let us destroy hate with love

On the weekend at least 49 people died and 53 more were wounded in Orlando, Florida when Omar Mateen went on a shooting rampage at the Pulse Nightclub. Mateen entered the gay nightclub at 2:00am Sunday morning and attacked the crowd with an assault rifle and handgun. The target was a gay club and its patrons and the issue, how someone could have access to weapons to cause mass murder. Yet ‘Islamic terrorism’ was highlighted by the media, politicians and more general society. This was an act of hatred. An act of violence against the gay community that has not been seen in modern American history. It helps not one person to make it about Islamic terror. It was an act of terror against people based on their sexual orientation, in a country that allows inequality against the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT) community to continue.

Why was this crime associated with Islam? At the first the perpetrator was described by the media as ‘Muslim’ and ‘Afghan/American’. Then it was claimed this was an act of terror from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). To affiliate this crime with the most famous and destructive terror group in the world at the moment was bound to get attention. Then there was a public outcry to the reports that the FBI investigated Mateen for terrorism but let him go, and he was allowed to buy weapons. But before anyone, whether it be the media or one person on Facebook, highlights this crime as Islamic terror without the right facts they do a disservice to the victims and the future victims of hatred – whether they be gay, Muslim or other.

Mateen did not act on behalf of Islam. He just used anything he could to highlight his actions, including fear of and prejudice towards Muslims against us. It has been reported that Mateen called 911 to pledge his allegiance to ISIL before entering the Pulse Nightclub. ISIL is militant group that follows an Islamic fundamentalist, Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam. Although predominantly active in large parts of Iraq and Syria, they have claimed terror attacks in other countries. ISIL has killed more Muslims than people of any other religion. Anyone with a basic knowledge of Islam, knows there are two major denominations – Sunni and Shia – and that there is a long history of tensions between them. ISIL target anyone that does not follow its extremist interpretation of Islam. On that day Matten pledged loyalty to the ISIL, but in the past he expressed solidarity with the Boston Marathon bombers and a suicide bomber who died on behalf of the al-Nusra front – which is a group that fights against ISIL. When Mateen was investigated by the FBI in 2013, it was because he expressed support for both al-Qaeda and Hezbollah. Al-Qaeda is a Sunni terror group, with similar aims to ISIL. Hezbollah are a Shi'a Islamist militant group and political party based in Lebanon. In fact Hezbollah has been fighting against ISIL in Syria, and in retaliation ISIL claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings in Beirut in November 2015 where 44 people were killed in a Shiite commercial and residential area with strong ties to Hezbollah.

The FBI investigated Mateen but nothing came of it because he was expressing support for various groups that have very different platforms and agendas. He was trying to get any attention he could. The only agenda he had was hatred. It has been reported he also said on multiple occasions he didn’t like blacks, Jews and women. To tie this act of violence to ISIL is to not only give them power, it also creates hysteria and anti-Islamic sentiments and most of all it diminishes the real victims, the real issue of discrimination and animosity towards the LBGT community. Mateen called 911 as he prepared to attack those in Pulse Nightclub because he knew it would create more attention. He does not deserve our attention, nor do ISIL. There are two issues that should have our attention. The first is the hate crime against the LGBT community and ongoing discrimination that leads to such hatred. The second is the availability of weapons in the United States so that anyone with a self-induced notion of superiority and power over other people cannot continue to cause this type of devastation.

In the United States in the last year there were over 100 anti-LGBT laws passed. Discrimination against any group spreads the idea to the community that there is something wrong with that group and creates an environment that breeds hate and violence is justified. By focusing on ISIL in any way when talking about the Pulse Nightclub attack takes away from the issue of inequality for the LBGT community and this is a never an issue we should be ignoring. Especially in the wake of members of that community being killed for that reason. We should also not be focusing on ISIL and Islamic terror as it causes a greater rift in the community and promotes hatred against Muslims.

Martin Luther King Jr said “Let no man pull you low enough to hate him”. Do not let Omar Mateen allow you to forget the discrimination that the LGBT community suffer every day that led to this crime. Do not let this man use his need to for attention to make you blame the Muslim community for his crime. If we really want to change this world, to make it better for people, we can never start with hate. Just hating others and blaming groups without the right information is a waste of time and only causes more problems. When there is a tragedy we all have the choice to be a casualty of the perpetrators hate and let it harden us to others, or we can let it bring us together and with empathy and love make changes that see the causes of the tragedy to decrease. I will always choose love, kindness and compassion because it is the only way that we can overcome those that spread hate and act with violence.

We need to all live our lives as an example that hate will never have a place in this world.