Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev regained consciousness and began answering written questions from police on Sunday night, according to NBC and ABC news.

Meanwhile, Muslim leaders in Boston say they wouldn't give the other suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, last rites.

Journalists and investigators are still searching for the suspects' motivations, with attention focusing on Tamerlan's trip to Dagestan, the "epicenter of of a violent Islamic insurgency in Russia and a hub of jihadist recruitment," reports the NYT.

After returning from Dagestan in 2012, Tamerlan created a YouTube channel with links to jihadist videos, CNN reports. He also reportedly disrupted Friday prayers at a Boston mosque by arguing about Martin Luther King, but never exhibited violent behavior, said the Islamic Society of Boston.

Dzhokhar was fascinated by Chechnya's bloody battles for independence from Russia, but neither brother publicly embraced violent jihad, the NYT notes in an article about homegrown Muslim extremists.

Muslim leaders strongly condemned the bombings and said "these were criminal acts, not religious acts."

Our own Omid Safi offers 10 Essential points about the Boston Marathon bombers, Islam, and America

The Boston bombings' mass casualties brought the city's hospital chaplains into high demand, reports G. Jeffrey MacDonald.

The pulpit at First Baptist Church in West, Texas was a flatbed truck in a pasture after this week's brutal explosion at a fertilizer factory.

The Boy Scouts of America issued a proposal to lift its ban on gay scouts, but not gay scout leaders. The half-measure mirrors Mormon church policy, says Joanna Brooks, who notes that one-third of all BSA troops nationwide are affiliated with LDS congregations.



Thousands of gay marriage opponents marched through Paris on Sunday to protest legislation to allow same-sex union and adoption. Reuters says the bill will probably pass.

Nuns on the Bus leader Sister Simone Campbell said she was “hurt" by Pope Francis' reaffirmation of the censure of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

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Daniel Burke