FBI agents question members of mosque that Tsarnaevs attended

By Mike Brunker, NBC News
FBI agents have been questioning members of a Cambridge, Mass., mosque where suspected Boston Marathon bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev occasionally worshipped, a spokesman for the mosque said Tuesday.
Yusufi Vali told NBC News the mosque is cooperating with the FBI and has provided the names of at least three congregants who witnessed incidents in which Tamerlan Tsarnaev disrupted services at the mosque. All three have been questioned by the FBI in the last two days, he said.
The Islamic Society of Boston, which runs the mosque issued a statement Monday detailing two incidents in which the elder Tsarnaev brother disrupted sermons because he thought the preachers were not following the tenets of Islam.

The statement said the brothers “never expressed any hint of violent sentiments or behavior. If they had, the FBI would have immediately been called.”
It said the suspects were not members of the mosque or regular attendees, but began occasionally attending either Friday or daily prayers over a year ago. It described 26-year-old Tamerlan as a more frequent visitor than his 19-year-old brother, who it said was rarely seen at the center.
It said Tamerlan, who was killed early Friday during a shootout with police in Watertown, Mass., had twice disrupted services when he objected to the message being delivered from the almemar, or pulpit:

  • “On Nov. 16, 2012 at our weekly congregational prayer, one of our preachers sermonized that it was appropriate to celebrate national holidays like July 4th and Thanksgiving, just like the birthday of the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him). The older suspect stood up during the sermon and challenged the preacher, arguing that celebration of any holiday was not allowed in the faith. After the sermon ended and the congregational prayer was finished, the preacher met with the older suspect to share his opinion. The suspect repeatedly argued his viewpoint, and then left.”
  • “On Jan. 18, 2013, one of our preachers noted that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a great person remembered in history. The older suspect stood up, shouted and called him a ‘non-believer’; said that he was ‘contaminating people’s mind’; and began calling him a hypocrite. People of the congregation, in turn, shouted back at the older suspect, ‘Leave now!’ Due to the congregation’s disapproval, he left the sermon.”

The statement said volunteer leaders of the mosque gave Tamerlan a choice afterward: Either stop interrupting sermons or stop attending services.
“While he continued to attend some of the congregational prayers after the January incident, he neither interrupted another sermon nor did he cause any other disturbances,” it said.
The Islamic Society said that while other mosque members saw him as outspoken, they didn’t see him as a threat.
“No one, whether their friends at school, the WBUR reporter who had an extended conversation with one of the suspects, the FBI or the people who interacted with him in our congregation had any hint that they could perpetrate this horrific attack,” it said.
　
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