Orlando Shooter's Father Thinks He's the President of Afghanistan

Seddique Mir Mateen, the father of Orlando shooter Omar Mateen, has an interesting bio. The elder Mateen recently visited Congress and the State Department, hosts a pro-Afghan television show where he expresses support for the Taliban, believes people are trying to get into the country to kill him, and is apparently running for president of Afghanistan. According to the Washington Post, Mr. Mateen even portrayed himself as the president of Afghanistan in a video he posted Saturday on Facebook.

Seddique Mateen, who has been referred to as Mir Seddique in early news reports, hosted the “Durand Jirga Show” on a channel called Payam-e-Afghan, which broadcasts from California. In it, the elder Mateen speaks in the Dari language on a variety of political subjects. He doesn’t always make much sense. Dozens of videos are posted on a channel under Seddique Mateen’s name on YouTube. A phone number and post office box that are displayed on the show were traced back to the Mateen home in Florida. Mateen also owns a nonprofit organization under the name Durand Jirga, which is registered in Port St. Lucie, Fla.

In one video, Mateen expresses gratitude toward the Afghan Taliban, while denouncing the Pakistani government.

“Our brothers in Waziristan, our warrior brothers in [the] Taliban movement and national Afghan Taliban are rising up,” he said. “Inshallah the Durand Line issue will be solved soon.”

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Just hours before the Orlando shooting, Seddique Mateen posted a video on a Facebook page called Provisional Government of Afghanistan — Seddique Mateen. In it, he seems to be pretending to be Afghanistan’s president, and orders the arrest of an array of Afghan political figures.

“I order national army, national police and intelligence department to immediately imprison Karzai, Ashraf Ghani, Zalmay Khalilzad, Atmar, and Sayyaf. They are against our countrymen, and against our homeland,” he says, while dressed in army fatigues.

Independent Review Journal reports that Mr. Mateen visited Washington, D.C., in April to do advocacy work on behalf of Afghanistan. In posts on his Facebook page, he can be seen posing in front of State Department offices and the Democratic Foreign Services Committee offices. During a trip in 2015, Mr. Mateen met with several prominent members of congress.

IJ Review points out that Mateen was granted a corporate license by the state of Florida to operate his group “The Provisional Government of Afghanistan” and often posts “bold messages to the U.S. military and President Obama” regarding such subjects as “the Taliban, suicide bombers, and violence in the region.” In one of his messages he called Obama a “hero and friend of Afghan people.” In another he said, “Pres. Obama’s and Mr. Kerry’s war against 45 million afghans in North Waziristan and Durand line is not American war and enemy. Afghan people love American people.”

As the Washington Post was careful to note,  Mr. Mateen doesn’t always make sense.

Yet, Mr. Mateen did make sense to a lot of leftists this morning when he told NBC News that his son’s deadly rampage had “nothing to do with religion.” Most Democrats happen to agree with that now familiar refrain after every terrorist attack. It has become a forced article of faith on the left to deny that terrorism has anything to do with Islam. In laying out his strategy to “degrade and ultimately destroy” ISIS in the fall of 2014, in fact, the president went so far as to say the Islamic State had nothing to do with Islam. Barack Obama, his left-wing echo chamber, Hillary Clinton, Muslim leaders like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and — yes — “President” Seddique Mir Mateen all insist that Islamic terrorism has nothing to do with Islam. Does that make sense to you?