Pakistani man denies affair with American Taliban

A Pakistani businessman denied a report Monday that ran in Time magazine that implied he'd had a gay affair with John Walker Lindh, the American who joined the Taliban.

Khizar Hayat said he did not tell Time that his relationship with Walker Lindh was sexual. Their relationship, he told CNN, was "the kind of relationship any good Muslim should have with another."

The Time article, which explores how an affluent, privileged young man from suburban Marin County, Calif., ended up in the Taliban, contains the following passage:

"Hayat met Lindh and took him on a tour of various madrasahs, searching for the perfect one from Karachi in the south to Peshawar in the northwest. The young American rejected them all and preferred remaining at Hayat's side. He helped Hayat at his store, a prosperous business dealing in powdered milk. Hayat, who has a wife and four children, says he had sex with Lindh. 'He was liking me very much. All the time he wants to be with me,' says Hayat, who has a good though not colloquial command of English. 'I was loving him. Because love begets love, you know.'"

Lindh's lawyers deny that their client engaged in any gay relationships.