's toast. Walker could have personally knifed, gutted and dragged the bodies of any American soldier over there, for all the idiot soccer clods in this country would care. "BUT! The insult! The depravity! The horror! He would think of having 4 wives??!! Why, he obviously thinks of women as PROPERTY!!"

Let's all listen to the tone of these sentimentalist dimwits NOW. Pun intended.

34 posted on 01/25/2002 1:33:07 PM PST by ctonious
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To: Young Rhino
Four wives? A fate worse than capital punishment. But if we get to choose for Mr. Walker, might I suggest Rosie O'Donnell, Hillary Clinton, Janet Reno, and Patricia Ireland?

No, that would be unconstitutional -- cruel and unusual punishment.

35 posted on 01/25/2002 1:46:56 PM PST by Logophile
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To: NativeNewYorker
four husbands would be better :)
36 posted on 01/25/2002 1:49:57 PM PST by mapleleafrag
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To: RetiredArmy
FOUR WIVES!!!!!? That's it. This guy will obviously get off on an insanity plea!
37 posted on 01/25/2002 1:53:18 PM PST by dukeman
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To: Young Rhino
I think you have defined cruel and unusual punishment.
38 posted on 01/25/2002 2:16:54 PM PST by NativeNewYorker
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To: bytesmith
Little did he know he might wind up BEING a wife.
39 posted on 01/25/2002 2:33:40 PM PST by OldFriend
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To: KQQL
"He often told me that the Taliban's Islam was complete and they don't fear anyone except God,"

I'll bet they do now! Else they believe God flies a B-52.

40 posted on 01/25/2002 2:34:19 PM PST by El Gato
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