Posted on 12/04/2001 4:44:03 AM PST by YaYa123
"The Boy Who Loved bin Laden John Phillip Walker Lindh, aka Sulayman al Faris, aka Abdul Hamid, was a spiritual kid. He joined the Taliban, and his mother couldn't be prouder.
IN THIS WEEK'S Newsweek we learn that American Taliban is no longer just a figure of speech. Colin Soloway reports that one of the 86 survivors of the Mazar-i-Sharif prison uprising, a filthy looking jihadist going by the name "Abdul Hamid," is actually "a white, apparently middle-class American, a convert to Islam" who grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., and (are you surprised?) Northern California.
A companion piece, a Newsweek "web exclusive", provides more biographical detail. There we learn that 20-year-old Abdul, raised John Phillip Walker Lindh, is a "sweet, shy kid" who "wanted to study somewhere where [Islam] is practiced in its purest form." That would be his mother speaking. Now, there's not much larger significance to this story that I can see, but it does nicely illustrate two enduring motifs in American journalism.
1) This is a big country. A population of 250-plus million makes for lots of oddballs, a surprising number of whom eventually hook up with reporters.
And 2) Where do they find these parents? On the face of it, John Phillip "Abdul Hamid" Walker Lindh, now reportedly in the custody of American Special Forces, looks likely to be tried for treason. And his parents, who one assumes must be distraught beyond measure, nonetheless babble to reporters about what a good boy he is. That, and give evidence that he knew exactly what he was doing.
Here's Dad, a lawyer by the way: "When the U.S.S. Cole was bombed as it refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden in October of 2000, killing 17 U.S. sailors, father and son had an uncomfortable e-mail exchange. Frank says he was upset that the dead sailors were the same age as his son. John seemed to have a more casual view of the attack, which U.S. authorities blamed on operatives of Osama bin Laden. He suggested that the U.S. ship should never have been there in the first place, and that by docking in an Islamic country, had committed an 'act of war.' The bombing, John implied, was a justified response. Lindh says he was 'concerned' by his son's views, but felt that since John was an adult, there was little he could do to change them. 'It was clear he had developed a different point of view,' says Lindh. 'My days of molding him were over.'"
Maybe his days of molding his son were over, but he was still paying his bills. When "Abdul" e-mailed his parents in April that he was going to leave the madrassah in Pakistan and go "somewhere cooler" (Afghanistan), Dad wired $1,200.
Mom, meanwhile, thinks if "he got involved with the Taliban he must have been brainwashed." But she is proud of him and seems to have been supportive when he dropped out of high school to study the Koran at a San Francisco mosque, and then spent a year in Yemen as a 17-year-old attending the Yemeni Language Institute.
Someone in this family may have been brainwashed, but it doesn't sound like it was Abdul, the Marin County jihadist.
Postscript: Multiculturalists will be pleased to learn that Abdul Hamid's parents say he decided to convert after being assigned to read "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" in high school. It's always uplifting to be reminded that books can change people's lives, right? What do you want to bet Alex Haley's classic isn't on as many high schools' required reading lists by next fall as it is now."
Richard Starr is a managing editor at The Weekly Standard.
He told Chris Janssen his son went over there to study Islam and Arabic, that he went there before America was there, and it isn't wrong for him to fight with the Taliban against the Northern Alliance, which he describes as a civil war. It's not illegal for an American to fight in foreign civil wars. The boy just made some bad choices, he didn't do anything illegal. I did catch the father in one blatant lie. On all the other shows, he said his last contact with his son was in May. Then, in the MSNBC interview with Chris Janssen this morning, he casually mentioned he had received a letter from his son during the summer.
I am not trying to too my own horn, but I had an impression of these sick parents the first time info about this traitor came up. This may explain it:
He then wires his son $1200 that the son uses to join Osama's army. He knew his son had anti-American views, but still sent him money. I think a case can be made against the father for aiding his son.
Are his parents dreaming? Do they have any idea of what the kid is in for?
Chris Janssen asked the father if he had sought help from the government. Good question. Has he called Barbara Boxer or Diane Feinstein for assistance? (I don't know who is Representative is.) When asked, the father didn't respond directly...he simply said, we are doing everything we can think of to get in touch with our son.
It will be fun to see how Boxer handles this hot potato. I bet her pollsters are at work already.
"...he was upset that the dead sailors were the same age as his son." It was their age that bothered him?
"...he must have been brainwashed"
It didn't take me long to figure out Marin County, California. I had on my running shoes when I left--and an emesis bag around my neck!
Um...pardon my ignorance (this book certainly wasn't "required reading" back when I was in high school), but wasn't "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" written by Malcolm X?
The book truly, however, is a must read. The problem is that too many people on both sides of the issue either don't read, or convienently forget, that the end of the book deals with Malcolm's split from the Nation of Islam and realization that the hate they spread is evil.
*My* days of speaking to him and supporting him would be over, as well. Anyone spouting that crap, relative or not, would be DEAD to me until they came to their senses.
His father was brainwashed by the new "multicultural", "empowering", your_politically_correct_word_here, total left-wing educational system, and he aided in his son's brainwashing by passing his state-controlled "views" along to his son in the process of "molding" him.
How typical of the left-wing to allow their kid to quit school and move to Pakistan to study Islam, then to say that he's a good boy and he's an adult and "my days of molding him are over". After all this, they refuse to admit - even to themselves - that they had a hand in creating a terrorist.
This is NOT a good boy. Whatever he was before he became "molded", this kid is a terrorist now.
I was going to plead ignorance and ask what the Weekly Standard writers meant by this.
Was Alex Haley involved in the writing of The Autobiography of Malcolm X? Or is there something in Roots that might equally lead young minds astray?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.