Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was back in the news in mid-December appealing to get his death penalty overturned. This recalls to mind a piece that was written last year — I suspect with considerable help in the actual composition — by Youssef Eddafali, a Moroccan immigrant, and published in the Boston Globe, about his friendship with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev here.
I first met Dzhokhar “Jahar” Tsarnaev in seventh grade, on the basketball court at the Cambridge YMCA in Central Square, where I played on weekdays and in a Saturday league. He went to the gym to use the weight room and shoot around. I disregarded him — he sucked at basketball.
Basketball helped me feel like an American, instead of a Muslim whose single mother dragged him here from Morocco looking for a better life, then worried constantly that we wouldn’t find it. Before basketball, I didn’t really fit in. I wasn’t particularly smart or witty. Worse, I had started second grade in Cambridge the very same month that the Twin Towers fell. On the playground, kids would call me “sand [expletive]” “Saddam Hussein’s son,” or “Abu,” after Aladdin’s monkey. One kid nicknamed me “Unicef,” which was brilliant, in a way: It rhymed with my name, and alluded to my African heritage, financial situation, and emergent unibrow. When we were a little older, kids would come up to me, place fake “bombs” on my body and then run away making ticking noises. I got into a fair amount of fights until my mother, who worked three jobs, told me I had to stop. Even if it meant saying nothing when bullies taunted me, I had to exercise self-control. It felt completely debilitating.
The victimization theme begins at once: kids calling him names: “sand [expletive],” “Saddam Hussein’s son” [this sounds implausible], “Abu,” “Unicef.” These “bullies taunted him,” (plea for sympathy), but his mother, who “worked three jobs” (another plea for sympathetic admiration), told him to exercise self-control. He did.
My mom always made me stay in the apartment until I finished my homework. But she agreed that as long as I kept my grades up, I could play basketball after school. I began spending hours on courts across Cambridge. This freedom allowed me to meet a slew of people who helped me develop as a young man and truly feel a part of the culture of Cambridge. As I improved, I gained confidence, sociability, and friends.
I met Jahar [the name by which “Dzhokhar” was known, and is used throughout this piece] again in high school, when we enrolled in the same lifeguarding course in my sophomore year, his junior year. Lifeguards were paid well for minimal effort: You sit in a chair and watch people swim, or so we thought. We were actually terrible swimmers, but our teacher stressed that if we failed during a rescue attempt, people could die. So we learned how to breathe while swimming with our heads in the water, and swam endless laps to get in shape. We took turns “drowning” at the bottom of the pool, holding our breath and waiting to be “rescued.” Jahar and I learned to trust one another in the pool — and that trust soon extended beyond class. After we became certified, a group of us from the class applied to be lifeguards at Harvard University during the summer of 2010. To our surprise, we each landed positions.
Jahar and I became part of a small group that would gather at “808,” a tall apartment building off Memorial Drive overlooking the Charles River. After dark, we frequented a party spot nearby that we referred to as the Riv. We were all classmates, peers, co-workers, and good friends who shared common interests. We called ourselves the Sherm Squad. We didn’t know that “Sherm” referred to Nat Sherman cigarettes dipped into liquid PCP (I didn’t even know what PCP was). All we knew was the word Sherry had a negative connotation. We used it to mean someone who messed up a lot; we called it being a Sherm. I felt Jahar and the Sherm Squad accepted me unconditionally; they became my home base of friends, almost an adopted family.
My real family’s life centered on Islam. I was raised to follow the teaching of the Koran and the five pillars of Islam, which boil down to self-discipline, love for yourself and toward others, and growing your relationship with God. We typically went to the mosque on Prospect Street twice a week, plus whenever my mother forced me to come to some event she’d volunteered for. I never looked forward to it. Men and women separate when they enter the mosque, which drove home my lack of a father or other male role models (I have an older brother, but we haven’t talked in years). So I would sit by myself or with someone else I knew who didn’t want to be there, engaging only when the call for prayer was sung.
Here Youssef tells us that he was “raised to follow the teaching of the Koran and the five pillars of Islam.” He then offers the standard line that many Muslim apologists routinely supply: that the essence of Islam is “self-discipline, love for yourself and toward others, and growing your relationship with God.” Really? Love “toward others” ? All others? Isn’t it really love for other Muslims, and inculcated hatred of all non-Muslims? Did Youssef never run across the verse that commands Muslims never to take Christians and Jews as friends, “for they are friends only with each other”? Or any of those 109 Jihad verses in the Qur’an? Did he never read the verse describing Muslims as “the best of peoples” and non-Muslims as “the most vile of creatures”? Did he not notice, in the Qur’an, the 109 verses about engaging in violent Jihad, with several of them also commanding Muslims to “strike terror” in the hearts of the Infidels? The Cambridge Mosque has been a source of worry to the security services for some time; at least 10 suspected or convicted terrorists attended the mosque. Youssef says nothing about the content of any of the imam’s khutbas, or Friday Sermons, that he must have heard. Nor does he allude to the many terrorists who attended the mosque on Prospect Street as possibly reflecting, or contributing to, a general atmosphere of “extremism.” One would have thought those matters most relevant to investigating the mental trajectory of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
One Friday near the end of sophomore year, my mother yelled at me to go to prayer.
When I walked in, I did a double take — Jahar was sitting there, listening intently to the imam. We had been hanging out all that year and he had never mentioned being Muslim. I picked my way through the large crowd sitting on the patterned carpet and squeezed into a spot next to him. “What are you doing here?” I whispered. “You’re not supposed to be here!”
He chuckled and whispered back: “I’ll tell you after.”
After we prayed, he told me his family were also Muslim immigrants who expected him tp be a model Muslim. We both were trying to maintain an image as wholesome Muslim youths at home while being normal American teenagers away from it.
Balancing our family and American lives was stressful. As a junior, I played point guard on Cambridge Rindge and Latin School’s famed basketball team, and Jahar, a senior, was the wrestling team’s co-captain. During the fierce month of Ramadan or on the fast day before Eid al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, we might endure grueling sports workouts on empty stomachs and no water. At least we could complain to each other.
Maintaining separate Muslim and American lives sometimes meant keeping secrets from and even lying to those closest to us about our other life. We were shamed just for being Muslim by strangers, the media, and even some of our peers, just as our Muslim families shamed us when we were caught committing a sin. Jahar and I shared countless hours toking herb, hanging out, and hitting social events. We lived near each other, and often walked home together from parties. We’d hit Cambridge Street, dap each other up with a handclap and bro hug, then head off to our Muslim lives.
Again, there is the victimization theme: “We were shamed just for being Muslim by strangers, the media, and even some of our peers.” This is flatly untrue. The media have bent over backwards in this country to offer up a sanitized Islam, ignoring what is in the Qur’an and hadith, never mentioning anything about the many commandments to conduct Jihad, avoiding anything disturbing in the life of Muhammad, that Perfect Man and Model of Conduct. How did those “strangers” supposedly shame him? Tell us please. We have many cases of Muslims claiming to be the victims of “hate crimes” which upon investigation turned out either to have been staged or never took place. A few egregious examples from 2014 can be found here, and from 2004 here.
He was fun to be around — always cracking jokes, coming up with things to do. He was smart, warm, respectful, and a good listener; and many of us admired his ability to “code switch,” moving effortlessly between social crowds and people of different races. He was also adept academically, holding his own in honors and Advanced Placement classes. He was generous, too. Whenever I ran short of funds, he’d give me money for lunch and crack “Stop being a broke boy!” in a way I found endearing.
Sometimes, when we were hanging out, he’d get calls from his older brother, Tamerlan, telling him to get home. Jahar mostly heeded these requests without question. (He admired his older brother, and I envied their seeming closeness.) At one point, Jahar told me that his family was arranging a marriage for him and he was considering it. All I could say was, “Well, it’s your life, bro.”
In senior year, my priorities were playing basketball, finding the right college, my fantasy basketball team, girls, watching the Celtics, partying with friends, the prom, and making sure to get my homework done. In the secular, diverse melting pot that is Cambridge, I had my American life at school and my Muslim life at home. Adhering to the tenets of Islam, especially the daily prayers, was a struggle, and it didn’t help that Jahar, one of my main confidantes, was off at college.
My mother still expected me to act like a strict Muslim, even though by now I was really only going to the mosque on the major holy days. She forbade me from attending “unwholesome” social gatherings, including school dances and any event held at the home of a female. I was not to swear, use drugs or alcohol, or flirt, among other vices. My mother knew little of what I actually did when I left the house, since I usually climbed out my bedroom window after she had gone to bed. But she often guessed at what I was up to, and frequently berated me as unworthy.
I was much more interested in my American life, where religion was immaterial. You were judged on your social standing, whether your personality added life to the party, and how you expressed yourself through fashion or music. When Jahar was back from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth on breaks, it seemed like we picked up right where we left off, cruising the city with the homies in his green Honda, looking for a party. My future felt bright. I was going to attend Bentley University, and become an entrepreneur. I had fulfilled my mother’s American-immigrant dream of getting into college and building a real life in America.
This sounds as if both Youssef and Jahar were typical American kids, “cruising the city….looking for a party.” Youssef looks forward as the immigrant son of a mother (who works three jobs) to going to Bentley, and then becoming an “entrepreneur.” What could be more soothing, and less threatening?
During my freshman year at Bentley, I realized that I wasn’t sure I wanted to be in school. I took a leave during second semester and went back to Cambridge.
I was at a friend’s house on April 15, 2013, when the bombs went off on Boylston Street. We ended up on a nearby rooftop, watching the commotion — the helicopters scouring the city and flashing police lights everywhere. I felt angry and under attack. I wanted the monsters who had committed this atrocity to get what they deserved.
On the 19th, I was at another friend’s house and still up at 3 a.m. when I got a call. “Turn on the news!” my friend said. They were broadcasting a photo of the possible suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing. “Just look at the picture, fam,” he said to me.
I looked at the blurry image on screen. “What am I supposed to be looking at, bro? I don’t know who that is.”
“Yo, doesn’t he look like Jahar!”
I thought that was outrageous. I fell asleep on the couch, and the next morning I woke up to see my friends huddled around the TV. I had never seen kids my age so absorbed in the morning news. I wondered if maybe a late spring snowstorm was approaching. They told me Cambridge residents had been asked to stay inside, and it did sort of feel like a snow day.
Suddenly, Jahar’s face appeared on the screen — there was no mistaking him this time. He was the bombing suspect still at large, the anchors said. Aside from the sound crackling on the TV, the room was dead silent. I felt like 10,000 volts of electricity were coursing through my body. It had to be a mistake. The Jahar I knew wouldn’t even do something mean, let alone commit an act of terrorism.
How many times have neighbors and friends of terrorists expressed their astonishment that such a (kind neighbor, swell fellow, regular guy) could do such a thing?
One of the girls’ cellphones rang; the call was from a TV newsroom where her sister’s friend was working. As our friend answered questions, her name appeared on the screen and we heard her voice come from the television. Within minutes, the doorbell rang. Our high school principal came into the house, along with two FBI agents wearing bulletproof vests. The FBI agents said they were looking for Jahar, and collected our cellphones. They had us sit in the living room and pulled us into the kitchen one by one to question us.
It didn’t take long for one of the FBI agents to step in the room and say, “To save time, which one of you knew him the best?” I raised my hand. In the kitchen, they asked what I knew about the bombing — nothing — where I thought Jahar was, whom he might try to contact. I answered their questions as best I could, and then they left.
Much later on that surreal day, a group of us were walking around Central Square, saying almost nothing. A pizza shop had its TV on, and that’s where we saw a news update: A body had been found in a boat in Watertown, it said. Though we’d later learn he’d been captured alive, at that moment we believed our friend was dead. I remember a man riding toward us on his bike screaming like some sort of modern-day Paul Revere: “They caught him! They caught the bomber!”
This infuriated us, and we started screaming insults and epithets at him. I’ll never forget his shocked expression. That’s probably how most people reacted over the next few days when some of us defended Jahar, saying he was a good kid. But really, that’s the Jahar we knew.
* * *
Soon we knew the facts of the despicable acts Jahar committed with his brother, Tamerlan. We witnessed the heartbreak and loss suffered by those they hurt and by the families of those they killed. Jahar left behind an ocean of pain that is still washing across my city, and my country, sowing hatred and division between people who hardly know each other’s lived reality. Jahar wounded those he grew up with as well as millions who practice a religion he perverted with his crime. He made suspects of everyone who knew him.
“The religion” — Islam — that Jahar supposedly “perverted with his crime” in fact was being followed dutifully by the Tsarnaev brothers. Certainly the older brother knew the Qur’anic verses that call for violent jihad and striking terror — let’s repeat them again here: 2:190-194, 4:89, 8:12, 8:60, 9:5, 9:29,47:4 — and would have made his younger brother well aware of them as well. This was not an inexplicable attack, one impossible to fathom. It was only one of more than 33,000 terror attacks by Muslims since 9/11. What motivated Jahar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev were the same Islamic teachings that motivated the terrorists responsible for attacks in New York, Washington, Minneapolis, Fort Hood, Little Rock, San Bernardino, Orlando, and in many other places in the United States; these were the same verses that motivated the terrorists who in Europe have attacked Infidels in Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Nice, Toulouse, Magnanville, London, Manchester, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Malmö, Helsinki, St. Petersburg and Beslan.
Jahar put our safety and freedom in direct peril. Cambridge gave way to the real world, a place where I found myself feeling clueless. Like many of my friends, I did not have easy access to a lawyer. Later, I would realize I didn’t have access to what I needed even more: medical advisers, counselors, or therapists. Some of our mutual friends made bad choices and ended up in jail.
Again there is the theme of being victimized, helpless without a lawyer. He feels sorry for himself, because Jahar “put our safety and freedom in direct peril.” Never mind about Martin Richard and the others who were killed. As for those “mutual friends” who made “bad choices,” why not tell us what those “bad choices” were? Youssef is referring to three friends of Tsarnaev, who on his instructions went to his room and took away evidence — a backpack and a laptop — then disposed of the backpack in a dumpster (but keeping the laptop). For obstructing justice in a murder investigation, and they certainly knew that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was guilty — they received between two and six years. “Bad choices” is far too vague and far too kind.
In the fall of 2013, I returned to Bentley to start my second semester, but I was still struggling to cope with the aftermath of the bombing, the FBI calls and questions. I felt guilty I even knew Jahar, after what he’d done. I was ashamed about what had happened to his victims — I still feel terrible for them. It feels awful that innocent people were hurt by a person I cared so deeply for.
But why doesn’t Youssef ever feel the need to find out what caused Jahar to act as he did? Why hasn’t he done the obvious, what anyone of sense would naturally do, which is go to the Islamic texts, and start studying the Qur’an and at least some of the hadith? He knows the significance of the Qur’an for Muslims. But apparently he still hasn’t done that. He speaks of Jahar as if his behavior were an impenetrable mystery, when it is clear which Qur’anic commands he must have read and taken to heart, and then, on the urging of his fanatical big brother, joined him in putting those commands into effect by making that murderous pressure-cooker bomb and placing it on Boylston Street.
That November after the bombing, three days before midterms, the FBI interrogated me for five hours, as far as I could tell simply because I had been friends with Jahar. I had nothing to tell them; I still felt betrayed by him, and knew he deserved the full brunt of the judicial system. After that interview, I found myself completely unable to focus on my studies. I asked my professors for extensions, but all of them made me take my midterms. I failed several of them, and soon after I took another leave.
This time I entered a downward spiral of addiction, insomnia, severe stomach pains, and depression, which fed off each other. I didn’t sleep more than a couple of hours a night for months. I felt paranoid and distrustful in every social interaction. Every aspect of my American life I had had to figure out on my own, and it seemed as though I hadn’t figured out anything at all. I felt like I had fallen behind my peers, unable to compete with their intelligence, their access, their privilege.
I was exhausted from maintaining multiple, often conflicting identities as a Muslim-American, from not being Muslim enough for my family, but too Muslim to feel secure in a hostile, post-9/11 environment. It was soul crushing; I felt I had lost touch with the person and identity I fought for years to establish. It got to the point where I could no longer follow a normal conversation. I lost around 25 pounds, and the ability to play basketball, which had been my sanctuary.
The suggestion of victimization is palpable: he was “too Muslim to feel secure in a hostile, post-911 environment.” Just how “hostile” was his environment? There were plenty of reassuring messages of support to Muslims after the Boston Marathon bombing; everyone was competing to relieve any anxiety Muslims might have felt, and to express solidarity with them. Youssef doesn’t mention any of that, though it certainly was a remarkable and quite unnecessary response. He also makes no mention of any hostile acts against him, because there weren’t any. He clearly feels, nonetheless, sorry for himself, given his “downward spiral of addiction, insomnia, severe stomach pains, and depression” and inability “to focus on my studies.”
I can’t claim to know why Jahar took the murderous path he did, although I spent years lying awake at night tortured by these thoughts, searching every corner of my brain for clues.
Really? Youssef has no idea at all as to “why Jahar took the murderous path he did”? Not a clue? In all these years of “lying awake” and trying to figure out why Jahar engaged in murderous terrorism, he never felt the need to consult the Qur’an, read what it says about Jihad and “striking terror” in the hearts of Infidels? Wouldn’t you have thought he might have done an Internet search for the words “Qur’an” and “terror” at the same time, to see what comes up? It would have taken exactly five seconds for him to have on the screen the Qur’anic verses justifying terrorism. He makes no mention anywhere in his piece about reading the Qur’an to find out what it says about terrorism. Yet we are asked to believe that he still lies away at night “tortured by these thoughts, searching every corner” of his brain for clues. A remarkable display of deliberate avoidance. He wants to figure out why Dzhokhar did what he did, just as long as it has nothing to do with wonderful Islam.
After Jahar’s trial started in March 2015, it seemed as though his face was on TV everywhere I went. I avoided coverage of it. I have not contacted him and I don’t think I will ever try. Eventually, I started reading books on nutrition and psychology. I changed my diet, and started practicing mindfulness meditation. I began playing basketball again, and started lifting weights, providing an outlet for my pain and anger. I started writing in a journal, which became my therapy, since it hurt more to leave my thoughts scrambling in my head than to put them on paper. I also practiced my faith — I believe Islam was built on peace and spreading positivity in the world — though I consider myself an imperfect Muslim. This practice grounds me daily. Still, it’s taken me years to crawl out of my hole.
There are three possibilities to consider in the case of Youssef Eddafali v. The Truth About Islam. First, the writer may really be ignorant of much of the Qur’an, with its clear commandments to wage Jihad and to “strike terror” in the hearts of the Infidels. But his prose doesn’t sound like it comes from an ignoramus. Second, he may choose deliberately to avert his eyes from those verses, as he so clearly wants to hold onto his faith, whatever it takes, whatever reality he must ignore in order to do so. There is of course the obvious third possibility: that Youssef knows full well what Islam inculcates, but refuses to acknowledge what that is to an audience of Unbelievers, whom he wishes to keep both in the dark, and whistling. It is hard to accept that Youssef, who must surely have some knowledge of Islam beyond the Five Pillars, can really believe that “Islam was built on peace and spreading positivity in the world.” If he so badly misunderstands Islam, then he is a fool. Islam was built on war, not peace, and as for Islam “spreading positivity,” you can be sure that the ghosts of two hundred million innocent victims of Jihad, including 70-80 million murdered Hindus, might beg to differ. If he knows the truth, then he is not a fool, but a malign deceiver. You decide.
The truth is, Jahar and I had a lot in common. Until we didn’t. In high school, especially, we led double lives; conforming to the expectations of our families while denying the “otherness” constantly thrown in our faces. It meant keeping secrets from our families. Ultimately, I learned the secrets he had kept from me.
What secrets? That for quite a while he harbored thoughts of killing Infidels, thoughts put into his head by what he learned from the Qur’an and hadith, thoughts continually reinforced by his own brother? And all the while he was acting outwardly like a regular American kid, practically a frat guy, always looking for the next party, doing all those things which, Jahar knew, even if they violated the rules of Islam, would be wiped away, forgiven by Allah, by a single act of Jihad martyrdom.
I believe that Youssef Eddafali undoubtedly had some help in the writing of this piece, either from someone at the Boston Globe, or from someone with a strong interest in presenting a sympathetic portrait of a young Muslim — possibly a public-relations consultant well-versed in such matters. Here is this splendid fellow, who has been on the receiving end of anti-Muslim hostility, despite having done nothing wrong, and for whom the evil committed by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev remains an unfathomable mystery. And this question supposedly haunts him. But he nowhere gives any evidence of consulting the Islamic texts, where he would quite quickly find the answer to that very question. He’s determined not to look in the place it makes the most sense to look: the Qur’an and Hadith.
This piece leaves one with deep unhappiness. It’s been more than six years since the Boston Marathon bombing — five when this piece was written. Youssef Eddafali had plenty of time to consider what must have motivated his friend Jahar to try to commit the mass murder of Unbelievers, and to “strike terror” in their hearts. But he hadn’t done that, hadn’t come forward to reveal that “my friend Dzhokhar must have taken to heart the 109 verses in the Qur’an that command violent Jihad.” He could have written that “I confess I did not know these verses, did not know that in a hadith Muhammad said ‘I have been made victorious through terror.’ In trying to understand what happened to Jahar, it become obvious to me I couldn’t any longer rely on what I had always been told, by my mom and some of my friends, that Islam means peace and positivity — I had to go to the Qur’an itself. And as I read it, I realized why Jahar thought he should act as he did — the Qur’an told him so, over and over again — but I think he was wrong. I think Tamerlan led him astray. I don’t think he understood those verses. He took them literally, and thought they applied to Unbelievers today. I don’t think so. I think they were meant to apply to certain enemies of the Muslims at the time the Qur’an was written down, in the 7th century. We always need to put such verses in their historical context.”
That’s one way Youssef might have handled the matter. Or he might have said: “Yes, the Qur’an tells Muslims to make war on Unbelievers. Jahar took those verses to heart, and that’s what made him become a murderer. Such verses as 2:190-194, 4:89, 8:12 8:60, 9:5, 9:29, 47:4 are not just valid for the 7th century, they’re valid for all time. And there are many more like those. And Muhammad himself said ‘I have been made victorious through terror.’ I’ve had five years to think about this, and I must have read the Qur’an a dozen times through, with a commentary, and many of the hadith and I can see no other honest explanation for his behavior. And as I came, reluctantly, to acknowledge this, I also rethought my own inherited faith. I now consider myself an ex-Muslim. My mom is not happy. Some of my friends don’t understand. And I live with the other consequence — the fear of what Muslims might do to me because of my apostasy. But at this point, if I am quite sincere with myself, I really can do no other.”
Michael Copeland says
Another careful dissection from HF. Thank you.
Naildriver says
Indeed.
It also provokes a serious question:
Has the inclusion of Muslims into our society shown them to be assimilating, and as importantly, rendered harmless or innocuous Muslims by their Americanization — as obviously was the intent of this deceptive and propaganda oriented piece by Youssef.
Obviously not! As was well demonstrated by Hugh Fitzgerald’s counter observations to that propaganda piece.
Aside from revealing Muslims to be hostile to American society it clearly reveals Islam’s relentless designs to conquer, and prevail at all costs to the society’s they inhabit. Muslims certainly are taught they are above our laws and ethics.
The murders for Islam by the brothers was a small aspect to the insidious and pernicious enterprise of the devotees to Islam’s actions.
I think of Islam’s success in biological aspects, such as a slime mold, or better, a star fish where its progress and proliferation cannot be halted with the usual attempts to kill it — because injury to one part only promotes other components into growth and action — if its pieces are left in the environment.
Cut off the tentacle of a star fish and it readily grows back — and the severed limb into a another starfish. For example, the arresting and forestalling of terrorist activity only promotes Islamic devotees to focus its energy elsewhere to retry these same methods elsewhere with a new group of devotees, but on the other hand with such public displays as this article by that murderer’s friend, or the involvement and infestation into our system with those as Omar — which can, in fact, prove to be more damaging to our society than the original terrorist attack.
Indeed, I didn’t see any abatement in terrorism elsewhere after the Boston attack let alone 9/11 nor a slow down of Islam’s devotees tireless efforts to infiltrate and use of our own government against us as with Muslim’s involvement in our politics — or, the then treason of Obama to promote Islam upon the occasion!
Since 9/11 Islam has made enormous progress and silenced almost all visible criticism.
Jihad Watch is one of the few spaces I know of where anyone dares to speak up, and even that venue is mercilessly denigrated by most the news media as a far right wing, white racist and bigoted hate group. There is no safe space for Islam’s critics in today’s America.
I feel even as an anonymous contributor some fear for my safety posting here from Islam’s devotees, and even our own FBI’s treachery owing to compromises it suffered under Obama’s treason.
Islam is creating a regular 1984 world among the Western Nations in their current efforts to control it. Islam is certainly winning if the sanctity of our democracy and its Constitution is involved.
tiredofstupid says
Agreed.
Infidel says
The Boston Marathon bombing was one case where the US could have averted it by listening to the Russians tell us that the Tsarnaevs were bad news.
It’s also worth looking at Kyrgyzstan and whether it’s morphing from a nominally-Muslim country to a more seriously Islamic country, when first the Tsarnaevs (admittedly Chechens, but who had Kyrgyz citizenship and emigrated to the US from that country) did the Boston attack, and last year, before the soccer world cup in Russia, a Kyrgiz tried to murder several Moscovites using a car to run over them. In fact, not just Kyrgyzstan, but the other stans as well
Michael Copeland says
The failure of Boston police to investigate the triple Waltham slaying enabled the Tsarnaev brothers to continue on their jihad murder plot.
The police dishonestly described the victims as “stabbed in the neck”.
The police failed to spot that the killing was on the tenth anniversary of 9/11.
The drugs sprinkled over the bodies should have alerted them that this was not a usual drug gang killing.
The fact that Tamerlan Tsarnaev failed to attend the funeral of his friend, and was given to moody outbursts also was not pursued by police.
Mobile telephone records place the Tsarnaev in that vicinity at the time of the murder.
Years later the manner of killing – having their throats so savagely slashed that their heads were almost severed – was described as “like something out of al Qaeda”. Still the police failed to join the dots.
This is the harvest of the Obama regime’s removing from police training all information about jihad.
mortimer says
Yes, agree with MC. If the Boston police had ‘connected the jihad dots’ with verses in the Koran they would have been called ‘racist’, because to Dems of the time, Islamic ideology is officially classed as ‘a race’, even though the Dems never explained how an ideology (a set of thought-concepts) can grow a body and evolve into a human.
Unlike communism, fascism, pluralistic liberal democracy and neo-Marxism which are NOT classified as races by Leftists, Islam is the ONLY ideology that Leftards call ‘a race’.
Also agree that Obama de-fanged the ideological tools of the police so they would be unable to officially recognize JIHADISM when they saw it. I believe police have been getting their training in jihadism from outside the police training sessions.
It is essential for detectives to understand the mindset of a terrorist PERFECTLY.
Bronxgirl says
As a teacher working with a diverse group of immigrants, it is striking how he describes having two distinct identities and lives; with them being so at odds with one another. The “partying” even seems extreme, taking primarily that away from American culture. The great majority of my students profess that there are two worlds they live in to an extent, but not without honesty towards their parents about their outside lives, and not without approval from their parents of their outside lives. Most of the immigrant students’ values are Western values, with respect for others to a great extent. When not working most parents engage honestly and hopefully with outsiders, with and without their children. All except for many of my Muslim students.
Norger says
Musings like this from Mr. Eddafali are precisely why Muslims are viewed with so much mistrust and suspicion. Islamic theology says what it says; Tzokhar himself said that he was acting in the defense of Islam. At a bare minimum, Mr Eddafali (and the Boston Globe) would be hard-pressed to deny that Tzokhar, his brother, his mother, and tens of millions of other like-minded Muslims are offering up sincere and entirely plausible interpretations of the Islamic faith, well-grounded in authoritative and genuinely Islamic sources. Islamic theology is Mr. Eddafali’s fault, but please Boston Globe and Mr. Eddafali, don’t insult our intelligence by ignoring the elephant in the room.
And “the mosque on Prospect Street” in Cambridge that Mr.Eddafali refers to is an Islamic Society of Boston mosque. That’s a whole other story the Boston Globe studiously ignores. The ISB has deep and long-standing connections to terrorism; about a dozen people associated with this mosque have been convicted of terrorism charges and/or have been killed by military and/or law enforcement. The intellectual dishonesty of the Boston Globe on this entire subject is nothing short of staggering.
Norger says
I meant “Islamic theology is not Mr. Eddafali’s fault.”
mortimer says
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev left a note explaining his motive … did Youssef Eddafali read it?
The FBI determined that Tsarnaev himself wrote and said the attacks were mounted in response to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Tsarnaev said his victims were ‘COLLATERAL DAMAGE’.
_______________________________________________________
Article: Boston Bombings: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Reveals Motive
https://hollywoodlife.com/2013/05/16/boston-bombings-motive-muslims-dzhokhar-tsarnaev/
The suspect allegedly explained the motive way back on April 19, by putting together a makeshift note while he was surrounded by police hiding in that covered boat in a Watertown, Mass. backyard.
Dzhokhar scribbled that the victims of the Boston bombing were COLLATERAL DAMAGE, as many Muslims have been during the wars in the Middle East. The brothers believed that an attack against one Muslim was an attack against all Muslims, CNN reports, and felt they were forced to respond.
When Dzhokhar was interrogated after waking up in his hospital bed, he reportedly gave law enforcement officials the same explanation. He also reportedly wrote that he did not miss his brother, and would be joining him soon.
_______________________________________________________
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/05/16/boston-marathon-bombing-dzhokhar-tsarnaev-note-boat/2165543/
Quotes: “While hiding in a boat before his capture last month, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the man later charged in the Boston Marathon bombings, allegedly scrawled a message on an inside wall of the vessel in which he claimed responsibility for the attacks, a law enforcement official said Thursday.”
“Written while the suspect lay seriously wounded, the note appeared to resemble a deathbed declaration, possibly prepared should he not survive the intense manhunt, the official said.
In the note, the 19-year-old suspect allegedly referred to his brother, Tamerlan, as a martyr and wrote that he hoped for the same recognition for himself.”
“Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who has been charged with the Boston bombings, reportedly left a note scribbled on the wall of a boat where he was captured. It said he would not miss his brother, Tamerlan, right, because he was already a martyr in paradise and Dzhokhar would join him soon. Tamerlan was killed during a shootout with police in Watertown, Mass., on April 18. (Photo: AP)”
Michael Copeland says
For the record Tamerlan was killed, during a shootout with police, when his brother drove over him.
Lilith Wept says
That the brothers believed that “ an attack on one Moslem , or some moslems was an attack on ALL moslems “ is a belief held by most moslems.
And correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that this is in the Koran or Hadiths, that an attack on one Moslem is an attack on all moslems ….
I seem to remember that it has something to do with not allowing ANY attacks on moslems by non moslems, and retaliation is necessary so that non moslems don’t become encouraged by any non Moslem killing a Moslem and so think they are strong or can defeat moslems….sorry I can’t remember the exact reference.
But it really doesn’t matter if he was doing this as retaliation for moslems killed in wars by non moslems .
The medieval Islamic scholar Ibn Taymiyya says “ Jihad against the disbelievers is the most noble of actions and moreover is the most important action for the sake of mankind”
So it was jihad, and there are many “ reasons” and many commands for jihad and violence against non moslems.
mortimer says
Youssef Eddafali is a sly practitioner of “TAWRIYA” (deceit by ambiguity).
Does Youssef Eddafali actually NOT understand the motive of jihad, namely, hatred of the dirty KUFAAR ‘for the sake of Allah’ ???
Youssef Eddafali undermines his own credibility and Muslims in general … yes, yes, Eddafali … jihad has NOTHING to do with jihad … and Islam has NOTHING to do with Islam.
So, Eddafali, you have NO IDEA why a man with the name of TAMERLANE wants to slaughter people.
Blah, blah.
. K. 11.173 “Believers, retaliation is decreed for you in bloodshed.”
– K.2.178 “O you who believe! Retaliation is prescribed for you in the matter of the slain.”
(sources of Koranic teaching of retribution and revenge)
Christopher Watson says
“I can’t claim to know why Jahar took the murderous path he did…!
I can’t claim to know why anyone this stupid is still walking around free. He ought to be locked up in a secure establishment. Anyone who is this mentally deficient is a danger to all those around him. It should be asked if he is allowed near gas or sharp instruments.
mortimer says
CW said ‘anyone this stupid’ … referring to Youssef Eddafali.
I do not believe Youssef Eddafali is as ‘stupid’ as he pretends to be … he is quite sly and crafty. He is telling the dirty kufaar what they want to hear … namely … the deceptive ‘benign Islam’ story for naïve, little kafir children.
Youssef Eddafali knows that Islam is not benign, but that it promotes terror, conquest, supremacism, bigotry against non-Muslims and misogyny. How could he doubt it after growing up in Islam and comparing it with the free, egalitarian American life-style. Youssef Eddafali refers to his cognitive dissonance and so his game is revealed … HE KNOWS what he is saying and he blames American kafirs for seeing him as ‘alien’ to their culture. He actually is ‘alien’ and admits it … Islam is the CENTER of his family life. He is thus an alien in the American society. He tried to conceal it from his American sports buddies who teased him. He lied … he lived two separate existences.
Muslim supremacists think the dirty kufaar are too stupid to figure out the jihad doctrine and the Islamic apartheid doctrine of Al Walaa wal Baraa (‘comradeship and segregation’) that pious Muslims believe and practice.
Youssef Eddafali blames the kufaar for the segregation, when in fact, segregation (Baraa) is what Islam requires.
Youssef Eddafali is blaming the victims … the kufaar victims of the Tsarnaev brothers.
mortimer says
Does Youssef Eddafali know the ESSENTIAL DOCTRINE of AL WALAA WAL BARAA ??? Or is he uninformed about Islam?
AL WALAA WAL BARAA is ‘essential’ (usual ud-deen), meaning that Muslims MUST believe and practice W-B or be sent by Allah to Islamic hell.
Does Youssef Eddafali PRACTICE al Walaa wal Baraa ??? Or is he a ‘HYPOCRITE’ ???
W-B teaches Muslims to live SEPARATELY from the dirty kufaar … EDDAFALI … DIDN’T YOU KNOW?
So if you don’t know that, Eddafali, you are a careless Muslim. Muslims should not support the kufaar in any way and should shun their company. If you do that, the kufaar will think you are weird and un-American, then. So who is to blame for the distance and alien, separate identity that Muslims are TOLD TO PRODUCE???
You can’t have it both ways, Eddafali. Islam clearly demands and creates the ALIEN-NESS of Muslims living in KAFIR societies.
Eddafali, do you or do you not HATE the dirty kufaar ‘for the sake of Allah’ ??? Or do you shun the ‘essential’ practice of Islam.
You can’t have it both ways.
Terry Gain says
It strikes me that it must be very difficult for a devout Muslim to grow up in America. So many contradictions and so much stifling of facts. Surely, they would be better off growing up elsewhere. Banning Muslim immigration isn’t just prudent, it’s kindness.
mortimer says
Terry Gain has got it! Muslims living in a KAFIR society experience sometimes severe cognitive dissonance … but they blame the KAFIRS … the victims of Islamic supremacism. This is dishonest.
Islam DEMANDS the separateness and the ‘alien-ness’ that Muslims live in kafir societies. Muslims in those societies end up LYING TO BOTH SIDES … to their Muslim families and to the KAFIRS as well.
Muslims living in free, egalitarian, progressive societies are PRACTICED LIARS, lying to virtually everyone and to themselves.
But don’t think there are fewer liars in an Islamic society !!! No! A Muslim of Pakistani heritage who grew up in North America visited Pakistan to try to build an import-export trade. He returned to N.America and declared, ‘The bigger the beard, the bigger the liar.’
tim gallagher says
Couldn’t agree more, Terry. Keep Islam out of our countries. Islam’s values are completely incompatible. I always see it as them or us when it comes to Islam because I think Islam’s outlook on every aspect of human life is incompatible. I always find your knowledge of Islam very informative, Mortimer. As you often mention, Islam demands that they stay separate from non-Muslims, in a kind of Muslim apartheid. To my mind, it is just a futile exercise trying to get along with the followers of Islam.
Kilauea says
Why is that POS still alive? When they caught him, he should have been drenched in pig blood and beaten to death. If all Muslim terroristss were doused with pig blood and executed, they would straighten up or get out.
b.a. freeman says
even if this liar did become an ex-muslim, the fascists who wrote this piece for him, or at the very least edited it, would not allow him to spoil their propaganda; his recantation would never be seen or heard. and when his pious family, or his pious friends, finally found and murdered him, the lying propaganda-spewing legacy media (not to mention most social media) would not report the murder.
Alexander Pierce says
The fact is that nearly all Muslims NEVER read the Qur’an – even Muslims who seriously practice their faith. I am in serious conversation with one serious Muslim – he keeps the Ramadan fast, and prays as many of the daily prayers as he can. I talked with him once about the ninth Surah, and challenged him about what they say. In response, he said “I’ll go look at a commentary.” He didn’t say “I’ll go read those verses and their context.” He didn’t even think of that, which is the first thing that a Western person would do. None of the many Muslims I know have read more than a smattering of verses. Why is this? One reason is the disjointed and difficult nature of the text Another reason is so that the imams retain control as the gatekeepers of the religion. They don’t encourage their people to read it – they want to be the interpreters. Those imams who have a peaceful, liberal, Western interpretation of it would naturally be afraid that their people would get a violent idea. Imams in other parts of the world are controlled by the government, and are not allowed to proclaim jihad. So I am not surprised at all that Youssef never opened his Qur’an to figure out his friend Jahar.
Norger says
You may well be right about Muslims not reading the Koran. But it’s beyond strange to me that a devout Muslim would be studiously ignorant about what Islamic scriptures actually say, particularly when the jihadis confidently and accurately cite Islamic authorities in support of jihad mass murder etc.
mortimer says
To Alexander Pierce … sounds like your Muslim co-worker is trying to brush you off and has no intention of telling anyone at work what he really thinks. You can get mild-mannered Muslims to turn into fiery jihadists by asking them if Israel has a right to exist.
Naildriver says
Alexander Pierce, this is one of Islam’s great strengths — that few Muslims really know much about Islam.
Much of Islam is in its vigorous intimidation and threats of any who question its Koran’s texts — those in the fold find satisfaction in other aspects that feed their limbic cravings… mostly to those lower impulses for being hurt or insulted.
Recall Catholicism’s long wars with the Protestants over such translations that lend light to what they entrust their lives.
Arabic has its usages in control, and a ready alibi to ordinary Muslims confronted with truth of the depravity in that with which they routinely riot, murder and rape over.
America has allowed Islam to piggy back into it over such things as civil rights — and the patronizing tolerance the greater society affords the aggrieved.
No Muzzies Here says
Awwwww, poor baby! With a single mother, being called a sand xxx, and sounds of bombs. “My lack of a father.” “I didn’t sleep.” The sympathy machine is being ramped up. Doesn’t fool me!
There is no way this was written by the kid! It was obviously written by a bleeding-heard liberal pro. No doubt! Proof: ” post-9/11 environment.” Liberal journalist’s words. The writing is too good to be that of an oppressed kid.
tim gallagher says
I recall the Boston terrorist attack by this Muslim maggot, Tsarnaev, but haven’t followed much about his trial and sentencing, probably because I’m in Australia, but why is the Muslim terrorist scumbag appealing his death sentence? Shouldn’t he be happy to be rushing off to collect the Muslim terrorists’ reward from Allah in the afterlife? Shouldn’t he be happy to be shuffling off from this life? I mean, quite often these maggots blow themselves up or make sure they get shot by the police so that they can get to their sick idea of paradise. I suppose, maybe, Tsarnaev just wants to hang around and be a pain in arse to the infidels’ justice system. Or maybe he’s turned into a pathetic coward who can’t face up to death. Hopefully, he has maybe even realised that hell probably awaits him for his vile, evil terrorist attack. One can only hope.
elee says
Are the feds employing any women executioners these days? If not why not? Please oh please let this POS know he will die at the hand of a woman.
James says
He probably has never told the real truth of what he thinks and would do. Lawyers know what to write in pleas for clemency and simply construct a biography that would appeal to sympathy. Perhaps there should be no death penalty, but also no pardons or special privileges for persons who made his mistakes in life. It is tragic that such crimes are not simply prevented. The case shows the need to limit immigration of persons from certain endangered backgrounds, so that their problems do not become our problems. I somehow do not believe that he really feels any guilt or remorse for his actions. He and his friends made themselves judges and executioners with power of live and death over strangers in a crowd. What claim does he have for mercy? Probably little or none.
OLD GUY says
Stop the immigration of non christians from muslim countries and close all mosques in the country until they allow freedom of religion in their countries.