Boston Bombing Suspect Exhibited Extremism at Local Mosque

April 23, 2013

Two ethnic Chechen brothers, suspected of the double bombings at the Boston marathon, attended a mosque in Cambridge Massachusetts. The bombs killed three and injured more than 170.The older brother, now deceased, is accused of being argumentative about his religion, critical of those who weren’t conservative Muslims.

The two bombing suspects are seen in the background of many pictures taken by spectators. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who wore a white baseball cap on the day of the bombing, is recovering at a Boston hospital after gunbattles with police. He faces the death penalty if convicted on a federal charge of using a weapon of mass destruction. His older brother, Tamerlan, who wore a black hat, was killed by police four days after the bombings.

Tamerlan attended Friday prayers and occasionally daily prayers at a mosque in Cambridge, outside of Boston. Mosque officials say that twice, he created a scene, arguing with the preachers - once about observing Thanksgiving and the U.S. Independence Day. But the more recent episode involved Martin Luther King Jr.

"The person who was delivering the sermon, he made a sort of a parallel between how Martin Luther King had inspired people just like our Prophet Muhammad had inspired people, and he [Tamerlan] seemed to have been offended by that. He stood up and objected to it," recalled Anwar Kazmi, a mosque board member.