He was angry that the world pictures Islam as a violent religion

[Leslie Valley]

So he butchered 3 innocent civilians on the street, killed an MIT cop and wounded over 200?

Elmirza Khozhugov, 26, the ex-husband of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s younger sister, Ailina, said that Tamerlan Tsarnaev had been enamored of conspiracy theories, and that he was also concerned by the wars in the Middle East.

“He was looking for connections between the wars in the Middle East and oppression of Muslim population around the globe,” Mr. Khozhugov said in an e-mail. “It was very hard to argue with him on themes somehow connected to religion. On the other hand, he did not hate Christians. He respected their faith. Never said anything bad about other religions. But he was angry that the world pictures Islam as a violent religion.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/us/boston-marathon-bombing-developments.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2&hp&

Before lecturing Americans about our intolerance, give us a few hours to collect our limbs.

[leftynyc]

1. What an asshole

26 years old and had the thought process of a tween. Now he can't even find a mosque in the area that wants to bury his sorry ass.

[Rex]

2. Then why did he go and make Islam look like a violent religion?

Why not do something for charity, in the name of Islam? His statement is like pouring gasoline on a raging fire and expecting it to go out. That makes no sense.

[Gravitycollapse]

3. It's the same kind of self fulfilling cycle in poor communities. You become the stereotype.

[GeorgeGist]

4. Undoubtedly ...

he made a lot of converts.

[richmwill]

5. Way to "lead by example" there, moron... (n/t)

[burnodo]

16. +1

nt

[Gregorian]

6. I like to look at both sides. The guys were messed up, granted. But we need some self examination.

All of the replies here are condemning the obvious. I've said in other posts that we don't live in a vacuum. Perhaps the policies of American imperialism and at best, pathetic journalism have aided and added fuel to an already festering problem. I can't claim that by being a better society we will avoid all of the nutcases. But especially under Bush, I felt that we were egging them on.

Boy I hate posting this kind of stuff. It comes too close to sounding sympathetic. But we're supposed to be a progressive forum. That means we acknowledge all sides of an argument. I said argument, not action.

We're these kids raised by people who had love and intelligence, and lived in a society that didn't value money over health care, for example, we may have never experienced this horrible malicious act.

Are we looking for solutions, or prosecutions? I think there's way too much ego floating around.

[closeupready]

9. People want a boogeyman or, alternatively, a patsy,

and this is what they are looking for, not self-examination. I agree with you, but you won't find too many here doing so.

[geek tragedy]

14. If we're going to play this game, though, then we have to do it for the Neo-Nazis

and gay-bashers and abortion-doctor-shooters.

If we ask what policies drove Tamerlan Tsarnaev to be a killer, we have to ask what policies drove Scott Roder to be a killer.

[Gregorian]

19. If we don't, we risk not improving our society.

We should be searching for solutions no matter who or what the problem is. The more humans we have on the planet, the more potential for these situations there is. It's time for our society to be vigilant, in a loving way. IN A LOVING WAY are the key words. I think this goes over the heads of even the most progressive. Until we break this cycle of hate and ego, we're just cycling around in the same circle of ignorance.

For starters, where are the courses in school on how to raise healthy children. And not somebody's ideas of how to do it. But real concrete means by which we can raise happy healthy people in this world.

I can dream.

[geek tragedy]

22. If we're talking about how to prevent individual human beings from going bad, I totally agree.

That's the tougher lift than the half-baked "policies I don't like are what made this person into a killer."

[NCTraveler]

7. Their treatment of women around the world does make it a violent religion. nt

[dkf]

8. He feeds into the worst stereotypes anyone could have had.

What a huge disservice he has done to people of his ethnicity and religion. He has messed up international relations that could have been beneficial to his family.

How pissed his community must be!

No wonder they refuse to bury him. He will be the example of a person gone wrong, a complete disgrace.

[Marrah_G]

10. These types of people aren't usually following any logic. nt

[JustAnotherGen]

11. I'm sorry

I don't understand his logic.

[Kalidurga]

12. You know when ever I get mad at people for calling me violent...

I just beat them up until they change their minds or stop calling me violent.

[smirkymonkey]

13. Kind of reminds me of "The beatings will stop when morality improves".

[Kalidurga]

18. Yep

I love that line. I heard that one a lot when I worked on the dock.

[sabrina 1]

21. Well, that's what this country did after 9/11, isn't it?

How quickly we forget. I could post photos of our response to violence but they are very graphic and heart-breaking, assuming the lives of people of other nations are as important as those of our own, but it seems we have now moved to the 'amnesia' phase of politics.

[kentuck]

15. Crazy mofos...

Insane.

[markiv]

17. well, he sure cleared that up

hard to imagine where we got those ideas

[sabrina 1]

20. Yes, he used violence to protest violence. An illogical reaction. We did the same thing.

Bush et al condemned violence, then used even more violence to protest it. They killed nearly three thousand people, we condemned their violence, rightfully, then we ran around the world killing and torturing people to show how non-violent we are. Same illogical thinking, only on a much larger scale.

Every country has its extremists. Ours are honored for their 'love of country' and have huge libraries built for them.

As someone said, kill one person you're a murderer, kill millions, you're a hero. I guess it depends on the morality and ethics of whoever makes these decisions.

[truth2power]

23. Why does it seem to me that various narratives are being constructed to see

which one sticks?

Yeah, I'll probably get hammered for this. But on other progressive blogs people are asking a boatload of inconvenient questions. And, no, I'm not talking about Alex Jones.

So, fire away if that's your thing (not directing this specifically to the OPer. Just generally speaking).

[librechik]

24. Your daily dose of irony n/t