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
It would have been easier and cheaper for him to move to some little town in the boonies of Utah, and eventually, he'd get to be god of his very own planet, too.
Don't you think that with those rosy cheeks he will more likely get four husbands?
You got that right. Four wives! I can't keep one off my a**. Imagine if they could work in shifts.
Ever seen the Classic Trek I, Mudd?
As a final blow to Mr. Mudd, Kirk also leaves behind several android copies of his shrewish wife Stella.
Are you kidding?? That skinny punk??? He's got "Maytag" written all over him...
g
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