Rhetoric Race and Religion
In the immediate aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, there was confusion and bewilderment about who the perpetrators were and what motivated them to kill innocent people. Speculation swirled amid the sorrow and grief as investigators examined daunting amounts of data and pursued leads. Local, state, and federal officials worked night and day and soon had photographs of two suspects. They released the photos to the public, hoping that someone would identify the two young men in sweatshirts and baseball caps, carrying backpacks filled with explosives. Within hours they had names.
The young men were Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, brothers who came to this country from Kyrgystan with their family when Dzhokhar was 8 years old and Tamerlan was 15 years old. The family was Muslim, and in the months before the Boston bombings, the brothers spent time onradical Islamist websites, and Tamerlan went to Russia for six months. When this news made headlines, it triggered intense speculation about connections between Islam and terrorism, the path of radicalization, mosques as potential breeding grounds for violent extremism, and more.
All of these claims sound familiar. Without much variation, they echo similar claims made by pundits, politicians, and self-described experts after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. Although we as a nation have made much progress since then in learning the complexities of terrorism, fighting extremism, and devising targeted strategies to strengthen our security—and although there is more solidarity and understanding between Muslim and other communities than in 2001—it is still important to rebut claims that were wrong back then and are still wrong today.
Knowing the difference between speculation and reality is more than an academic exercise. After the Boston bombings, there were reported acts of violence and intimidation against American Muslims, as well as vandalism against mosques. In such a heated atmosphere, facts are critically important. Here are some facts to help set the record straight.
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