The Cambridge mosque
that the Boston bombing suspects attended held an inter-faith prayer service
Friday to mourn the victims of the terrorist attacks. One of the mosque leaders
condemned the violence.
During the prayer
service at the Islamic Society of Boston, Imam Ismail Fenni said the Boston
Marathon bombing attacks that killed three people and injured more than 250
others were against the teachings of Islam.
“The sacredness and
sanctity of life is a universal law imparted by the creator onto humanity,”
said Fenni.
This is the same mosque
that the two bombing suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his brother Dzhokhar,
attended. Fenni said the older brother once loudly interrupted a service, but
overall they rarely attended, and never showed a tendency toward violence.
“In the case of
Tamerlan his own family, his close friends, could not tell what was about to
happen, let alone us with whom he had contact, if at all, very, very
infrequently,” said the Imam.
Some have accused the
mosque of promoting a radical Islamic ideology because several people
associated with the mosque have been investigated for connections to Islamic
terrorism.
But Fenni rejects these
accusations. Rabbi Victor Reinstein of the Nehar Shalom Synagogue came to the
prayer service to show support for his Muslim neighbors.
“There is an effort
among some to paint as radical and violent extremists people whom I know to be
decent, loving, and peace seeking human beings,” said Reinstein.
Fenni said he was
shocked and saddened to learn the alleged Boston bombers were members of the
Islamic Society of Boston. But he said they did not learn their radical
ideology there.
Sources :
http://www.voanews.com/content/boston-mosque-condemns-terrorist-bombers/1649963.html
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