Fate brought a 16 year old confused Catholic boy to the doors of a mosque in Mill Valley in Northern California. After some initial indoctrination in the US, John Lindh ended up in Yemen to learn Arabic and to learn about/live an Islamic life. From there he proceeded to the town of Bannu in the North West Frontier province of Pakistan, where he signed up at a Madrasa to end up becoming more radicalized. His life journey took him to Afghanistan to become a Taliban fighter. In the aftermath of 9/11, he was captured as 'enemy combatant 001' and brought back to the US. All his experiences failed to ween him away from Islam; in fact, while in jail, he signed up with the University of Indiana for a correspondence course in Islamic studies. 10 years later, he achieved his lifelong dream of memorizing the whole Koran. Another 10 years and he would have completed his jail sentence to become a free man again and live amongst us. His parents being parents, have steadfastly supported him all along and blamed the sensationalism of the media for all their son's troubles. It is sad to see the twists and turns that his parents have been going through, but nature has a way of making people work out their past Karma. I just hope that such a thing does not happen to anyone that I know.
Bookmarks