Early Wednesday, Cannon's communications director Fred Piccolo said: "The congressman readily acknowledges that the true motivation for this tragic act may never be known, but the mere possibility, raised in reports airing on Fox News and other outlets, that there could be an ideological motive speaks to the point he made on the 'Doug Wright Show': That terror and fear know no boundaries and must be confronted wherever they threaten us."

Later in the day, the congressman amended his position.

"Chris' comment on Doug Wright's show was part of a broader observation about the need to be aware, both at home and abroad, of ideologies that lead to acts of violence. His reference to the Trolley Square shooting came from seeing a similar reference on Fox News Tuesday. If investigators say the young man made no such statement, Congressman Cannon fully accepts that," Piccolo said in an e-mail to the Deseret Morning News.

Internet blogs, conservative talk shows and others have zeroed in on Talovic's religion as the motive for the crime.

Members of Utah's Muslim community said they do not recall ever seeing Talovic or his family at any services. The Muslim Forum of Utah said Talovic lived a "hermit type of lifestyle" and was not known to be religious. The Islamic Society of the Greater Salt Lake said only a few Bosnians and Serbs attend mosque regularly.

"They came from Europe," Nadeem Ahmed said. "They have their own culture."

Slavojub Josipovic, with the American Bosnian and Herzegovenian Association, said his wife is Muslim but he is not. He said many Bosnian Muslims are more secular and "don't practice too much."

"They are more open. They lived together with Christians and other religions for hundreds of years," he said. "In Bosnia, we celebrate everybody's (religious) holidays."

Josipovic said the war made things more "difficult."

"They tried to separate us," he said. "By religion, different nationalities. It is so mixed in Bosnia you cannot put borders between people."

Ahmed questioned why many have chosen to focus on Talovic's religion, adding that if a killer happens to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, nobody blames the religion.

"I definitely, personally don't think it's the right way for any of us to look at it (religion,)" he said. "I don't know what this has to do with anything. If he attends (a mosque) or not, he was a very sick person."

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Rep. Chris Cannon's brother, Joe Cannon, is editor of the Deseret Morning News.

E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com; bwinslow@desnews.com; dbulkeley@desnews.com