Recalling a student's paper on the bloody Crusades for the Holy Land has given the teacher who assigned it pause 26 years later.

The paper's author, Christopher Paul, is now accused of training al-Qaida terrorists.

Paul was a sophomore at Worthington High School in 1981 when he wrote the paper for Mark Ellwood's world history class. Ellwood still teaches history at the school, now known as Thomas Worthington High. Elwood's world history course covered the Crusades' effect on Western and Muslim cultures in the Middle Ages.

Paul, then known by his given name of Paul Kenyatta Laws, wrote that the Crusades raised Muslims' suspicions about the Christian West that continued into modern times.

Paul was surprised to learn that Christians had killed Muslims and Jews during the campaigns, Ellwood said.

"I remember we discussed it," he said. "I had the distinct impression in high school that he was Muslim."

Paul was arrested by FBI agents last week and charged with conspiring to support terrorists, conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction and providing support to terrorists. He is accused of plotting and training others for attacks on Americans outside the United States.

Ellwood said he saw Paul about two years ago at the World Gym in Worthington. Paul was running at a fast pace on the treadmill.

It took him a second to put a name with the bearded face, but Ellwood said he remembered Paul. The two talked briefly.

Paul said he was taking a computer electronics class at Columbus State Community College.

Ellwood didn't know his former student had changed his name from Paul Laws to Abdulmalek Kenyatta in 1989 when he converted to Islam. Federal authorities said that it was after the name change that Paul traveled to various countries and established a relationship with al-Qaida.

When converting, Muslims choose a name that has meaning to them, said Alam Payind, director of Ohio State University's Middle East Studies Center.

"No one can really analyze why he did it, his real motivation," Payind said of the names Paul chose. Abdul and Malek are common Arabic names, Payind said. Abdul means "slave of Allah" and Malek means "sovereignty" or "royalty," he said.

When Paul returned to the U.S. in 1994, he changed his name again, this time to Christopher Paul.

For Muslims to change their name a second time isn't unusual, Payind said. Sometimes people aren't comfortable with the Muslim names they had chosen.

Paul's wife and his family have declined to comment.

If Paul was involved in something nefarious, a name change "might be a camouflage," Payind said. Some Muslims after Sept. 11, 2001, changed their name for fear that they would be unfairly suspected of being terrorists.

Paul's Muslim name is similar to that of al-Qaida figure Abdul Malik, who is being held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. U.S. officials have dubbed him a "dangerous terrorist suspect."

Though federal officials have said Paul met al-Qaida officials in his travels, it's unknown whether he met or even knew of Malik.

Fred Alverson, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Columbus, declined to comment about the name changes.

Though Paul's arrest had Ellwood thinking of his student's paper again, the writing wasn't so radical at the time as to have raised a red flag.

"This young guy was a good kid," Ellwood said. "Whatever led him to this, this history teacher never would have predicted it."

jandes@dispatch.com