The warped code of honour that incites hatred and may be the driving force behind the Boston bombing brothers act of terrorism By Susan Richards The Chechen teenager captured in the early hours of yesterday morning did not fit the stereotype of a terrorist. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had everything going for him - brains, a good education and a bright future in his adopted US homeland. He and his older brother Tamerlan were of Chechen origin but partially brought up in neighbouring Dagestan. Both countries are part of the war-torn Caucasus, federal subdivisions of Russia fighting for their independence. The brothers had escaped from Dagestan, which is on the brink of civil war, to make a new life in the West with their parents. Suspects: Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, left, and his younger brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19 But while they have been enjoying America's freedom and opportunities, Dagestan, which I visited recently, has become the main focus of Russia's battle with militant Islam. Bombings and shootings are everyday occurrences. So rampant is official corruption and injustice in Dagestan, and so little future offered to its bright youngsters, that it is not hard to see what draws them to take up arms. But Dzhokhar and Tamerlan had escaped all that. So what made them turn against their host country to attack it in such a bloody way? Dzhokhar's family claim he was "framed." It is common in Dagestan for jihadists to force young men to commit violent acts by threatening to harm their family. But, more likely, the answer lies deep in the code of honour and loyalty that binds Chechen families and clans as tightly as the Mafia has done in Sicily. For many Russians the word "Chechen" is synonymous with "terrorist." After the fall of communism in the early Nineties, a new dream of independence from Russia triggered two brutal wars in Chechnya. The independence struggle morphed into the global cause of militant Islamism and the more extremist Salafite strain entered the region. Such extremists would see a bomb in America as the ultimate way to highlight their cause. Home: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving Boston bomb suspect, said he attended School No. 1 in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan What little we know of Tamerlan suggests that despite - or because of living in America - he was deeply affected by the new wave of religious thinking which accompanied militant Islam. Though the traditional Islam in the family's homeland was not remotely fundamentalist, there are clues in Tamerlan's recent past as to how he could have been drawn to the extreme teachings of jihadists. He described himself as "very religious" - enough to live the life of a strictly observant Muslim. At the same time, he appears not to have recovered from the culture shock of moving to the US. His character would have been formed by strict and family-based cultural traditions. Had he stayed in the North Caucasus, his parents would long ago have arranged a marriage for him. They would have chosen a girl in her teens, whose primary qualification was that she was a virgin and had never had a boyfriend. Past: This is the house in Tokmok where the two brothers, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev lived in before leaving for Dagestan In Dagestan and Chechnya today, girls still fall victim to honour killings by their families if they are even suspected of romantic involvement before marriage. In America, however, Tamerlan felt isolated and confused by the "amorality" around him. He had been attracted to the fundamentalist Salafism which today inspires militants in Dagestan and Chechnya. We know this because the FBI was concerned enough by the websites he visited to interview him two years ago. If he had converted to this extreme form of Islam, he would have been a useful tool to those who would see an attack on the US as a highlight in the Chechen freedom cause. And if Tamerlan had been lured into this web, his younger brother's involvement is not hard to understand. In Chechnya, the notion of honour is focused on loyalty to the family, a sentiment that would have been part of Dzhokhar's deepest being. Any decent Chechen man would give his life for the sake of another family member.