7/26/2019 Isis Must Be Treated as Credible Threat

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ISIS MUST BE TREATED AS CREDIBLE THREAT,

MEDIA REMAINS FULL OF THEMSELVESTHE EDITORIAL BOARD June 13, 2016

NoFilterPolitics.com

Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest, but

from the beginning, it was a day of despair that

quickly turned into a day of prayer. OmarSaddiqui Mateen entered Pulse Nightclub, a

prominent club in the gay community, in

Orlando, Florida, armed with an AR-15

semiautomatic rifle and a handgun. Mateen

proceeded to murder fifty club goers and injure

fifty-three more in the deadliest mass shooting

in United States history.

Mateen reportedly called 911 and pledged

his allegiance to the Islamic State. According to

the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mateen

was investigated in 2013 and 2014 for alleged

comments he made about connections with

terror groups, and alleged relationship with

American suicide bomber Moner Mohammad

Abu-Salha. These investigations never yielded

any charges. Mateen was placed on the terror

watch list, but was removed.Barney Frank, a gay former Democratic

Senator, recently said in an interview that is

more concerned with the Islamic element to

terrorism than a general rise in hatred towards

gay people. It is without question that many

religions hold negative views towards those in

the gay community. However, ISIS has

committed massive amounts of violence against

the gay communitymost notably, throwing

those suspected of being gay off the tops of

buildings to their deaths. Mateen himself was

witnessed acting distraught after seeing two

men kiss, revealing a sign of personal hatred

toward the a vulnerable LGBT community

Presumptive Republican nominee Donald

Trump has made fighting ISIS one of the

cornerstones of his campaign, saying we need

to be smart, tough, and vigilant. Trump also

criticizes Presumptive Democratic nominee

Hillary Clinton and President Obama for

failing to use the term radical Islamicterrorism, faulting both with refusing to

identify the enemy. We must be mature enough

to acknowledge the radical Islamic element to

this violence. ISIS, whether we like it or not,

bases its project of global expansion and

violence on a perverted reading of the Koran

and other Islamic texts. This, of course, is

comparable to other fundamentalist religious

sects. But no other religious group, at this time,

poses a similar threat.

While Trump was expressing dissatisfaction

with the current administrations approach to

combating terrorism, the media predictably

played word games to draw attention away

from his central message. Instead of focusing

on the real problem, the media was pre-

occupied with analyzing Trumps Twitter

account, and a Tweet that read, Appreciate

the congrats for being right on radical Islamic

terrorism, I don't want congrats, I want

toughness & vigilance. We must be smart!

Conveniently, many media reports never made

mention of the italicized portion of the Tweet

That irresponsible omission fueled the

manufactured narrative that Trump was

seeking the spotlight in a time of crisis

Clearly, Trump was telling his supporters thatwhile he was flattered by the kind words, he is

not running for President to get congrats, he

is running to ensure there is tough and vigilant

leadership in the White House.

Other media outlets sought to engage in

distorted soundbite tactics to take Trumps

words at an event, in which he delivered a

speech on foreign policy, out of context to

manufacture the narrative that he is a liar.

Regardless, now is not a time for distortion, it

is a time for dedication to the truth. That

includes bipartisan scrutiny for both

Presidential candidates. Sadly, however, once

respected newspapers have turned into tabloids

to peddle falsities about one candidate, while

leaving the other candidateyes, we are

referring to Hillary Clintonvirtually

unvetted. If that is not a categorical failure of

the Free Press, then we are not sure what

would.