Boston Bomber Suspects Had Attended Cambridge Mosque, Officials Say

A mosque in Cambridge, Mass., confirmed Saturday that Dzhokhar
Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the Chechen-born brothers suspected in
the Boston marathon attacks, infrequently attended services at the
small center that was a 10-minute walk from their apartment. "In their
visits, they never exhibited any violent sentiments or behavior.
Otherwise they would have been immediately reported to the FBI," said
the statement from the Islamic Center of Boston . "After we learned of
their identities, we encouraged anyone who knew them in our
congregation to immediate report to law enforcement, which has taken
place." Anwar Kazmi, a member of the mosque's board of trustees, told
a USA Today reporter that 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died
early Friday morning after a shootout with police, was an infrequent
attendee for about a year- and-a-half, while 19-year- old Dzhokhar A.
Tsarnaev, who was captured hiding in a boat in Watertown on Friday
night, attended only once. The Los Angeles Times reported that
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was kicked out of the mosque three months ago after
he interrupted a Friday prayer service to argue with the imam. The
imam leading the service had enraged Tsarnaev by talking about Martin
Luther King Jr. A congregant told the newspaper that Tsarnaev shouted,
"you cannot mention this guy because he's not a Muslim!" Imam Suhaib
Webb, of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, the city's
largest mosque, said in an interview that he had recently heard of the
incident. "That's a sign right there that his views aren't
mainstream," Webb said. The Cambridge mosque leaders' theology is not
extremist, he said. Webb's mosque has the same owners but separate
administration from the Islamic Society of Boston. Webb said he never
met the brothers and had not found their names on his mosque's
membership list. Reports previously quoted friends of the brothers
saying they had attended the mosque , but Saturday was the first time
the mosque confirmed their association. "Right now, our focus will
remain on grieving for the victims and their families, praying for a
speedy recovery for the injured, and offering what support we can to
all in need," the statement said. Friends and family have described
Tamerlan Tsarnaev as becoming more strident in his religious views in
recent years. Federal authorities are investigating a six- month trip
he took in 2012 to Chechnya and Dagestan , Muslim-majority regions in
Russia and home to militant separatist movements. Reports have painted
Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev as also being interested in Chechen independence
movements.