The Boston Marathon
Bombers: 'Caught Between Two Worlds' (La Jornada,
Mexico)
"Despite
having started a family, everything points to Tamerlan Tsarnaev never forgetting his roots and being stuck
between two worlds that could not be reconciled, particularly as Islamism is a
terrible threat and one of the principle enemies of the United States. This
perception is a source of great tension inside the country, where the number of
Muslims is growing, while at the same time, many see in them an internal enemy that
must be fought. ... The terrorist attack in Boston will decide the fate of two
of President Obama’s most important legislative initiatives - even if the
bombing was not intended to derail amnesty for millions of undocumented immigrants
or curb the use of guns by individuals."
Tamerlan Tsarnaev prepares for a bout during the 2006 Golden Gloves: Were he and to a certain extent, his younger brother, unable to reconcile their roots with their new homeland?
No firm
evidence has yet been found on the motives which led Tamerlan Tsarnaev to stage an attack on the Boston Marathon. The attack cost the lives
of three people, and maimed or injured over 200 more. Currently, not a single
lead connects Tsarnaev - even less so his younger brother Dzokhar - to radical
nationalist or Islamist organizations that may have organized such an attack.
There is many
interpretations, but little by little, a conclusion has been reached that the
bombing was an individual action, although its social consequences will no
doubt be far-reaching. It is vitally important to identify the reasons for the Tsarnayevs’
action. As long as there is no clarity on this, speculation will flourish, much
of it wild. But even speculation may weigh heavily on two very delicate topics
that are now being debated in the United States: gun control and migration.
What happened
in Boston revived one of those atavistic fears that underlies United States
culture: fear of a masked enemy that has infiltrated the community, thus
earning its trust by pretending to be part of it, but in reality intends to
destroy it. For a country that for decades turned its back on the world, the
internal enemy became more fearsome and threatening than any outside power. To illustrate
the power of such a widespread fear, one need only recall the burning of the
witches of Salem in the 17th century, or the ferocity of the anti-communist
campaign unleashed by Senator Joeseph McCarthy between 1950 and 1953, which
focused and gave a name to that fear. Hence the effectiveness of his offensive
against the alleged communists in the U.S. State Department or the world of art
and cinema.
A similar suspicion
and fear has now taken hold against Muslims, who, since September 11, 2001, are
all considered potential terrorists. But the same may be extended to any group
or individual considered different: it used to be Blacks, and now it may be
undocumented Mexicans. The importance of understanding the Tsarnaevs’ motives is
that only a more-or-less convincing explanation of their behavior can prevent
the corrosive impact of fear, the emergence of hostile attitudes toward immigrants,
or the continued arming of the citizenry.
Every day, additional details emerge confirming the
impression that the Tsarmaev brothers acted alone,
after Tamerlane experienced individual radicalization that was initially
expressed through his intense religiosity. According to his relatives, Tamerlane
had grown increasingly less tolerant of any violation of religious norms and liberal
interpretations of Islam. He had stopped drinking alcohol and scrupulously
observed religious obligations, even if he rarely went to mosque. They think it
likely that the reason he didn't regularly attend mosque is that he didn’t like
the style of his imam, who in his view was too liberal.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
Apart from lack of visible links between Tsarmaev
and any terrorist organization, I think the type of the bomb he detonated
suggests little support beyond his own very limited resources. Because a bomb manufactured
with a pressure cooker, screws, nuts and ball bearings is so primitive - although
nonetheless as lethal as other, more sophisticated explosive devices - that it
is hard to believe it was constructed by a complex organization, with access to
expertise with explosives and other tools and weapons of attack. It is
terrifying that a single individual or two could be capable of inflicting so
much harm with implements of everyday life that are, in principle, harmless. It
is also of considerable concern that his goal was to inflict maximum harm on
innocent people - people he was willing to sacrifice for a cause we are still
straining to guess - because there is not a trace of any document or
declaration in which Tsarnaev exposed the motives for
his action. In these circumstances, we will have to resign ourselves to looking
at what might be the general reasons for his behavior.
From a broad perspective on U.S. society, TamerlanTsarnaev seems like an
individual who, having lived in his new country for ten years, had failed to
integrate into the community which welcomed him when, as an adolescent, he
arrived from Kyrgyzstan in the Caucasus. Despite having started a family,
everything points to his never forgetting his roots and being stuck between two
worlds that could not be reconciled, particularly as Islamism is a terrible
threat and one of the principle enemies of the United States. This perception
is a source of great tension inside the country, where the number of Muslims is
growing, while at the same time, many see in them an internal enemy that must
be fought. It might be that this irresolvable antagonism was a powerful
obstacle to Tsarnaev’s integration, accentuating the
conflict of loyalties that made it impossible for him to belong to the Chechen community
on the one hand, and that of the United States on the other.
The terrorist attack in Boston will decide the fate of two
of President Obama’s most important legislative initiatives - even if the
bombing was not intended to derail amnesty for millions of undocumented immigrants
or curb the use of guns by individuals. And yet, if these initiatives are seen
through the prism of fear, they are doomed to fail.
