APRIL 17, 2017 – Today marks four years since the Boston Marathon Bombing. Over the past four years the government and many news outlets have focused on the terrorists, Tamerlan and Dzhokar Tsarnaev. Why did they radicalize? What was the jury verdict? Was the verdict accurate?

Today we would like to draw your attention to other parties—the familial bystanders who, whether intentionally or not, played key roles in the radicalization of the Tsarnaev brothers.

Zubeidat Tsarnaev. Mother. According to Newsweek, Zubeidat Khiramagomedovna was born in Dagestan on May 8, 1967. Her native village is home to Salafism, a conservative interpretation of Islam which is the doctrine in which ISIS militants believe. She moved from Russia to Kyrgyzstan with her husband in 1988. In the mid-1990s she moved to Chechnya, back to Kyrgyzstan, and then to the United States. In 2008, her peers began to notice a difference in her usually “bright and bubbly” personality. A former client explained that “one week…she was Zubeidat…a month later…she was wearing a burka and talking about 9/11 being orchestrated by the government”. In 2009 she began to force her son Tamerlan to attend prayers at the Islamic Society of Boston’s Cambridge mosque.

Anzor Tsarnaev. Father. According to Newsweek, Anzor Tsarnaev was attacked at the Russian Benevolent Society, a Boston social club in 2009. He suffered from internal head bleeding as well as a fractured skull. A neighbor said that he was never the same after he was released from the hospital. Anzor divorced Zubeidat in 2011 due to her “increasing fervor for fanatical Islam”.

Katherine Russel. Wife to Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Katherine was a Christian until 2009 when she converted to Islam and wore headscarves. In 2010 she dropped out of college on maternity leave and married Tamerlan at a mosque. She asked relatives and friends to refer to her by Karima, her new Islamic name.

These relatives of the Boston Marathon bombers are particularly important to study because all three were involved in the gradual radicalization of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Zubeidat and Katherine each radicalized in their own rights, inciting the indoctrination of ultra-conservative Salafism in the brothers. Both women not only watched as the brothers radicalized, but they contributed to the process. Anzor, if the published research is true, recognized the increasingly conservative views of his family members and did nothing to stop it. In fact, he fled, separating himself from his wife in divorce. Anzor Tsarnaev serves as a prime example of someone who knows that there is a problem and does not know how to fix it. He could have reached out for help to halt the radicalization process of all of his family members, but instead tried to disassociate himself.

On this anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing, we mourn those lost and take pride in the resilience of the Bostonians. Let us learn from these bystanders’ mistakes and allow ourselves to grow. It takes just one conversation of intervention to stop people like the Tsarnaev brothers from going down a bad path. Together we can change the tide and empower one another to take action.

All information attributed to http://www.newsweek.com/2014/10/24/women-behind-boston-marathon-bombing-suspects-277760.html

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