Approximately thirteen centuries ago, the prophet Mohammad converted a few Arab desert tribes to belief in a single god, Allah, founding the religion of Islam. Within a century, this belief had created one of history's mightiest empires, and still has major influences in today's world. In recent years, Islam has been under attack as a result of a few radical members who have decided to stand out for beliefs against those of the general public. One of the most prominent radicals, at least to the American public, is John Walker Lindh also known as the "Taliban American". .
John Philip Walker Lindh was born on February 9, 1981 in Takoma Park, Maryland. From an early age, Walker-Lindh showed an aptitude for learning and in elementary school he joined a special program for gifted children. When Walker-Lindh was ten, the family moved across the country to Marin County in a suburb twenty miles north of San Francisco. Walker-Lindh bounced around from school to school until finally settling at Tamsical High School, which featured a self-paced and highly advanced curriculum. It was here, while delving into religious texts for various school projects that Walker-Lindh's interest in Islam blossomed. Walker-Lindh was awed by movies such as "Malcolm X" where the vision of so many people from different places bowing before God showed a unity he desperately wanted to be a part of. Walker-Lindh made his official conversion to Islam at the age of sixteen, and began making plans to leave the country for his post-high school education. Within a year, Walker-Lindh had left the United States for Yemen to study the form of Arabic .
that most closely resembles the Arabic in the Qu"ran. At the Yemen Language Center, Walker-Lindh's tenure was much shorter than expected as he became thoroughly dissatisfied with the school's curriculum within a week of his arrival. Walker-Lindh's path to enlightenment took him to Jami"at al-Iman next, where he enrolled in a school with a stronger Islamic emphasis than the emphasis at the Yemen Language Center.
