Mohammed Taheri-azar's fellow Muslims describe him as cantankerous and unorthodox in his practice of Islam, yet the man accused of running down UNC-Chapel Hill students says he will sacrifice himself for his religion.

"If Allah wills, I will plead guilty to all 18 charges currently against me and I expect a life term in prison," he wrote in a letter received Wednesday by a News & Observer reporter.

Taheri-azar, 22, said that the Muslim holy book, the Quran, gave him permission to drive a Jeep Cherokee into a campus plaza March 3 "to punish the U.S. government, the enemy of my brothers and sisters in religion." The suspect, who is to appear in Orange County court today for a hearing, says he wants his message broadcast around the world.

His pronouncements don't ring true to Muslim students at UNC-CH, who said Taheri-azar was anything but traditionally devout, or to high school friends who said he had American tastes in clothes, culture and fast cars. Taheri-azar says he aimed to kill his classmates, yet he volunteered in the emergency room at UNC Hospitals. Friends describe him as unfailingly polite, yet he enjoyed provoking his teachers.

On campus, he frequented a student union prayer room, Muslim students said, but he wouldn't pray toward Mecca and refused to recite prayers in Arabic -- contrary to standard Islamic practice.

"His prayer was obviously very, very different from the norm," said Atif Mohiuddin, a UNC-CH sophomore from Valdese who ran into Taheri-azar several times last year in the prayer room.

Taheri-azar would not respond to "Assalaam Alaikum," a common Arabic greeting.

"He never had any intention to learn Arabic," Mohiuddin said. "I never heard of a Muslim who was so anti-Arabic."

'He didn't even cuss'

Taheri-azar, a U.S. citizen, was born in Iran. His parents, Lily and Latif, were married in Tehran in 1972, but divorced in 2003, records show. Mohammed was the middle child with older and younger sisters.

A woman who answered the door at the family home this week said the family would not talk about the case.

The upper middle class household wasn't overtly religious, friends said. At South Mecklenburg High School, Taheri-Azar wore polo shirts and khakis, did not drink alcohol, ate fast food and played video games.

"He was somewhat socially awkward, not to the point that he would shy away from people, but he would never make an effort to go out," said Justin Kirschbrown, a UNC-CH senior and high school classmate who also worked with Taheri-azar at a Best Buy in Charlotte.

He was reserved -- "He didn't even cuss," said Sean Cordova, another high school friend -- but also stubborn. Taheri-azar was known for making provocative comments in class, just to challenge teachers.

"He would dig his heels in even when he was in the wrong," said Phillip Bush, a classmate at South Mecklenburg and UNC. "In high school, you kind of respected it."

Cars revealed a wild side. Taheri-azar claimed to have gotten his license at 12 and talked about driving cars in the Iranian desert, Kirschbrown said.

"That was the thing with Mo -- you never knew if he was lying," Kirschbrown said last week.

A South Mecklenburg yearbook caption labeled him "South's Speedster." In his souped-up Eagle Talon, Taheri-azar would race on Charlotte's highways, often topping 100 mph, friends said.

"I think he had the fastest car in school," said Cordova, who remembered watching Taheri-azar lose control in a street race, resulting in two 360-degree turns on a Charlotte highway.

Between 2001 and 2003, police ticketed Taheri-azar four times for unnecessary honking, driving down the middle of two lanes of traffic, and failure to obey directions at a police checkpoint. He was last ticketed in June 2003 for traveling at 74 mph in a 45-mph zone along N.C. 54 in Carrboro.

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