The Boston Atrocities, Chechens, Wahhabism, and Sufism

Preliminary news reports state that the YouTube account of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the two brothers accused of the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, and subsequent violent rampage, includes a Wahhabi fundamentalist video denouncing Sufism, the spiritual movement that has served as the bedrock of Caucasian Muslim resistance to Russian imperialism.

Given the infiltration of Wahhabis into the Caucasian Islamic milieu, especially in the past 10 years, there is little reason to doubt the anti-Sufi, as well as anti-American component of the terrorist assault in Boston.

While the main victims of the April 15 crime were ordinary Americans, the anti-Sufi ideology embraced by the Tsarnaev brothers in their vicious misdeeds illustrates that moderate, traditional, conventional, conservative, and spiritual Muslims are no less targeted and brutalized by Wahhabi and other extremists than are non-Muslims.

Numerous prominent Americans have defended the Chechen people against Russian aggression. The politics of American friends of Chechen liberty extends across the political spectrum.

The depravity perpetrated in Boston by apparent Chechen Wahhabis disgraces the Chechen resistance movement, aside from inflicting pain and fear on America.

All members of the Tsarnaev conspiracy must be brought to justice expeditiously. Finally, the responsibility of Chechen Wahhabis for these wicked acts illustrates that Wahhabi terror remains a serious threat to the whole world.

Related Topics: American Muslims, Chechnya, Russia, Sufism, Wahhabism, WahhabiWatch receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free center for islamic pluralism mailing list