At a Democratic presidential campaign rally in Kissimmee, Florida the other day, guess who was spotted sitting over the shoulder of Hillary Clinton?
Why, it was none other than Seddique Mateen, the father of Afghani Muslim killer-psychopath Omar Mateen, the worst mass murderer in American history!
In something of a surreal coincidence, the elder Mateen was spotted on-camera amongst the crowd as Clinton gave a speech in which she decried Omar Mateen’s horrific massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando wherein the younger Mateen gunned down 49 clubgoers and wounded 53 others.
“I know how many people, families, loved ones and friends are still grieving, and we will be with you as you rebuild your lives,” Clinton recited.
Afterward, in a post-rally interview on West Palm Beach’s WPTV, Seddique Mateen claimed he was there as a devoted Clinton fan. But it’s nearly common knowledge that the elder Mateen holds different views from Clinton’s public positions on a number of issues, such as views toward gay people.
It was the Seddique who originally told the press that his son had flown off the handle when he saw two men kissing in public and that this was at least a partial motivation for his son’s abhorrent crime.
But to be clear, in Omar’s case, the homophobic apple did not fall far from the proverbial tree; Seddique Mateen harbors just as much hatred for gays as he claims his son had.
He’s taped anti-LGBT statements, and in the wake of his son’s shootings, he stated to various media that Muslims had no need to kill gay people because “God will punish those involved in homosexuality.”
It should be noted that although Hillary Clinton notably flip-flopped on the issue of gay marriage in 2013 (she was previously adamantly against it), she has taken and continues to accept millions upon millions of dollars in donations to the Clinton Foundation from Middle Eastern countries such as Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, most of which assault, murder (including decapitation), and jail homosexuals because Islam outlaws it.
In addition, as Secretary of State, Clinton allowed weapons sales to many of these same regimes despite her own State Department decrying their human rights abuses toward gays, women and other minority groups.
Clinton’s personal assistant, Huma Abedin, was the editor of an academic journal that supports Muslim ideology, and Huma’s mother is the head of an organization that publishes the same journal, the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs in Saudi Arabia.
Huma’s mother, brother and sister currently sit on the editorial staff of the journal and her mother (who Clinton has appeared in public with) in particular is known as a leading advocate of female genital mutilation and child marriage, among Muslim-sanctioned practices that are outlawed in Western societies.
Needless to say, gay rights are not high on the list of topics that the Abedins’ journal spotlights.
In fact, given Clinton’s personal contacts and her track record regarding fundraising, gays should probably be wary of supporting the Democratic candidate and her husband. It would appear that both Clintons (and arguably their party) have stronger loyalties to Muslim countries and their doctrines than to American gay causes.
Therefore, perhaps Clinton and Mateen have more in common than might first be suspected; unlike Republican candidate Donald Trump’s rejection of white supremacist David Duke, Clinton has not disavowed the support of the elder Mateen in the media.
Another odd contrast that should be noted is that Seddique Mateen is an open supporter of the Afghani Taliban (who he’s called “our brother warriors”) — the group that gave shelter to Osama bin Laden in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks. These are the same people the U.S. battled for 13 years, many of whose rank members are sitting right now in prison in Guantanamo Bay.
The elder Mateen is apparently also very into promoting his unique politics, to the point of creating his own professional media about issues he cares about. For years, he was the host of a U.S.-based Afghan satellite TV show, which focused on Afghani political and sovereignty issues, flying to Canoga Park, California to tape all his programs.
Many of the shows praised the Afghani Taliban and were critical of the Pakistani government and its intelligence service. More than 100 of Mateen’s videos can be found on Youtube. He operated his show through a nonprofit organization called “Durand Jirga,” which is also the name on his Youtube clips.
Mateen also registered a business entitled “The Provisional Government of Afghanistan” in Florida, in addition to his aforementioned nonprofit organization. In at least one of his videos, Mateen claims to be running for President of Afghanistan.
In another, posted briefly before his son’s rampage, he’s dressed in an army uniform and appears to be giving orders as though he already held the lofty title.
“I order national army, national police and intelligence department to immediately imprison Karzai, Ashraf Ghani, Zalmay Khalilzad, Atmar, and Sayyaf,” Mateen commands, referring to the former and current presidents of Afghanistan and high-ranking officials there. “They are against our countrymen, and against our homeland.”
If all this wasn’t odd enough, at the Hillary Clinton rally, Mateen brought with him a professionally printed sign that was almost as long as he is tall. The sign read:
‘Hillary Clinton:
—Makes the biggest investment since WWII.
—Good for National Security.
—Ex-CIA Chief Morell “Hillary told the truth about Benghazi.”
—Gun Control Laws.’
Based on what it says, at least one can conclude that he’s in favor of gun control (at this point that may be a no-brainer). But the other bullet points are puzzling.
If the elder Mateen is really a Taliban supporter, why is he mentioning American national security?
And why would he care whether “Hillary told the truth about Benghazi” or not? (For the record, former CIA Acting Director Michael Morell likely defended Hillary in the Benghazi affair because at the time she likely could have affected his job security. There are also questions that could be asked about where his loyalties lie currently, now that Clinton may become president. That Mateen even mentioned Morell on a sign he was holding in public is fairly bizarre.)
The first point, regarding — presumably — potential investment in American infrastructure that Clinton would theoretically make if elected president, is also strange as Mateen has not until now expressed to any media outlets his desire to see America “made great again,” to use a borrowed phrase.
Certainly, all the points on the Mateen’s sign stand in opposition to his son’s views before the latter embarked on his killing spree.
In an interview with NBC News, Mateen reiterated that his son’s shooting attack had “nothing to do with religion.”
However, it now appears that Mateen helped run the radical mosque that his son attended prior to the shootings. In addition, records show that the elder Mateen has longstanding connections to Islamic groups throughout the United States, both in Florida and elsewhere.
Seddique Mateen is listed as the president of the Fort Pierce, Florida chapter of the American Muslim Alliance (AMA), an organization that’s sponsored conferences for radical Islamists in the U.S. in the past and has defended convicted terrorists such as Aafia Siddiqui, Sami Al-Arian and Ghulam Nabi Fai and known terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
The AMA is the parent organization of other Islamist groups, including the American Muslim Political Coordinating Council, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the American Muslim Council and the Muslim Public Affairs Council.
In 2004, the former executive director of the AMA, Abdurahman Alamoudi, was sentenced to 23 years in jail for illicit financial dealings with Libya, at that time considered a terrorist state.
In the wake of these revelations, conservative politicians have begun speaking out about Mateen. Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama labeled the elder Mateen “clearly an extremist” and “a Taliban member” on Fox News’ On the Record.
Donald Trump declared to Fox host Sean Hannity, “She did not disavow, and if that were me, this would be a headline all around the world.” Political commentators have made much ado about the appearance, and even if the Clinton campaign does ultimately issue a statement about Mateen, its dragging its heels on this issue is deeply upsetting, to say the least.
One has to wonder what could be next — Clinton appearing onstage with John Hinckley, the man who shot Ronald Reagan in 1981? It’s not beyond the realm of possibility; Hinckley was released from a federal psychiatric hospital to the care of his mother on August 5.
