Something shocking happened at Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s sentencing hearing on Wednesday: He stood up and spoke.
Some have called it an apology. This was no apology.
Survivor Lynn Julian called it an “Oscar-type speech,” and survivor Scott Weisberg felt Tsarnaev’s claims of remorse in the bombing of the Boston Marathon were “hard to believe.” CNN anchor Ashleigh Banfield wasn’t buying it either, noting that she apologized more profusely for spilling water on a woman sitting next to her on an airplane. One survivor said she’d waited years to hear him speak, and now that he had, she regretted it.
What was most surprising was Tsarnaev’s sanctimony. He started off not with a repudiation of terrorism or a statement of remorse, but by invoking Allah, whose name he had transcribed twice inside the boat where he was captured three days after the bombing. This offended not only victims of the attack but Muslims everywhere, who are celebrating Ramadan.
“I would like to begin in the name of Allah, the exalted and glorious, the most gracious. … This is the blessed month of Ramadan, and it is the month of mercy from Allah to his creation, a month to ask forgiveness of Allah and of his creation, a month to express gratitude to Allah and to his creation.”
Then he thanked his attorneys and people who, he said, “made my life the last two years very easy. I cherish their company, they’re lovely companions. …”
Wait a minute — his life was “very easy” these last two years? You’ve got to be kidding me. The lives of so many survivors and victims have been a living hell and you are telling the court that your life has been easy. Wow, just wow.
Invoking religion yet again, he finally got around to apologizing to the victims and the survivors, sort of:
“If you are not merciful to Allah’s creation, Allah will not be merciful to you, so I’d like to now apologize to the victims, to the survivors. … Now, Allah says in the Quran that no soul is burdened with more than it can bear, and you told us just how unbearable it was, how horrendous it was, this thing I put you through. … I also wish that far more people had a chance to get up there, but I took them from you. Now, I am sorry for the lives that I’ve taken, for the suffering that I’ve caused you, for the damage that I’ve done. Irreparable damage.”
If you read his words at face value, it’s clear he does not regret the terrorist attack. He didn’t renounce terrorism. He didn’t renounce extremism in the name of Islam. He didn’t actually apologize for planting the bombs. He said, “I wish that far more people had the chance to get up there.” The “up there” he is referring to is the stand.
He didn’t say, “I wish I had never planted those bombs.” He says he wished Martin, Krystle, Lingzi and Sean could have gotten “up there” to testify. That tells us that he wished they had merely “survived” the attack.
If you are wondering whether he was sincere, you have your answer. He isn’t sorry for the attack itself, he just told you in every meaningful way.
But Judge George O’Toole had the final word.
“Whenever your name is mentioned, what will be remembered is the evil you have done. No one will remember that your teachers were fond of you. …
“What will be remembered is that you murdered and maimed innocent people, and that you did it willfully and intentionally. You did it on purpose …you had to forget your own humanity, the common humanity you shared with your brother Martin, your sister Lingzi Lu. …
“It is tragic, for your victims and now for you … surely someone who believes God smiles on and rewards the killing of innocents believes in a cruel God. That is not, and cannot be, the God of Islam.”
As a Bostonian, what I will remember are the faces of his four victims, the strength and resilience of the survivor community and our beloved city of Boston coming together in the wake of unspeakable terror — stronger than ever before. Boston Strong.
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