Taliban terrorist John Walker, aka Abdul Hamid, and his parents are in parallel universes. John/Abdul fought in the jihad of his Taliban heroes because, he said, “the Taliban are the only government that actually provides Islamic law.” His father says the boy just had bad judgment, his mother says he must have been brainwashed. This appears to be the tale of the dysfunctional American domestic arrangement. Lots of searching, but no one ever finding anything – parents following and indulging, rather than leading and teaching their children. The result: Children fighting a jihad against their parents’ country, their parents left making excuses and wondering how to connect the dots.
Catholic Frank Lindh and his Buddhist wife Marilyn Walker (Abdul uses his mother’s last name when going by “John” at all) allowed their son to drop out of school at 16, and float off to Yemen at 17, to study Islam. Mr. Lindh says he knew his “days of molding” his son were over two years later when John/Abdul defended Osama bin Laden’s terrorist bombing of the USS Cole. John/Abdul said that terrorist attack, which killed 17 U.S. sailors, was justified because merely docking the ship in Yemen, an Islamic country, was “an act of war.” One wonders what sort of parental molding had taken place prior to that; all these parents appear to have believed in for their son was searching for whatever he wanted to find.
While in Yemen, John/Abdul associated with Muslim rebels who had fought the Russians in Chechnya. He moved to a Pakistani region widely known for strongly supporting bin Laden. None of these signs said anything to Mr. Lindh, who claims it “never entered his mind” that John/Abdul might become a militant himself.
But think about this, just for a minute: It is not normal for a boy suddenly to become so obsessed with a new religion that he drops out of high school, wears robes and turbans all over the place, changes his name and goes halfway around the world to pursue this new religion. All before he’s old enough to vote! This is way more than someone interested in scholarship – this is a zealot.
Well, there was “shy and timid” John/Abdul fighting with his fellow jihadi Taliban fighters defending the Afghan city of Konduz against the Northern Alliance. The Taliban surrendered and, when led to prison, threw hidden grenades to kill more of their enemy. It took bombs and flooding to flush “confused” and “mistaken” John/Abdul and his fellow Taliban fighters out of their basement hide-out – studious and kind John/Abdul had an AK-47 in his hands when they nabbed him.
On “Larry King,” Mr. Lindh went on and on about how badly his son was treated, insisting anew that he was a “really good boy.” According to Newsweek, John/Abdul had only a small gunshot wound in his right leg, yet the uprising led by his fellow Taliban fighters resulted in the death of American CIA agent Johnny (Mike) Spann. Mr. Lindh did not mention that.
John’s parents did not think him overly impressionable when all it took to catapult him from Catholicism into Islam was reading a single book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X. They did not think him brainwashed when their teenager wanted to drop out and head out – halfway around the world to a tiny Yemeni village. No, as a neighbor described it, that was just being “intellectually curious, very thoughtful and very philosophical” and “interested in new ideas.” It was hip, cosmopolitan, enlightened.
John/Abdul’s parents thought him studious and scholarly. They encouraged their son to explore, to go wherever his heart led him, to pursue his dreams and passions. They even subsidized his efforts. That part was all John/Abdul. When the road they helped provide led to holy war, however, John/Abdul’s parents insist that what followed was not their son’s fault, but some “charismatic leader” who somehow seized control of their impressionable son. Suddenly, they refuse to give their son any more credit for his choices, hold him accountable for his decisions, or admit that he was doing exactly what he wanted to do.
When it appeared that John/Abdul merely wanted to study the Koran and maybe help the poor, he was a “really good boy” who was just into “social justice.” When John/Abdul’s chosen path led him to bin Laden’s terrorist training camp, when he chose to become a jihadi holy warrior, when he eventually supported the Sept. 11 terrorist bombings of the World Trade Center, this “shy, sweet” boy was now a victim of the Taliban rather than its faithful soldier.
The sad thing is that John/Abdul’s parents appear just as lost as their son. They were all intellectual and well-educated, but where did all that cognitive activity lead them? They were all interested in new ideas, but are now faced with what pursuit without truth can become. “I’m proud of John,” Mr. Lindh said. “He’s a really good boy, a really sweet boy.” A father should love his son no matter what, but this one’s in a different universe.
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WND Staff