by Dogpatch 7 Replies latest jw friends
A good article on Saving the American Taliban: John Walker Lindh
http://www.watchtowernews.org/johnwalker.htm
original at:
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/353/oped/Saving_the_American_Taliban_+.shtml
Randy Watters
Net Soup!
http://www.freeminds.org
Hi Randy:
Nice article. Two nights ago, a group of my friends was discussing whether or not WALKER was "spoiled" by his parents funding all of his fanaticism.
One person argued that WALKER was in fact very courageous to leave his economic utopia and live in the middle east amongst poverty. That person continued arguing saying he was not crazy, or demented or even brainwashed. Perhaps he was truly motivated to do something about the problems in Afghanistan.
In other words, while sending gifts and food "looks" good, WALKER really gave a hard core sacrifice by giving up everything to join their cause. How many americans would do that?
Did he actually fire at americans? Did he blow anything up? We don't know for sure, but, I have come to believe he is not crazy, just a little too perceptive and too real.
Now, during conflicts, the media and the government needs scapegoats and targets to generate support, sympathy and enthusiasm. I don't think he should be killed, unless he injured or killed americans.
If he killed americans, then get the injections ready! If not, leave him there and terminate his american rights, unless he is cooperative and is willing to reform his activism.
I don't think he should be killed, unless he injured or killed americans.If he killed americans, then get the injections ready! If not, leave him there and terminate his american rights, unless he is cooperative and is willing to reform his activism.
Well said. We of course knew all along that only American lives count on this planet. All other people are of course fair game, you can kill all you want, just not Americans. Wow! It is nice to actually have this worldview confirmed so well. Well done!
Wonder how the "all are equal" squad feel about this? They probably think it is great.
Norm.
In 1991 the family moved to San Anselmo, Calif., in opulent, socially liberal Marin County. John told people that he wanted to help the poor when he grew up. After a semester at a local high school, John transferred to Tamiscal High, an alternative school with 100 students and a self-directed, individualized course of study. He studied world arts and culture, including Islam and the Middle East. [John's mother] Marilyn Walker had left Catholicism and become a Buddhist; John was intrigued by religion too. "She opened all those doors for her kids," says Bill Jones, a family friend, "instead of dragging her kids into Catholicism like she'd been dragged into it."
Apparently it was The Autobiography of Malcolm X that inspired Walker to convert to Islam. [his father] Frank Lindh was accepting but his mother had reservations. "She was concerned," says Marilyn's friend Stephanie Hendricks. "You have a 16-year-old kid who gets involved in any kind of religion in a passionate way, and you're going to want to know more about it, right?"
On Friday nights he would attend services at the Islamic Center of Mill Valley. Abdullah Nana, now 23, recalls that when he first saw Walker, he stood out immediately, not simply because he was a white man in a mostly Indian congregation but because he was already devoted to Islam and without a referral from another Muslim. The two teenagers struck up a friendship and frequently spent the 20 minutes between Walker's house and the mosque in rapt discussion of the Koran.
In 1998 Walker graduated early from Tamiscal High. He asked that the name on his diploma be changed to Sulayman Al-Lindh. He found an Arabic-language school in San'a, Yemen, on the Internet. "The language spoken in Yemen is closer to the holy language of the Koran and the sayings of the Prophet," explains Nana. Walker also felt it would be easier to practice Islam in a Muslim country. In December 1998 he left for the Middle East.
From the ages of 16 to 18, John Walker had transformed himself from a quiet, smooth-cheeked American teenager to a devout, bearded Muslim studying in Yemen. That he could grow the requisite beard was something of a miracle. Were his parents really onboard with all this - the new name; the move to Yemen? Frank Lindh says yes. "He was always intellectually coherent, and he had a wonderful sense of humor," Lindh told reporters. "And none of that changed when he converted to Islam. I never had any major misgivings."
When Walker returned to California around Christmas 1999, he found his parents had separated. He saw Nana and told him that Yemen hadn't met his expectations. "They weren't as orthodox as he thought--they weren't as strict on Islam as he thought," says Nana. But to Abdul Wadood, a 20-year-old Muslim friend who also met Walker at the Mill Valley mosque, John sounded fulfilled. Through his e-mail communications, he told Wadood he felt "free" because he didn't have any material possessions. Wadood says his friend never experienced culture shock because he was so "open-minded." But Walker may have also been a bit too trusting. He just "let anybody in," says Wadood.
When the U.S.S. Cole was bombed in October 2000, Walker was back in Yemen. In an e-mail exchange with his son, Frank Lindh said he felt terrible for the victims and their families. John's reply suggested that the attack may have been justified because the Cole was docked in an Islamic country.
A month after the Cole bombing, Walker left Yemen for Bannu, a village in Pakistan's northwest, to attend an Islamic school, or madrasah. Pakistan's madrasahs specialize in teaching students to memorize the Koran. They are also reputed to provide thousands of soldiers for the Taliban.
John Walker's last contact with his family was in May 2001. He told his mother he was leaving Bannu and "moving somewhere cooler for the summer." He asked his father for money, and Frank Lindh sent him $1,200. It wasn't long before Marilyn Walker wondered just where her son had gone.
On Dec. 1, Marilyn Walker and Frank Lindh saw their son on television. John was filthy and had a bullet wound in his leg. John told CNN where he had been the past six months. "I was a student in Pakistan, studying Islam, and came into contact with many people connected with the Taliban," he said. "The people in general have a great love for the Taliban. So I started to read some of the literature of the scholars, the history of Kabul. My heart became attached to that." John said he had been sent to an Arabic-speaking al-Qaeda camp, where he learned to shoot a Kalashnikov. He saw Osama bin Laden several times. He answered the call to jihad and fought in Kashmir and Kunduz. Then he became a prisoner of war.
John Walker's case is strange, but it may not be unique. The Defense Department is looking for two other Americans rumored to have fought for the Taliban. Walker is now in the custody of the U.S. military, and late Saturday the Pentagon said he is being held at Camp Rhino in Afghanistan. "What we really want is some communication with them as to how he is," says the family's recently hired attorney, James Brosnahan. The family's concern is not the government's top priority.
Source: Time Magazine
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John Lindh reminds me of my brother, a devout orthodox Muslim. Neither are rabid anti-American traitors. They are both more citizens of the world than of America, that's all. I don't begrudge them that. Nor do I see John's situation as treasonous.
Why must someone who leaves this country and finds beauty and comfort in another be suspected of brainwashing? In the humanities class I just finished, we learned that the Arabic culture dominated Western civilization for more than a thousand years and was superior to European culture in many ways. Why should we find fault with someone for wanting to enjoy such a life... and fight for it?
It's the American Way.
[Why must someone who leaves this country and finds beauty and comfort in another be suspected of brainwashing? In the humanities class I just finished, we learned that the Arabic culture dominated Western civilization for more than a thousand years and was superior to European culture in many ways. Why should we find fault with someone for wanting to enjoy such a life... and fight for it?
It's the American Way.]
The Muslim Sufi mystic culture produced probably the most inspiring and beautiful poetry ever. The Arab culture of course has centuries of riches behind it. Yet, using a belief to join an extremist faction that approves of horrid acts is indeed mind control.
Although Walker will become an icon and a scapegoat for hatred, his role was rather minimal in the scheme of things.
I do understand what you are saying though. I think the American nation has received a wake up call, but I fear the lesson will escape us. So many issues are absent from the press, for example how has Turkey being able to hold a mostly Muslim population yet remain democratic, why are other democratic nations not singled out for this much hate, what role foreign policy has played in all of this.
And probably, the biggest issue...the danger of falling into the trap of renouncing basic civil liberties, the mark of Big Brother.
Hello, J. appreciated your comments.
I don't think that John Lindh fell in love with Islam because it "approved of horrid acts." I'm not a John Lindh expert, but from what I've learned of the young man, he always held a fascination for the religion/culture, studied it and liked it more, moved overseas and loved it even more. Does that mean he approved of having women beheaded in a soccer field or that he saw America thru the Talian's glasses? I don't think so.
I could be wrong, but I think he was fascinated, and perhaps justifiably so, with Islam's rich history and contributions to Western civilization; the humility of the people and the religion; the tolerance and the general disdain for rank of social status that is the norm here in the West.
I have no personal knowledge of the man, but based on what I DO know, he's no traitor. He was not fighting AGAINST anything. He was fighting FOR his beliefs. There's a huge difference.
Hi Teejay
In no way I implied he fell in love with terror. I think he fell in love with a fascinating culture. But, in the process was indeed victimized by the terrorists.
He would not be the first American to travel and explore other cultures and other religions.I don't think this is strange at all. It's evidence of a heart who's yearning and is unfulfilled or in awe of knowledge. But, becoming involved with a millenary civilization should not make one defend aberration.
And, perhaps this is off topic. But, all these old civilizations seem to leave women out of the spiritual equation, maybe not in ideals, but certainly in real life practice.
It is not required that Jihad Johnny actually fired on Americans themselves to prove the Treason, if he held a weapon or at all VOLUNTARILY resisted the forces he knew were backed by the US he is guilty of treason. The problem comes with needing two witnesses to testify to this.
For my part I say we pump the little jerk for all the info he can give and then turn him back over to the Northern Alliance to do with what they will like the majority of other non-Afghani Taliban. The little shit.
He made his bed, let him lie in it.
YERUSALYIM
"Vanity! It's my favorite sin!"
[Al Pacino as Satan, in "DEVIL'S ADVOCATE"]
