The deceased suspect in the bombing of the Boston marathon, which killed three and injured more than 170, appears to have posted a video to his YouTube playlist extolling an extremist religious prophecy associated with Al Qaeda.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the 26 year-old brother of the second Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, had a YouTube page where he posted religious videos, including a video of Feiz Mohammad, a fundamentalist Australian Muslim preacher who rails against the evils of Harry Potter. Among those videos is a playlist including one dedicated to the prophecy of the Black Banners of Khurasan which is embraced by Islamic extremists—particularly Al Qaeda. The videos posted on what appears to be Tsarnaev’s YouTube page may shed light on the motivations for the attack on the Boston Marathon. The prophecy states that an invincible army will come from the region of “Khurasan,” a large portion of territory in central Asia.
“This is a major hadith (reported saying of the prophet Muhammad) that jihadis use, it is essentially an end-time prophecy,” says Aaron Zelin, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy “This is definitely important in Al Qaeda’s ideology.” In The Black Banners, former FBI agent Ali Soufan’s book about his pursuit of Al Qaeda that is named after this prophecy, Soufan describes the prophecy this way:
Khurasan is a term for a historical region spanning northeastern and eastern Iran and parts of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and northwestern Pakistan. Because of the hadith, jihadists believe that this is the region from which they will inflict a major defeat against their enemies—in the Islamic version of Armageddon.
The older Tsarnaev seems to have posted the video to his playlist “Islam” four months ago under the username “muazseyfullah.” According to Zelin, “Mu’az is usually a name,” and “Sayf Allah means sword of God.” Here is the video:
According to Soufan’s book, “It’s not a coincidence that bin Laden made al-Qaeda’s flag black; he also regularly cited the hadith and referenced Khurasan when recruiting, motivating, and fund-raising.” Soufan adds that Al Qaeda operatives he interrogated were often convinced that by joining the extremist group they were fulfilling the prophecy. Soufan states that the origin of the “black banners” hadith—and whether the prophet Muhammad ever said it—is questionable.
Tsarnaev’s YouTube page also contains other indications of his interest in Islamic fundamentalism and jihadism. He subscribed two months ago to a channel called “Allah is the One.” In recent months, he liked a video with the title “Who wants to become a militiaman?” and a video described as a telephone conversation with a famous sheikh that covers “collaboration” with the Sufis of Chechnya. Five months ago, he added two videos to his playlist under the heading “Terrorists.” But each video has been deleted with the message: “This video is no longer available because the YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated.”
In a comment posted two months ago regarding another video, he assails a Muslim for not being a pure adherent of the faith:
You are not a grand Michael but the same Misha that you were before Islam. You accepted Shiism not because it convinces you, but because of the fears, and interests (about which Allah knows) which you’ve followed. Just like you entered into Islam, so to you flew out of it. You betrayed yourself, Misha. Well anyways…farewell.
Politics | Mother Jones
