We must confront Omar Mateen’s homophobia
I study terrorism and counterterrorism. I am also gay. Following the Orlando attack on Sunday morning in which Omar Mateen killed 49 people and injured many more, I offer some professional and personal advice. Focus on the homophobia, at least until the attacker’s motives are better known.
When an attack happens, a few facts come to mind. Perpetrators may have a wide range of possible reasons — ideology matters, but so do a whole host of other factors, from family ties to personal aspirations. Means and ideology are linked: the high bodycounts of terrorist spreeshootings, from the Paris attacks last November to those in Mumbai in 2008, show the terrible combined power of suicidal determination and small arms. This matters a great deal for counterterrorism, as protecting vulnerable targets depends not just on securing buildings, but also on weapons control. In the U.S., it is clear that easy access to rapid-firing, large-magazine guns aids terrorists of both the far-right and radical Islamist varieties.
Yet counterterrorism is not just a matter of policing and intelligence collection. In the acute aftermath of an attack, the potency of terrorism largely depends on the reaction it provokes; the terrorist tries to induce fear in a target community, but also alienation, internal strife and clumsy rage. Combating terrorism means dealing with its psychological effects. Here, it gets personal for me.
As a Jew, I’m used to examining antiSemitic violence and hearing a voice in the back of my head shouting, “They’re coming for you!” When you’re part of a vulnerable minority that has been specifically targeted, that voice is loud and insistent. When a kosher supermarket was attacked in Paris, in January 2015, along with the staff of Charlie Hebdo, some commentators barely mentioned the ethno-religious dimension, framing the incident only as an attack on France, or on liberty and secularism. Yet by and large, non-Jews came together in solidarity and acknowledged the hatred of Jews. It was an attack on us all, but on some of us in particular.
Homophobia can feature in a range of ideological orientations and it clearly featured prominently in the shooter’s. We must confront hatred.
As a gay man, I hear the voice again, and it gains in volume as the distinctly homophobic nature of the Orlando attack is ignored in favour of other factors and other frames. See U.S. commentary focusing on Islamist extremism or on gun control, in which the LGBTQ status of the victims, or of the target as a “safe space” for a vulnerable minority, simply drops out of the narrative.
Usual cautions on public commentary apply in discussing Mateen and his actions. First, just because he committed a mass shooting doesn’t mean he’s a madman. Psychologically normal people can become terrorists, and it is unwise to call people mentally ill until they’ve been professionally diagnosed. Sometimes mentally ill people do become terrorists — and so-called “lone wolves” are more frequently psychologically disturbed compared with other kinds. Even so, their illness is still only one cause among many, and ideology is still important.
Second, religion often matters in com- plex ways. Someone can be “irreligious” in lifestyle but still have religious motives, because religiosity exists in diverse ways.
Third, just because he declared allegiance to Daesh (also known as ISIS or ISIL) does not mean ISIS had much of a role in guiding his actions, because ISIS often is a brand or a symbol, rather than coherent ideology, for many would-be terrorists.
We need to know a lot more before we can make confident claims about Mateen’s motives. We don’t even know yet if he acted alone. We don’t need to rush this, either; police and security services will investigate carefully and a fuller picture will soon emerge.
We can, however, already confidently state and discuss one of Mateen’s motives. He hated LGBTQ persons so much he came and killed us en masse. Homophobia can feature in a range of ideological orientations and it clearly featured prominently in his. Even with our current, limited understanding of Mateen’s reasons, we can therefore vocally and confidently confront his hatred. We must confront it.
Terrorism works not only by striking fear into the targeted community but also by prying communities apart, alienating the most vulnerable from their broader sources of support and security. Every time the homophobic character of Mateen’s attack is elided, the attack gains in efficacy; by denying the existing vulnerability of his victims, you make them feel even more alone and at risk.
Conversely, effective counterterrorism means reassuring victims that they enjoy the support and recognition of their communities. To do otherwise here gives Mateen greater power and his actions greater potency.
See you at Pride.