(JNS.org) In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, investigators are looking into extremist ties between Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, including a suggestion by his mother that he travel to “Palestine” to conduct possible terrorist activities there. In early 2011, the Russian Federal Security Service intercepted a call between Tamerlan and his mother, where the two vaguely discussed jihad, U.S. officials told the Associated Press. Part of the discussion involved the possibility of Tamerlan traveling to the Palestinian territories. But Tamerlan expressed doubts to his mother, saying he did not know the language there. As a result, the FBI is investigating Zubeidat Tsarnaeva’s influence over her sons. “Intelligence officials have also found text messages in which the mother discusses how Tamerlan is ready to die for Islam,” Newsday reported.

Meanwhile, Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s former brother-in-law said in an interview that the bomber was interested in reading the antisemitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. “He never said he hated America or he hated the Jews,” Elmirza Khozhugov told the Associated Press. “But he was fairly aggressive toward the policies of the U.S. toward countries with Muslim populations. He disliked the wars.”

According to interviews with family members, Tamerlan was possibly first exposed to radical Islam by an Armenian convert to Islam named Misha, who may have attended the Islamic Society of Boston mosque in Cambridge, Mass. with Tamerlan.