The Florida Attack and Religious Extremism

 

On Sunday June 12 the United States suffered the worst mass shooting in its history, with at least 50 people killed and more wounded. The attack occurred at a gay dance club in Orlando, Florida, carried out by Omar Matteen, an American Muslim of Afghan parentage. The attacker apparently called 911 (America’s emergency phone number) to profess his allegiance to the “Islamic State” before being killed in a shootout with police.

As often happens with such tragedies, even before the dust settles the event is being filtered through the political lenses and agendas of various groups. Gun control activists in America view it as another mass shooting in a country with woefully inadequate controls on private ownership of firearms. National security hawks see another act of “Islamic terrorism” against Americans. Gay rights activists see another instance of violence and gross intolerance towards homosexuals. People concerned with mental health issues perceive another person who should have had help and treatment left out in the cold and allowed to lose control. Critics of religion see another instance of doctrinal-fueled hate. 

The shootings of course represent first and foremost a terrible tragedy for all those who lost loved ones. U.S. President Obama, while referring to the attack as terrorism, clearly tried to steer the political narrative towards gun control and civil rights rather than a war between Islamists and the West. His first lengthy statement following the shooting included the following:

This is an especially heartbreaking day for all our friends -- our fellow Americans -- who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. The shooter targeted a nightclub where people came together to be with friends, to dance and to sing, and to live. The place where they were attacked is more than a nightclub -- it is a place of solidarity and empowerment where people have come together to raise awareness, to speak their minds, and to advocate for their civil rights.

 So this is a sobering reminder that attacks on any American -- regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation -- is an attack on all of us and on the fundamental values of equality and dignity that define us as a country. And no act of hate or terror will ever change who we are or the values that make us Americans.

Today marks the most deadly shooting in American history. The shooter was apparently armed with a handgun and a powerful assault rifle. This massacre is therefore a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school, or in a house of worship, or a movie theater, or in a nightclub. And we have to decide if that’s the kind of country we want to be. And to actively do nothing is a decision as well.

While the president’s reaction seems both reasonable and laudable, it also feels difficult to ignore the fact that the shooter apparently came from a devout Muslim family with a highly politicized interpretation of Islam. Early reports regarding the Mateen father-son duo indicate the standard Islamist grab-bag of hate for the West, support for groups like the Taliban, and intolerance towards others with different views or lifestyles (such as homosexuals). In this sense, the Florida shootings seem part of a war of cultures and civilizations that infect the world of late.

The war in question is probably not between Islam and Christianity, however. Rather, it is between religious extremists, dictators in general and those who favor liberalism and tolerance. Following this most recent shooting, some conservative newspaper headlines in Turkey had titles such as “Fifty perverts killed in Florida.” A devout Christian senator in Texas apparently tweeted “you reap what you sow” after the killings of the homosexuals. Gay bashers from Putin’s Russia to sub-Saharan tin-pot dictatorships probably smiled at the news as well. Some Christian evangelical pastors in the U.S. likewise publically celebrated the killings because of the sexual orientation of the victims.
 
Meanwhile, mainstream American Muslim leaders all loudly condemned the attacks as strongly as strongly as they could, with no caveats regarding the lifestyle of the victims.  In this day and age, in fact, the way a government and society treat homosexuals can probably be taken as a litmus test for tolerance, freedom and democracy. The most free, democratic countries approach what social conservatives view as “deviants” with love, respect and tolerance, while extremists and dictatorships brook no difference. 
Let us hope, for all our sakes, that tolerance wins the war.

David Romano has been a Rudaw columnist since 2010. He holds the Thomas G. Strong Professor of Middle East Politics at Missouri State University and is the author of numerous publications on the Kurds and the Middle East.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.