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American Morning

Interview of Joshua Mortensen, Who Studied With Walker in Yemen

Aired January 08, 2002 - 09:12   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: When John Walker went abroad to study in 1998, his first stop was in Yemen. Freelance journalist Joshua Mortensen (ph) attended the same Arabic language school there, and he says Walker's interests went far beyond the Arabic language. Joshua Mortensen joins us now from Cairo.

Welcome, Joshua. I wanted to quickly lift a little bit of what you wrote in Salon.com that hit their web page a couple days ago, and you were talking about John Walker, and you said -- quote -- "I knew him better as Yusuf Islam, other wise known as Cat Stevens, the Muslim convert who became famous for his support of the fatwa -- that is the cynical nickname that Walker's fellow Arabic students gave him when he arrived." Why were they so cynical about his motivations?

JOSHUA MORTENSEN, STUDIED WITH WALKER: Well, I think when he arrived, he arrived in that sort of caricatured outfit that seems to be popular with some Muslim converts, you know, the robe and the beard, the sandals, and he was -- he was very interested in a very doctrinaire (ph) sort of particular kind of Islam, that these lifelong Muslim students that I was studying with weren't exactly comfortable with, you know, dealing with, from this -- from, you know, who -- a person who they saw as kind of a beginner to their faith. And so -- Yusuf Islam is mildly famous in some circles as being perhaps a little bit overzealous, following his conversion to Islam, so --

ZAHN: Well, Joshua, based on what you have just said, you also have heard, over there, that a lot of people, including John Walker's own mother, have said that he has been brainwashed along the way. Do you buy that?

MORTENSEN: I would have to say that I don't buy that in that -- he arrived quite rigid and quite convinced of a certain kind of Islam, or a certain interpretation of Islam, which I can only imagine he picked on his own, he was interpreting on his own, and he had come to Yemen to study Arabic to learn more about the Koran, and more about Islam, but he seemed already kind of convinced of the path that those studies would take, and so I saw -- the John Walker I interacted with there, you know, seemed to have been taking care of the brain-washing all by himself prior to arrival in Yemen. But I don't know that brain-washing is really a good word for it, per se. I mean, he was just a young man with strong convictions, and I think that those led to very, very poor decisions. ZAHN: And in closing this morning, he disappeared from the school, which was a source of speculation, I guess, for students and teachers alike. Where do you think he went, and what did you talk about at that point?

MORTENSEN: Well, he disappeared rather abruptly, and -- actually, I couldn't say. The rumor was that he had traveled north to study with someone more focused on Arabic for the Koran. There are various levels of Arabic, and the Koranic Arabic was not something that was available in the school we were in, and he wasn't that happy with the Muslim students he saw there, so -- that was rumor. He had taken off to the north, but we really had no information indeed where he had gone.

ZAHN: All right, -- we are going to have to leave there this morning. I apologize, we are getting a little interference with the satellite here at home. We appreciate your reminiscences of John Walker. Again, John Mortensen having studied at a language school with John Walker years ago, back in 1998 in Yemen. Thank you very much for your time.

MORTENSEN: Thank you.

ZAHN: All right, so it was a little bit tricky when you've got the satellite up from Cairo. Were you were able to hear the last bit of what he said, because he cut out in my ear.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN FINANCIAL ANCHOR: Yeah, no, I did hear it.

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