Obama: Orlando attack “home grown extremism”

President Obama has confirmed that there is no evidence that Omar Mateen, who murdered 49 people in Orlando’s Pulse nightclub two nights ago, was on an IS/Daesh mission. While Mateen did pledge loyalty to IS/Daesh shortly before or during the attack, there is no evidence of prior links between him and the terrorist organisation.

Obama confirmed that the investigation into Mateen was still a terrorist investigation, but it appeared that the attack was an example of “home-grown extremism”. This confirms the line that Owen Jones took on Sky News*, when he refused to see the incident as primarily an IS/Daesh attack on a random venue and insisted that the attack on the openly gay venue was a terrorist attack motivated by homophobia – even if the perpetrator was believed that his homophobia was consistent with his Muslim beliefs. Owen left the programme after it became clear that the presenter and other guest would only generalise and see this as an attack by Islamic forces on westerners in general.

President Obama had earlier spoken about the US right’s unwillingness to curb gun ownership as one reason why hate crimes resulted in so very many deaths and injuries. Mateen had been physically violent towards his first wife and she has stated that she believes he was not inspired by religious motives but brought to carry out this attack by his unbalanced mental state.

He had also been heard making extremist threats at work. This brought him to the attention of the FBI, which interviewed him but did not place him on the “watch” list. Questions must be asked, in the US, about the FBI’s role in protecting US citizens in this, and potentially in other, cases.

Donald Trump has refused to accept that his open Islamophobia (such as his call to ban Muslims from entering the US) and overt racism (promising to build a wall to keep Mexicans out of the US, as they are criminals and rapists) has stoked bigotry more generally and may push unbalanced individuals to take extreme measures such as mass shootings. Cynically, Trump has used the Orlando attack as evidence that he was right about Muslims – which can only fan the flames of hatred on the streets and put more innocent citizens at risk from unbalanced and violent individuals and copycat actions.

President Obama spoke as the UK LGBT community planned to meet up in Old Compton Street at 7pm tonight, Monday, 13th June to hold a vigil in honour of the Orlando victims. Organisers of the Pride Parade due to take place in London on 25th June are also planning to hold a minute’s silence during proceedings.

*See our report on Owen Jones leaving the Sky News live newspaper review programme: https://eastlondonnews.co.uk/owen-jones-rocks-why-muslims-must-stand-and-cheer/

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