Yesterday, new details emerged yesterday about al Muhajir's life in the United States, including his conversion from Roman Catholicism to Islam in the mid-1990s. The leader of the Darul Uloom Institute, a school in Pembroke Pines, Fla., where al Muhajir studied Islam in 1995, described him as an extremely observant Muslim who stood out at the relatively liberal facility.
I've got to say, I suspect this is government disinformation. Other stories don't have him attending Darul Uloom until 1998 or so. Other stories (like this morning's one about the Taco Bell) have him converting to Islam in '92 or '93. I suspect these stories appeared today in the Washington Post and NY Times to try to shoot down any speculation about what Padilla was doing in '95.