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WASHINGTON: The head of a prominent US Muslim advocacy group Sunday strongly condemned the nightclub massacre in Florida, calling members of the militant Islamic State (IS) group an "aberration" amid allegations the gunman was inspired by them.
Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, also called for unity and urged politicians not to "exploit" the slaughter in Orlando, which left 50 dead and dozens more injured.
"This is a hate crime. Plain and simple. We condemn it in the strongest possible terms," Awad told a news conference.
"It violates our principles as Americans and as Muslims. Let me be clear, we have no tolerance for extremism of any kind.”
The FBI said the American gunman, 29-year-old Omar Mateen, who died in an exchange of fire with police, was believed to have made a 911 call pledging allegiance to IS before the shooting.
Awad referenced such reporting and said he had a word for IS members and supporters.
"You do not speak for us. You do not represent us. You are an aberration, you are an outlaw ... they don't speak for our faith. They never belonged to this beautiful faith."
With the 2016 race for the White House in full swing, Awad warned that perpetrators of attacks such as the one in Orlando "mean only to divide us" and called for calm on the political front.
"And to those politicians who may try to exploit this tragedy, we ask them to respect the victims and their families. This is not the time to score points. This is not the time to exploit fear. This is the time for unity and faith."
White House hopeful Donald Trump lost no time in claiming the killing showed he has been right about Islamic extremism all long.
In a speech from the White House, President Barack Obama said, “We know enough to say this was an act of terror, an act of hate.”
“As Americans, we are united in grief, in outrage and in resolve to defend our people.”
US officials cautioned, however, they had no conclusive evidence of any direct connection with any foreign extremist group.
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Comments (41) Closed
Jun 13, 2016 09:52am
Muslims should stop Taquiyya (double talk)
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Jun 13, 2016 10:01am
It is sad, there is no excuse for extremism. My prayers go to victimes and their families.
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Jun 13, 2016 10:04am
Unfortunately the majority of non Muslims do not consider Islam a religion of love and peace
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Jun 13, 2016 10:14am
A sad day and pressure intensifies on US based Muslims.
Extremists in any nation are a disgrace. Islam teaches tolerance not crime, these evil doers only represent themselves and not Islam
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Jun 13, 2016 10:18am
He is in denial. Looks like things are going to get very nasty for Muslims in US now.
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Jun 13, 2016 10:28am
Condemnations after each massacre by Muslims seems to be the Modus Operand of all Islamic world.....but will not do anything to bring a stop to it.
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Jun 13, 2016 10:29am
This seems to happen a lot. When a Muslim person commits terrorist activity, a whole bunch of people cry out that he was not a true follower of Islam. However, once the terrorist is dead, people want to bury him according to religious traditions. Why this two face behavior ? Accept that s/he was a Muslim throughout their life and introspect if the current followers of Islam in the world can be guided towards creating a better, humane and tolerant society.
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Jun 13, 2016 10:37am
I see no reason for people to be able to buy automatic assault rifles. A shot gun or a hunting rifle may be ok. But automatic weapons make no sense.
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Jun 13, 2016 10:38am
Dear leaders, If you don't have tolerance for extremism then why do you accept grants from countries and religious organizations who promote extremism against minorities in the counties where Muslims are in majority.
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Jun 13, 2016 10:49am
A definite bump in ratings for Trump after yesterday
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Jun 13, 2016 10:53am
These terrorists are everywhere nowadays. IS, Al-Quida, Talibans etc. Sometime few countries use them for their own benefits.
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Jun 13, 2016 11:03am
@Gangadeen Shah you sure you have a proper knowledge about it? OR just heard it.
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Jun 13, 2016 11:20am
Please introspect
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Jun 13, 2016 11:42am
There is a dire need of Religious Tolerance among the Muslims around the world. Even a smallest of the violence must be condemned since violence has no place in Islam. Teaching if true, peaceful Islam should be a part of curricula around the world and all such people infiltration hatred among the young Muslims should be handled with iron fist all around Muslim world. Concrete steps needs to be taken now.
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Jun 13, 2016 11:53am
@Kamal Pasha. Agree but named the countries Sir.
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Jun 13, 2016 12:14pm
Facts speak for them self. Waiting to hear the next speech from Donald Trump!
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Jun 13, 2016 12:23pm
It is a futile act to get into details of the background of this killer. His act is a reaction to the environment in which he lives. He finds the environment as immoral and against normal social precepts. The solution has to be found in necessary changes of environment.
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Jun 13, 2016 12:23pm
What are these people upto. I can not understand.
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Jun 13, 2016 01:11pm
Every body seems to be apologetic about Islam and starts defending it whenever such incidents occur. I don't know how does Islam comes into play here? America and its allies have openly and brazenly massacred millions of people in the Middle East and Afghanistan and thus created countless enemies. Now some of those who are continuously brutalized carry out sporadic incidents of violence as a revenge. It is between the oppressor and the oppressed and both should be equally condemned, if not the oppressor, where the target are the common people.
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Jun 13, 2016 01:29pm
This tragedy in Florida has made Donald Trump position more powerful to be elected as next president of united states of America and made Muslims more venerable in that country
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Jun 13, 2016 01:30pm
@ibmx Who will stop systematic massacre of millions in the Middle East and Afghanistan which actually lead to such incidents? The so called civilized world should also have introspection, whose never satiating greed has caused human tragedies across the world.
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Jun 13, 2016 01:33pm
@Gangadeen Shah: There is no need to practice Taquiyya. Muslims & non Muslims are equally worried & affected by terrorists, ISS was not created by the Muslims world as such to put a blame collectively on all Muslims is grossly mischievous and an attempt to mislead the world. The worst sufferer of terrorism today are Muslims.
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Jun 13, 2016 01:36pm
@Patrick: Who thinks what is his personal opinion, the real truth is Islam is a religion of peace & love. Those engaging themselves in acts of terror to hurt others are in fact not taking any guidance from Islam.
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Jun 13, 2016 01:42pm
@Farrukh I have practical experience with it.
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Jun 13, 2016 01:48pm
@Kamal Pasha. You forgot the name of Bajrang Dal & other such organisations.
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Jun 13, 2016 01:54pm
Why in 90% of such cases person turns out to be a Muslim. Is introspection not required before it is too late.
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Jun 13, 2016 01:55pm
@Farrukh whole world has this knowledge except few co-religionist
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Jun 13, 2016 01:55pm
@Abdulla Hussain not worth mentioning their names... they have never gone beyond bashing, shouting slogans, or light beating as permissible in Islam but not killing.
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Jun 13, 2016 01:57pm
Estimated number of Muslims 1.6 billion (1,600,000,000) and 40% of them are not able to read or write. If few out of them are rotten eggs that is 0.000006 percent and the remaining 99.999994 percent are peaceful, hard working, tolerant and honest people.
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Jun 13, 2016 02:12pm
@gunga din If you practice it then please don't generalize it with the whole community. The same comment could be applied for individuals who are atheists and others of different faiths as well. There needs to be a degree of intellectualism in this serious debate.
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Jun 13, 2016 02:28pm
Before the attack no one comes and reports, only after they condemn.
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Jun 13, 2016 02:42pm
What council did to curtail extremism in US?
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Jun 13, 2016 03:18pm
Now people won't trust anymore.
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Jun 13, 2016 03:34pm
@Abdulla Hussain You are right. Even Trump mentioned Bajarang Dal as the biggest threat for terrorism in USA.
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Jun 13, 2016 03:44pm
@Amir Khawaja unfortunately majority doesn't work that way but number of crimes
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Jun 13, 2016 03:49pm
So being on the FBI 'Radar' didn't do anyone any good! Shows how ineffective are no-fly lists, radars, surveillance, racial profiling and monitoring .
If you cannot prevent a carnage from happening, you've failed at every front!
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Jun 13, 2016 04:16pm
Majority of Muslims are against all kind of violence and condemns all kind of killings.
It takes years to build one life and takes second to destroy it.
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Jun 13, 2016 04:21pm
@Patrick Most of the world do not consider US to be a country of peace...Vietnam, Cambodia, Itaq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Palestine, Iran...and so on...
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Jun 13, 2016 04:36pm
@Patrick Yes, there is so much peace in America, and record number of Americans renouncing their citizenship and moving abroad!? Go figure!
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Jun 13, 2016 06:58pm
It is a deliberate and well intended plan to create terror and call it Muslim terror. Otherwise, the US media states: "We’re 164 days into 2016. We’ve had 133 mass shootings and there have been 76 days this year with mass shootings in the United States — and 88 days without. A total of 207 people have died in those incidents, including the known victims of the shooting this morning in Orlando". Out of those 133 mass shootings this year, Oralndo is the only one involving a killer with Muslim name.
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Jun 13, 2016 08:29pm
Whi is funding IS? The fundamental question to ask!! Dare ask it.
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