http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324235304578437131250259170.html
Why did they do it? That's what everyone wants to know. Until "Jahar" recovers enough to really start writing, it's interesting to read what the family and friends are saying, to find out the details of the family's estrangement that their Uncle Tsarli intimated during his first statements to the press a few days ago. The above link is to a very interesting article in WSJ.
Looks like Mom inadvertently turned the boys to the Dark side. Big Brother was having issues & Mom caught the Quran-thumper bug, spreading it to him (who in turn spread it to kid brother). Mom & Dad's marriage went kerflooie due to Mom's (and eventually son's) newfound fundieness. Shame, too. The son's seemed like mostly fun guys for the most part until they got crazy (though the big brother was a brash jerk who hit his girlfriend but little brother sounded like a carefree, sweet boy by most accounts. Fundie religion can sure poison the hell out of people).
It's seems like the new converts or the formally lapsed who rediscover their religion (like Christian Born Agains, but I don't know if there's a common term) tend to be the most aggressive and zealous.
I agree. Heck I ALMOST pity the younger brother. Here's a cute young kid who seemed to be the nicer & happier of the two, with friends & everything. But he was one of those "follow big brother" types. Big brother seemed to be the one with the issues. Big brother's stupidity rubbed off on the younger guy. I'd like to think that he was simply a good kid who got brainwashed into pure evil. Of course, he could've had those tendencies from birth (sociopaths can appear as normal, happy people). That said, he's still a jerk & he's the one who placed the bomb by the 8 year old who died (there's a photo of this). The fact that a guy can place a bomb by a small boy obviously indicates that he has no soul (though he could've reasoned, if he cared, 'The little one will be with Allah', though I doubt it).
This whole mess in the family started because Mom decided to go Fundie & Big Brother was a violent douche to his girlfriend.
If Big Brother hadn't been abusive to his girlfriend, he wouldn't have had problems with becoming a U.S. citizen & an Olympic Kickboxer (a big dream of his).
If Mom didn't turn into The Mosque Lady ('Isn't that special'), she wouldn't have exploited Big Brother's personal foibles to convert him, thus turning him into "Mr. Jihad Guy" who spread it to his (by all accounts) otherwise nice, friendly, well-adjusted, outgoing, fully-assimilated Kid Brother (who looked up to Big Brother WAAAAAY too much). Mom & Pop's marriage wouldn't have gone down the tubes.
Big Brother quit kickboxing due to his becoming radicalized (Mom's fault) and because of the mess with immigration (his woman-beating fault). According to that pictorial about him as a kickboxer (taken a few years back), he stated that should he become an Olympian, he wanted to kickbox on behalf of the United States since, because Chechnya is part of Russia, he didn't want to represent Russia.
The best way to get rid of terrorism is to get it at the roots...Religious Fanaticism & Political Grievance. This stupidity easily spreads due to political grievances. Give the Chechen people independence! Israel must accept the Palestinians as their own & treat them as fellow citizens & equals (rename the country Israel-Palestine, Palestine-Israel or simply 'The Holyland')! Go to Afghanistan to do humanitarian things like build schools, fix roads & infrastructure, feed the hungry, help people...not the GI Joe routine (GI Joe can be on the perimeter to guard from Taliban but nothing more). And finally, Moderate/Sane Muslim Madrassas, teach the faith in a way that promotes peace & not terrorism, teach against Islamozealotry.
Do these few things & Islamozealot terrorism & ideas will be GREATLY reduced. Islam wasn't always this stupid. Heck, Muslim societies in the Middle Ages were some of the cleanest, most enlightened, most educated societies. Muslims developed Algebra & made many scientific breakthroughs.
The Abrahamic scriptures (The Tanackh, The Bible, The Quran) are such that The Regressive & Progressive can find something to follow. Folks should be taught how to interpret Progressively. If not, then it isn't for them.