Tamerlan Tsarnaev end times videos I: the Mahdist video, pt 3

April 22nd, 2013 by Charles Cameron

Furnish titles his HNN post — which I recommend you read in full — The Ideology Behind the Boston Marathon Bombing. It’s not entirely clear to my eye whether that ideology (for Dr. Furnish) is Islam as a historical phenomenon, contemporary political Islamism of the jihadist kind, or its specifically Mahdist expression — I believe he sees all three as intricately inter-related.

That’s an extremely nuanced issue, and not one that can be fully addressed by either one of us in a single blog-post, as I think Dr Furnish would agree. By way of showing that Islam by no means begins and ends with the Tsarnaev brothers, I’d suggest you also read playwright Wajahat Ali‘s I am not the Tsarnaevs. The reality is that Islam is as varied as the people, places and times in which it is practiced.

Christians too, in times past, had their Crusaders — and their St Francis.

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Tim Furnish also has a brief post on his MahdiWatch blog, pointing to his HNN piece — and I could only wish HNN permitted him to post illustrations, since the image of Abbasid “black banners” he posts at MahdiWatch is definitely of interest…

A stunning find!!

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One other article appeared recently that I’d like to draw your attention to.

JM Berger, another friend of this blog, has an important extended piece on Chechnya-related radicalism in Boston over several decades, now up at Foreign Policy: Boston’s Jihadist Past.

Again, highly recommended.

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Posted in boston, Charles Cameron, christianity, Dr Timothy Furnish, HNN, Islam, islamist, JM Berger, Mahdist, movies, terrorism, Uncategorized, youtube | 3 comments

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  1. Tim Furnish:

    April 22nd, 2013 at 8:03 pm

    Charles,
    .
    Actually, I entitled it “The Brothers Tsarnaev: Hyenas in the Service of the Mahdi” but HNN’s editor changed it.  I think Tamerlan’s ideology is a Mahdist-jihadist mix.  
    .
    Thanks for the kind comments, and the referral–but I don’t get the seemingly talismanic invocation of the Crusades.  Why is it even necessary to adduce that issue?   

  2. Charles Cameron:

    April 22nd, 2013 at 10:25 pm

    My friend Chris Anzalone, aka Ibn Siqilli, tweets:

    @hipbonegamer The last part(s) of the video clip (from about 10:55-minutes onward) are actually from various Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan videos. The IMU, including the member featured (German Yassin Chouka, “Abu Ibrahim al-Almani”) usually cites traditions about the “black flags from Khurasan” in the context of its fighters and those of allied groups, particularly in trying to attract foreign fighters to the tribal regions of Pakistan. I tend to think this is to fit their insurgency historically and textually rather than due to strong apocalypticism.

    I appreciate Chris’ pointer, and would also like to emphasize that since Tsarnaev “liked” two very different “apocalyptic” videos, it’s entirely possible he was under a sort of general-purpose apocalyptic thrill of the sort that loves conspiracies, zombies, and post-apocalyptic landscapes — and was attracted to this particular video because of its Islamist slant — without necessarily being a strong “believer” in specific details.
    .
    We need to develop nuanced language to talk about such things.

  3. Charles Cameron:

    April 23rd, 2013 at 4:29 am

    Thanks for your considerable had work, Tim.
    .
    A fuller explanation of why I mention the Crusades (and juxtapose them with St Francis) would be a task for another post, or series of posts — but a friend of mine pointed me to an old quote of mine today in which I’d said “I’m interested in the way in which history rhymes more than the way in which it unfolds” and that’s true — I’m a pattern seeker and a rhymer at heart. And I’m also constantly trying to see what something I dislike in others — religiously sanctioned warfare in this case — might look like if I found it in myself or “on my team”.
    .
    I’m afraid that’s a very short form response to an issue I hope to tackle at much greater length one of these days — but not, God willing, today!
    .
    Thanks again, Charles.