It is tragic that once again, innocent victims succumb to the violent hatred of homegrown radical Islam. While we are still learning all the facts, it is clear that the gunman not only supported ISIS, but swore allegiance to the terrorist group, and acted as a radical Islamist, as he phoned 911 prior to carrying out his attack that resulted in the death of 50 people and an additional 53 people injured.
Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old U.S.-born citizen, has been identified as the suspect in the worst mass shooting in American history that left scores dead and more than 50 others wounded at the Pulse Orlando, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
That he chose to use guns to carry out his violent jihad on a nightclub serves only to illustrate the depth of his hatred – he could easily have used a suicide bomb to cause many more casualties. Blaming guns for the violence not only fails to recognize the nature of the hatred, violence and nihilism inherent in radical Islam, but distracts from the true nature of the problem America and the world faces.
That Mateen targeted an LGBT nightclub to carry out his murderous rampage should serve as stark reminder of an honest definition of real hatred and persecution, which is fundamental to radical Islam. ISIS, which is based in Syria, but has territory in northern Iraq, has a long and bloody history of targeting gay men for beatings and murder in the Middle East, and has many times filmed its members throwing men suspected of being gay from the roofs of tall buildings.
Americans must use this as an opportunity not to campaign against guns, the Second Amendment, or legal, law-abiding gun owners or the NRA, but to remember that while we have many sharp divisions between us, and many disagreements on the issues – as evidenced by the divisive campaign for the presidency – only one kind of hatred features butchering innocents while swearing fealty to radical terror.
To have any hope of global stability and a renewal of peace in the Middle East and around the globe, we must do more to confront and destroy this enemy of civilization. Doing so requires recognizing and challenging radical Islamic ideology and terror wherever it may be found – Boston, Paris, San Bernadino, Syria, Turkey or Orlando.
This is an argument against continuing the disastrously failed policies of President Obama by electing the corrupt, compromised, failed, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to essentially carry out a third term of the Obama regime.
On Obama’s watch, mass shootings carried out by persons who are either mentally deranged, or directly tied to radical Islamic terror have skyrocketed:
President Obama and his former Secretary of State did not do enough to arrest the rise of ISIS as a global terror threat, and Obama has done little to stop them once they began taking territory in the Middle East, beheading Christians and carrying out a campaign of violence and terror, including attacks in Europe and in the skies over Russia. That ISIS has has direct or indirect influence on terror attacks within American borders elevates the threat to a level that has no precedent.
We must all work together to ensure that a Republican president follow the failed Obama regime in office, giving America and the world an opportunity to directly confront and address the global challenge to peace that radical Islam represents. Until and unless this happens, the terror visited upon Boston, San Bernadino, and Orlando will continue.
