Since the identification of the Tsarnaev Brothers as the main (and probably the only) responsibles for the attacks in Boston, thousands of messages of support flourished on the social networks as Facebook, YouTube or Twitter. Reactions on well-known Islamists websites and forums are less numerous.

Here are some examples. 

1)     On the Islamists websites

The followers of the Islamists websites and forums don’t seem very interested in the Boston attacks. Some messages were posted since last week – most of them being only retransmission of news dispatches of CNN, Al Jazeera and others news websites - but they draw, usually, very few comments.

On “Ansar al-Moujahideen”, one of the most active Salafists-Jihadists websites, “Gharib Mouwahid” (very active, with 644 messages so far) stated that the two brothers were “trapped and manipulated” by the U.S. intelligence services. He said also that the brothers had “no connection” with jihadists groups. The same message was posted by the same man on “Snam alislam”.

Other messages affirm that the attacks were an “inside job” perpetrated by U.S. Intelligence and…Blackwater.

On Islammemo, Mohamed Moosa writes that: “Boston attacks are a new lie, as were 09/11 attacks. The United states are now ready to launch a war against the Muslims living in their country”.

Nevertheless, another contributor, “Jaaabir” underlined that the bombs were made “following descriptions published by “Inspire””[1] and joked on the fact that “Inspire continues to inspire”. He says also that the next issue of this online magazine - “the most dangerous publication in the world” - will be published in a very near future and advises readers to perpetrate “martyrdom attacks” (suicide attacks).

Again on Ansar al-Moujahideen, “Rafia Liwaa al-Izz” (2258 messages posted so far) threatened Hawaï and Virginia of similar attacks : “Wait for us in Hawaï and Virginia”  and,  in a second messages: “Other ferocious lone wolfs will devour you, cross-worshippers…”

2)     On the Social Media

Thousands of messages were posted on various Facebook pages those last days. They mainly reflect two opinions: usual conspiracy theories and radical Islamists views.

It must be underlined that some Islamists contributors feed their “thoughts” by conspiracy arguments…

The majority of the messages belong to the « conspiracy sphere » and their first effect is to make the messages supporting the Tsarnaev brothers less visible.

• A group named « Tsarnaev is innocent » registered 12 606 members this Thursday at 04 :00 PM GMT.

• A  petition « To guarantee Dzhokhar Tsarnaev the right to a fair trial”was already signed by more than 6 600 people (the objective is 7 500 signatures):

https://www.change.org/petitions/petition-to-guarantee-dzhokhar-tsarnaev-the-right-to-a-fair-trial

• A Belgian known Islamist, “Jean Louis Le Soumis” posted a message saying that the Boston attacks was « a comedy played by actors »…

• A small conspiracy group posted the following image (https://www.facebook.com/groups/BostonMarathonConspiracy/?fref=ts)

• On YouTube, some activists posted a video of a man naked and handcuffed by police officers on Friday morning and presented as being Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The purpose is clear: Tamerlan was arrested alive and then killed by the police OR he is “an actor”: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6Te9mMuhag

• ON Twitter ? @FreeJahar has less that 200 followers.

• Here is a classical profile of a Tsarnaev supporter on Twitter:

3)    A short analysis

We assess that the few reactions on the Islamists websites underline the fact that the two brothers were not members of a known terrorist organization and probably acted on their own but also that the contributors have been called to be “extremely cautious” on what they post since a few months (to avoid to attract the attention of “intelligence services”).

 On the social media, the vast majority f messages come from the conspiracy fans. Most of them are…Americans: unbalanced persons, far-right elements and even “pacifists”.

The Islamists posting on this subject rely on conspiracy theory to explain that Washington wants to “continue its war against Islam”. Most of them seem to be European of Muslim descent or European converted to Islam.  

Some Chechen also post message supporting the Tsarnaev brothers only because they are Chechen.

END.