While Dzhokhar Tsarnaev claims that his older brother Tamerlan was the inspiration for the attack on the Bosotn Marathon, who was the inspiration for Tamerlan? According to reports by the AP and Daily Mail, family members point the finger at a man identified only as Misha, a friend whom Tamerlan knew through a local mosque. Misha is described as a bald, red-bearded, 30-year-old Armenian convert to Islam who “claimed to be an exorcist who is fighting with demons.” Tamerlan’s uncle, the famously pissed off Ruslan Tsarni, as well as Tamerlan’s former brother-in-law Elmirza Khozhugov, say Misha’s teachings took a hold over the deceased terror suspect:
“When Misha would start talking, Tamerlan would stop talking and listen. It upset his father because Tamerlan wouldn’t listen to him as much,” Khozhugov said. “He would listen to this guy from the mosque who was preaching to him.”
Anzor became so concerned that he called his brother, worried about Misha’s effects.
“I heard about nobody else but this convert,” Tsarni said. “The seed for changing his views was planted right there in Cambridge.”
Tamerlan lost an interest in music because Misha said it was un-Islamic. He started to read Al Qaeda’s Inspire magazine — which happens to have promoted the very same type of pressure cooker bomb used in the Boston attack — and Infowars, the insane conspiracy theory website run by Alex Jones. (“I’ve seen this before,” Jones tells Buzzfeed. “The federal government trying to connect me to tragedies.”)
Misha’s full identity has yet to be revealed, but it shouldn’t take long. There can’t be that many bald, red-bearded Armenian Muslims in the Cambridge area.
