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Democracy, Featured, Gun Control, ISIS, Islam, Muslims, Orlando, Radicalisation, Sunnis, Terrorism, United States, Wahhabi, World
If it was not for the call that Omar Mir Seddique Mateen made to 911 during the attack at the gay nightclub in Orlando on early Sunday to pledge his allegiance to ISIS and mention the Boston Marathon bombers, this mass killing would more or less have been debated as another one of those gun violence that has created a bloody culture of mass shootings in the US. This debate, which today centers around the ISIS and radical Islam would have veered around to the need for greater gun control.
Unfortunate and ghastly as the incident is, the gun lobby in the United States must thank this mass murderer for having made that call to 911.
Although the question has veered away from the need for gun control in the US, this deadliest incident of mass shooting and worst terror attack since 9/11 in the country raises a very important question.
Gun violence in the US has mostly been incidents of psychological disorders, accidental deaths, suicides and domestic violence that has resulted in deadly carnage in the streets. However, this incident at the gay nightclub in Orlando raises a new dimension to the problem that the US faces.Since 9/11, and US operations in Afghanistan, countries around the world have faced new forms of terror emerging. Experts have long believed that the would now be lone wolf attacks, or terror operations by smaller unconnected groups. It is in this context, that I feel that the lack of gun control in the US is bound to present a complex challenge for anti-terror operations in the US.
The right of people to “keep and bear arms” will make it easier for potential lone wolf terrorists to plan and carry out attacks whereas it will make the task of law enforcement authorities and anti-terror operatives all the more difficult.
I completely agree that this war is not against Muslims but rather against the ISIS and Sunni Wahhabi Islam that has preached hatred and death for those who do not agree with their tenets of life. But I am afraid that it is this strain that represents radical Islam, an Islam that believes that a passage to paradise comes from a life of propriety as prescribed by its preachers. I have no problem if someone believes in the infallibility of their religion, but I do have a problem when someone insists that the burden of my salvation resides upon their shoulders. Because when a preacher of radical Islam decries and derides western society and culture, he does so, comforted by the fact that the democratic ideals of the place where he does it, protects and allows him to do so. However, he forgets that it is these every ideals that allowed that gay club to function.
The question that one is bound to ask, does radical Islam allow others the space that it seeks for itself in democratic societies?
Featured Image: under CC by Exile on Ontario St
Content Image: under CC by Elisa S
Sunny Peter 