Posted on 05/05/2002 7:15:19 AM PDT by tomahawk
Muslim cleric defends American Taliban
By Anwar Iqbal
WASHINGTON, May 4 (UPI) -- In a rare interview earlier this week, the man who taught American Taliban John Walker Lindh at a Muslim seminary described him as a religious man who prayed till late into night.
Talking to a group of Pakistani journalists at his village near the Pakistan-Afghan border, Mufti Mohammed Altamas said Lindh came to his school called Madrasah Arabia Hassani two years ago.
On Nov. 27, 2000 he was enrolled as "a student of Koran and Islamic studies." He stayed there till May 15, 2001 but harsh Pakistani summer forced him to "leave the school for Afghanistan cooler climate," Altamas said.
Altamas runs a school of Deobandi sect of Islam in the Bannu district of Pakistan's northwest frontier province. Being close to Afghanistan, it also attracted hundreds of Taliban and it was in this madrasah that Lindh met the members of the ferocious Afghan militia.
Founded in northern India in the 19th century, the Deobandi sect practices a strict version of Islam. Like the ruling Wahabi sect of Saudi Arabia, the Deobandis also urge Muslims to purify their lives by returning to the fundamentals of Islam and encourage them to give up such worldly pleasures as watching television or listening to music.
They enjoy close ties with the Wahabis and some of them also acknowledge receiving financial assistance from their patrons in Saudi Arabia.
Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers also belonged to this sect.
Prominent Deobandi leaders openly supported Osama bin Laden and one of them -- Maulana Fazlur Rahman -- issued a religious edict in 1998, saying that Muslims will be obliged to kill any American they saw, if Washington killed bin Laden. The edict was issued after U.S. rocket attacks on bin Laden's bases in Afghanistan and Sudan following the August 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassies in East Africa.
"It was unfortunate for Lindh to be exposed to such a militant form of Islam soon after conversion," said a Pakistani intelligence officer who monitors the madrasahs for his agency. "In those days, Deobandi madrasahs were like recruiting grounds for Afghan Taliban. So we are not surprised that he ended up joining the militia."
Now 21, Lindh was "only 16 when he converted," said Altamas. "He was one of my best students. He had an unquenchable desire for knowledge. He studied all day, and sometimes late into the night."
"During the six months he was with us, he had already learned one-fourth of the Koran by heart," said Altamas. He was referring to a particular course taught at the madrasahs called Qira'at, which requires a student to memorize the entire Muslim book and recite it at mosques and other places when needed. Since the Koran is twice as thick as the Bible, sometimes it takes years to memorize the whole book.
"Besides Koran, he had a set of books on Islam in English and he was always reading them," said Altamas, adding: "I believe he is a saint, God's representative in America."
He said that Lindh's parents were very worried about their son and often tried to persuade him to return home. "During those six months, I also received four letters from his mother. She was very sad and worried. I wrote back, telling her that she had no reason to worry. Her son was a scholar, who spent all his time studying and had no interest in frivolous activities," said Altamas.
He said he first met Lindh in the northwestern Pakistani city of Bannu. "During this meeting he told me he wanted to learn the Koran. I invited him to my madrasah. He came, checked our meager facilities and decided to register."
"He was a pious man. When not studying, he was praying. Sometimes he prayed all night. He prayed with so much devotion that it also softened my heart and made me cry."
Little is known about Lindh's Islamic past and this is the first interview about his life in a madrasah. Previous media reports say little about how and why he converted to Islam and ended up in Afghanistan, joining ranks with the Taliban and allegedly al Qaida fighters.
Arrested during a prison uprising in northern Afghanistan, Lindh was born in the Marin country in California. Now back in the United States, he faces multiple counts of conspiracy before a federal court. His trial is slated to begin in late August.
Prosecutors say that Lindh was active in the overall conspiracy to kill Americans by accepting training from bin Laden's al Qaida network and by his role as a soldier for the Taliban.
A CIA agent Johnny Michael Spann was killed in the prison uprising in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif that led to Lindh's arrest. But Lindh is not charged with specific violent acts during the prison fight that killed Spann.
Before the uprising Spann and another CIA employee had tried to question Lindh, seeking information about the Taliban and al Qaida.
The prosecutors say that they gave up after Lindh refused to cooperate.
Lindh's defense team is attempting to prove that he was held in inhumane conditions during captivity after his arrest and argues that those inhumane conditions should negate apparently incriminating statements he made to investigators and the media.
Hopefully his "team" can get the charges dropped so this poor victim of the US can go free.
Release at Central Park in Manhattan would be nice.
That would give the poor boy a chance to breath some fresh air and relax.
NYPD & NYFD should be notified so they can send representives to welcome him back into society.
No big ceremony, just a casual event, maybe even a picnic, and pig roast.
Therefore it would be silly to believe anything whatsoever in this article.
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