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.
https://www.change.org/petitions/petition-to-guarantee-dzhokhar-tsarnaev-the-right-to-a-fair-trial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6Te9mMuhag
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.
[1] Inspire is an English speaking online magazine published by al-Qaeda in the Arabic Peninsula and aiming to mobilize and recruit a western audience (Muslims who don’t speak Arabic and converts). Its first issue was published in July 2010.