| Mr Khan said: But if you're up for Chechen independence, why Boston? Even if you don't want to take a plane to Saint Petersburg or Moscow, you could always try the embassy in DC |
For a lot of the rebels the Chechen jihad is just part of the greater global jihad. That's why there have been Chechen fighters turning up in Iraq and Afghanistan, even though you'd think they have their hands full enough with the Russians. My guess would be that Tamerlan probably subscribed to that line of thinking.
It's pretty easy to become radicalized in a foreign land. There have been incidents of gay Muslims who escaped persecution in their home countries by going to Europe only to find themselves strangers in a strange land. The thing that reminds them most of home is the mosque, so they go there, fall under some radical preacher's influence, and end up part of a terror cell, as counterintuitive as that all sounds.
