The FBI has made it quite clear that Omar Mateen’s boasts about ties to al-Qaeda were macho blustering to intimidate & impress coworkers. His family, including his ex-wife, has made it clear he didn’t really have a religious bone in his body. That means investigators have hit a dead-end in any connection of Mateen to Islam or to terrorism.
So why is news reporting that Investigators are still looking into whether religious extremism motivated the attack? Why are they going after the FBI for not finding any links to terrorist groups–as if they bungled the investigation rather than eliminated that as a factor? Why is the narrative all about homeland security against Islamic extremism when it is clear Mateen was a psychotic, homophobic misfit, & according to some reports (including in the LA Times), possibly a shamed, self-hating homosexual?
If this investigation becomes a drum to beat Islamophobia, if the FBI folds & fabricates links to ISIS, all future investigations become suspect–just as they have been for decades for Black youth in the US.