A mosque in Cambridge is working to get the word out that the bombing suspects were not part of its membership.
Details of the Tsarnaev brothers’ lives are emerging by the day, including tape from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s naturalization ceremony in Boston on September 11, 2012.
But it’s important to distinguish the men and their alleged behavior from the institutions they appeared in – a Boston boxing gym, UMass Dartmouth, and the Islamic Society of Boston’s Cambridge mosque.
“The suspects merely attended our mosque occasionally – to pray the various 5 daily prayers as well as sporadically coming to visit for our Friday services,” said Nicole Mossalam, a spokesperson for the Cambridge mosque. She says the suspects were neither members nor regular attendees.
“The younger brother of the two suspects came to visit our mosque only once," Mossalam said.
That would be Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Suspect No. 2, captured Friday after a manhunt, chase and shootout.
"The older brother, Tamerlan, came here a bit more frequently but again it was only on occasion,” she said.
Tamerlan, or Suspect No. 1, was killed Friday during the shootout in Watertown.
"He wasn’t a member of our community in any meaningful way," Mossalam said. "He did not participate in any community activities. He was not known to members of staff either at our Cambridge mosque here or at the Islamic Society of Boston’s cultural center in Roxbury. He was not known by any members of our board. He was merely an acquaintance of some of our other members who come on a more regular basis.”
Mossalam said Tamerlan had an outburst during a service at the Cambridge mosque this past January. It was close to Martin Luther King Day – and when the speaker compared the Prophet Muhammad to Dr. King, Tamerlan objected. Members of the congregation asked him to leave and he did. But it wasn't his first outburst at the Mosque. During a previous sermon last November, Tamerlan objected and left after the service. Mossalam reiterates that the Islamic community does not want to be connected to the Tsarnaevs nor to the marathon bombings.
“The actions of one or two individuals do no represent an entire community of millions of people around the world,” Mossalam said.
Mossalam says the mosque’s main message is that its congregation is grieving and condemning the bombings as it sends prayers of healing to the victims.
