The Washington Post has gone out of its way to scrub any reference of Islamic terror in its write-up of the mass shooting at an Orlando gay club that left 50 dead and another 53 wounded.
While WaPo reported the incident as an act of “domestic terror,” the paper completely left out any further reference to the fact that 29-year-old Omar Mateen, the shooter, is a suspected Islamic extremist, whose parents are from Afghanistan. Mateen apparently carried out the attack with an AR-15 and a handgun. Mateen also apparently had an explosive device strapped to his body, though authorities are unsure if it was real or fake.
An explainer published by WaPo Sunday morning again referred to the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism, mentioning “terror” only once in the entire piece, but did not mention Islam. Instead, the piece decided to reference America’s culture of gun ownership and the “prevalence of gun violence” and asked grammatically atrocious questions like, “Is gun control reduce gun-related deaths?”
There is no discussion in the piece on data relating to acts of terrorism inspired by Islam. Similarly, the piece leaves out a litany of opinion polls showing shockingly high levels of sympathy among Muslims for violence, terror, Sharia law and anti-LGBT views.
So far, Mateen’s father, Mir Seddique, has insisted to NBC News the shooting “has nothing to do with religion.” Rather, Seddique noted that Omar simply got angry after he saw two men kissing in Miami about two months ago, which may have been the impetus for the shooting. Seddique also said he had no clue what Mateen had been up to.
“We are saying we are apologizing for the whole incident. We weren’t aware of any action he is taking. We are in shock like the whole country,” Seddique said.
Authorities have, however, immediately declared that Mateen had sympathy or ties to Islamic terrorism, suggesting information was readily available that linked Mateen to the wrong sorts of groups and ideologies.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer has declared a state of emergency following the horrific massacre.
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