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Sarasota News Leader April 26, 2013 OPINION Tamerlan was born on Oct. 21, 1986 in Tokmok, Kyrgyzstan. He claimed (falsely) in an interview with the Lowell Sun that he had been raised in Grozny, Chechnya, before entering the U.S. Tamerlan showed early promise as a boxer. He also exhibited talent as a musician. As a part-time student at Bunker Hill Community College, however, his performance was unimpressive and he stopped going to classes. It was about this same time in 2008 that Tamerlan's interest in his mother's brand of conservative Islam began to take root. Page 72 merlan, whom they suspected to be a Muslim militant. The FBI reportedly replied to the Russians that it found Tamerlan without a connection to any militant group. Tamerlan departed the U.S. for Russia on Jan. 12, 2012, returning on July 17, 2012. He visited Chechnya and Dagestan, but the details of his activities there are not known. After his return to the U.S., Tamerlan created social media accounts, several with postings which glorify jihad. The Imarat Kavkaz (The Emirate of the Caucasus), which the U.S. has declared a terrorist organization, is also featured. Tamerlan The following year, Ruslan Tsarni told CNN, warned Muslims not to allow their children to Tamerlan, in a telephone call, declared that watch Harry Potter movies. studies and work were irrelevant to him beOn Sept. 5, 2012, Tamerlan applied for U.S. cause Allah had a mission for him. citizenship. Two months later he interrupted a sermon at his local mosque, calling the imam TURNING POINTS an "infidel" and a "hypocrite" for encouraging Also in 2009, Tamerlan was charged with do- Muslims to join in Thanksgiving Day celebramestic abuse for slapping his then girlfriend. tions. Later, he lost in the first round of the Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions in Salt Lake Tamerlan's descent into fanaticism began in childhood. During the Soviet period, he and City. his family lived in "internal exile" in KyrgyzTamerlan married Katherine Russell in the stan, whose native population had little in summer of 2010. A Christian, Katherine concommon with, and scant sympathy for, Chechverted to Islam. Tamerlan stayed home to care ens. After the implosion of the USSR in 1991, for their daughter while Katherine worked the veneer of official Kyrgyz tolerance for long hours as a home healthcare aid to pro"displaced" minorities, such as Chechens, Uivide for the family. They also applied for, and ghurs and Koreans, was peeled away. These received, welfare payments. "foreigners" were not wanted by the Kyrgyz. In early 2011, the Russian Federal Security Tamerlan's father lost his high-level governService requested the FBI to investigate Ta- ment post and moved the family to the North