To make sense of the genesis of heinous act of hate crime and terror in Orlando’s gay nightclub folks around the world are consumed piecing together homophobia, prevalence of gun violence, Islamophobia and other shreds of it. While concerned folks are at it, regular (read moderate) Muslims had to go an extra mile to prove how they condemn the massacre with the same, if not more, ferocity. Enough to make these Muslims around the globe cringe inside; the “Islamic connection” was confirmed relatively early as the events started unfolding. To their chagrin, turned out the shooter was in fact an Afghan-American Muslim hence the natural fear of all Muslims (especially of the South Asian Muslim diaspora in the US) for being put together in the same bracket of “these people”. Again.
Typical of him, the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump spewed his anti-Muslim venom and tactfully pushed President Barack Obama to blame “radical Islamic terrorism” or else resign in disgrace. Saving grace for most of them, thankfully Obama unlike Hilary Clinton did not grill Muslims on the whole and sufficed with “an act of terror and hatred”.
In situations like these time is of essence. And the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) was quick in their effort to categorically de-hyphenate Islam or radical Islam out of this sordid saga of highest order. "You (ISIS) 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,” said Nihad Awad-CAIR's National Executive Director hours after the incident. Add to it the quick condemnation which came from the Islamic Society of Central Florida and other Islamic groups and organizations who rushed to denunciate the shooting.
Bottom-line: deep down after almost every terrorist attack (especially in the West) there is a natural fear among regular Muslim folks that one way or the other there will be an “Islamic connection” established. And it will open floodgates of wholesale condemnation of all Muslims alike making lives of Muslim minorities living in the West (especially that of Europe) more miserable. And that it will keep coming back to haunt them. Hence it creates the need for a forthright denunciation and dissociation of the moderates in time.
However breaking from the past, beyond an Islamic connection several other questions dominated the narrative overallin wake of the Orlando night club shooting: How far does the US still harbor virulent hate against LGBTQIs and failed to ensure equal rights for minorities? How was the shooter able to get hands on lethal weapons after a history of involvement in terror-related cases before? Did he slip out of FBI’s hands? Was it an individual act of hate crime to gain personal significance, especially after the revelation that the shooter was mentally unstable and a wife beater? And so on.
So it is pertinent to ask if the moderates have successfully disassociated mainstream Islam from obscurantists; has the Western media punditry started to entertain the possibility of a lone wolf Muslim psychopath and a room for introspection? Is there a general realization of the difference between radicalization of Islam and Islamization of radicalism here? (as in the words of Oliver Roy – author of Globalized Islam).
Yay or nay it may be early to give a verdict. We cannot completely discount the flurry of blames targeting “radical Islam” yet it is heartening to see many other questions dominating the narrative post the worst attack in US history after 9/11.
Finally, Orlando nightclub shooting comes days after The Greatest Muhammad Ali left us for good. After what American Muslims hoped would have been a start of a new chapter of co-existence and tolerance in the states it looks like the chapter closed before even properly starting.
Still it may well be hoped that the recent "deadliest mass shooting in US history", as it is dubbed, does not pit American Muslim and L.G.B.T.Q.I minorities against each other. It will be equivalent to doing injustice to the legacy of The Greatest.