A right-wing Tea Party group blamed President Obama for the bombing in Boston on Monday and accused "radical Islam" of the attack.
Tea Party Nation, a fringe group that associates itself loosely with the political Tea Party movement, made the claim on its website and in an email sent to members Tuesday, according to Right Wing Watch. (It's worth noting that Tea Party Nation is the only faction of the Tea Party movement classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.)
The statement on the website claims these kind of terrorist attacks will happen again, sooner rather than later, because the enemy is determined, and because "we have a government that is not committed to protecting America." The statement goes on to say it's "a pretty safe bet right now that this attack was carried out by an Islamist. ... [O]ur government is not committed to destroying our enemy. Radical Islam is our enemy."
Despite early reports of a mysterious "Saudi national" possibly involved with the bombing, no credible evidence currently links the Boston explosions to Al Qaeda or Islam.
That, of course, has not stopped groups like Tea Party Nation from making the connection themselves. In the aftermath of the attack, Tea Party Nation's opinions were echoed by noted anti-Islam advocate Pamela Geller, who took her own unsubstantiated views to social media:
Jihadi Arrested in Horrific Boston Marathon Bombing: Jihad in America. 12 dead, 50 injured. My deepest condole... bit.ly/11iYHvW
— Pamela Geller (@Atlasshrugs) April 15, 2013
Other tweeters expressed similar sentiments:
Christian televangelist Pat Robertson also jumped to imply Islamic terrorists were involved. Robertson, who makes no secret of his distaste for Islam, said, "[I]t just makes you sick at your stomach. Don't talk to me about religion of peace, no way."
At the same time, other conservative websites, including birther proponent World Net Daily, claimed CNN was erroneously pointing the finger at domestic right-wing terrorists. (Not true, according to BuzzFeed.)
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