US

You’ll Never Guess Which Presidential Candidate Muslim Terrorist Omar Mateen Supported

Reuters/Jim Young

Font Size:

Omar Mateen, the Muslim terrorist who massacred 49 people in an Orlando, Fla. night club earlier this month, was a supporter of presumed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, according to a man who attempted to inform the Federal Bureau of Investigation about Mateen’s radicalization.

The man who informed the FBI about Mateen’s foray into the radical fringes of Islam, Mohammed A. Malik, explained his relationship with Mateen in a profound and thoughtful, 1,532-word op-ed in The Washington Post on Monday.

Malik met Mateen at a post-sunset meal during Ramadan in 2006, he wrote. (Mateen, a quiet loner, “broke his Ramadan fast with a protein shake.”)

“Omar and I continued to have infrequent conversations over the next few years,” Malik said. “I last saw him at a dinner at his father’s house in January. We talked about the presidential election and debated our views of the candidates that were running — he liked Hillary Clinton and I liked Bernie Sanders. This banter continued through texts and phone calls for several months.”

Malik described himself as a casual acquaintance of Mateen’s. He said the two “developed a relationship because most of the other Muslim kids in his age group” left Port St. Lucie , where both Malik and Mateen lived. Mateen “stayed behind.”

“Soon after Omar married and moved to his own home, he began to come to the mosque more often. Then he went on a religious trip to Saudi Arabia.”

Omar Mateen Myspace handout via Reuters

Malik had informed the FBI about Mateen’s radicalism in or at some point after 2014.

Malik noted that, in 2014, a member of his mosque, Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, was part of a suicide bombing raid on Syrian government soldiers. Abu-Salha, an American and a Florida native, had joined the al Nusrah Front, a branch of al-Qaida.

The al Nusrah Front announced Abu-Salha’s death on Twitter — with a tweet featuring an image of a scraggly-bearded Abu-Salha wearing a hideous blue sweater and affectionately holding a mangy cat. (RELATED: American Suicide Bomber Was A Creepy Cat Lover Who Liked Eggo Waffles)

Abu-Salha “had clearly self-radicalized — and had also done so by listening to the lectures of Anwar al-Awlaki,” a charismatic and radical, American-born imam based in Yemen “who helped radicalize several Muslims, including the Fort Hood shooter.” (RELATED: SEVEN ISLAMIC TERRORIST ATTACKS IN USA IN SEVEN YEARS For Obama Administration)

Al-Awlaki, a former imam at Virginia’s Dar Al-Hijrah mosque who absconded from the United States in 2004, was born to immigrant parents in New Mexico. He was a mentor to a handful of the Sept. 11 hijackers. He reportedly spent time after the attacks banging prostitutes. (RELATED: TOP SECRET! Fed Spies Refuse To Release Osama Bin Laden’s SICKO PORN STASH)

“Immediately after Moner’s attack, news reports said that American officials didn’t know anything about him; I read that they were looking for people to give them some background,” Malik wrote. “So I called the FBI and offered to tell investigators a bit about the young man.”

Later, after learning that Mateen had admitted to him that “he had been watching videos of Awlaki, too,” Malik contacted the FBI again.

“He told me the videos were very powerful,” Malik said.

“I am not the first American Muslim to report on someone; people who do that simply don’t like to announce themselves in to the media,” Malik wrote. “For my part, I’m not looking for personal accolades. I’m just tired of negative rhetoric and ignorant comments about my faith.”

“I had told the FBI about Omar because my community, and Muslims generally, have nothing to hide. I love this country, like most Muslims that I know,” he also wrote.

Malik came to the United States from Pakistan when he was six years old.

Follow Eric on TwitterLike Eric on Facebook. Send story tips to erico@dailycaller.com.