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Spiritual Journey Led to Jihad, al-Qaeda
Wednesday, January 16, 2002
(6:54 AM ET)
By Martin Kasindorf
USA Today

The journey of John Walker Lindh to jihad and capture in Afghanistan began as a spiritual quest in California. It led the 20-year-old product of a prosperous San Francisco suburb to al-Qaeda terrorist training camps and alleged encounters with Osama bin Laden. Walker, born in Washington, D.C., was baptized a Roman Catholic and raised in the suburbs of Maryland. He was 10 when his father, Justice Department lawyer Frank Lindh, was hired by Pacific Gas & Electric and moved to Marin County, Calif., near San Francisco. Marin County is known for its affluent residents' openness to non-traditional lifestyles. John's mother, Marilyn Walker, a stay-at-home mom who became a part-time home-health-care aide, explored Native American religions before becoming a Buddhist. (John began using his mother's last name after his parents separated in 1998.) Both parents encouraged John, the second of their three children, to study and think independently.

A bright, shy teenager who shunned sports, played the flute and collected hip-hop CDs, he said he wanted to be a doctor and "help the poor."

Walker displayed his first interest in Islam at 15. On a Web chat site devoted to Islamic topics, he confided that he was torn between his music and a religion that, he'd heard, bans music. At Tamiscal High School, he was a high-achieving student allowed to design his course of study. Reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X inspired him to study Islam intensely, his father says.
(More: USA Today News Source)
2002 © USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Dan