As ISIL claims attack, LGBT community in shock

posted on: Jun 13, 2016

By NAHAL TOOSI

Politico.com
ORLANDO: In their so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria, Islamic State extremists have killed suspected gay men by throwing them off buildings. On Sunday, the terrorist network claimed responsibility for the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, one that left 50 dead, including the shooter, and dozens wounded at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

That the Islamic State could have played a role in the early morning attack, which came during Gay Pride Month, sent shudders through the LGBT community in the United States, where fears of terrorist assaults on soft targets such as schools, shopping centers and nightclubs already were on the rise.

Gays and lesbians are no strangers to discrimination and violence, but “historically, gay clubs and bars are a safe place so for that type of environment to be the victim of this is just very traumatizing,” said Ida Eskamani, development officer for Equality Florida, an advocacy group. “The whole community is just reeling from this.”

In a televised statement about the attack, President Barack Obama made sure to point out the impact on gays, lesbians and others in their community, calling what happened “an act of terror and act of hate.”

The gunman, Omar Mateen, who was killed in a shootout with police, was a U.S. citizen of Afghan descent. Media reports said he called 911 shortly before reaching the Pulse nightclub and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. The group’s Amaq news agency said Sunday the attack was “carried out by an Islamic State fighter,” Reuters reported. U.S. officials, however, are still investigating the extent of the Islamic State’s connection to the attack; it could have played more of an inspirational role than an operational one.

Mainstream interpretations of Islam generally forbid homosexuality, and gays and lesbians in many Muslim countries live under social and legal threat, so relatively few are open about their sexual orientation. Islamists in particular often point to Western tolerance of homosexuality as a reason Islam can’t be reconciled with liberal values.

Still, the violence practiced by the Islamic State against gays — or for that matter other social, ethnic and religious minorities — is unusually vicious, whether it’s through beheadings, stonings or throwing people off buildings. But the terrorist network apparently views its approach as a sign of its fidelity to the faith — and one way to recruit.

“I’ve seen them point to Western tolerance for homosexuals as a reason why pious Muslims should repudiate Western countries and embrace the Islamic State,” said Will McCants, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has written extensively on militant Islam.

The shooter’s father, Mir Seddique, told NBC News that the attack “has nothing to do with religion” but added that his son was angered by the sight of two men kissing a few months ago.

Shadi Hamid, author of “Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam Is Reshaping the World,” said the Islamic State’s leaders are far more focused on trying to retain their territory in Iraq and Syria amid a U.S. and Iraqi-led assault than they are on destroying gays and lesbians.

But the fact that the attack was on the gay community makes it easier for the group to justify the attack to Muslims who might question it. “From a messaging standpoint, it helps in the sense that they can argue to their followers that these people deserved to be killed,” Hamid said.

He noted that in part because of greater political awareness among American Muslims (some of it inspired by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S.) there has been growing dialogue between Muslims and gay and lesbian organizations around the subject of civil rights.

Muslim organizations in the United States unequivocally condemned the Orlando assault on Sunday, and some urged Muslims to donate blood to help the 53 people wounded in the attack.

“The Muslim community joins our fellow Americans in repudiating anyone or any group that would claim to justify or excuse such an appalling act of violence,” said Rasha Mubarak, an official with the Council on American Islamic Relations Florida chapter.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee also weighed in with a message of solidarity with gay rights groups. “We have worked regularly with the (gay and lesbian) community, as they have been on the forefront of helping combat Islamophobia and Anti-Arab sentiment,” it said.

Condolences poured in from around the world, including the government of Jordan, a key Muslim ally of the United States. In a news release, Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad Momani said the country condemns all forms of terrorism and violence “no matter what their source and motives are.”

Eskamani, of Equality Florida, stressed that the gay community is sympathetic to the discrimination faced by Muslims in the United States, especially in the wake of attacks carried out by extremists.

“That hate and that intolerance that they face is the same that the LGBT community faces,” Eskamani said. Equality Florida has launched a fundraising page to help the victims of the attack.

Eskamani said it’s possible that gay nightclubs and similar gathering places will look into ways to further enhance their security, but that because of the history of hate crimes against gays and lesbians, security has long been a priority.

“We don’t want to live in a world of fear, and we’re always going to choose love and compassion over fear and hate,” she said.

Source: www.politico.com