On Wednesday, PJ Media discovered that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) — a notorious left-wing smear organization — had silently removed Omar Mateen, the radical Islamic terrorist responsible for the deadliest Islamic terror attack since September 11, 2001, from its report documenting “Terror from the Right.” His name just disappeared.
Mateen, a 29-year-old security guard, declared allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS) and entered Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., on June 12, 2016. He killed 49 people and wounded 53 others, dying in a shoot-out with police.
So why did this ISIS terrorist end up on the SPLC’s list of “radical-right terrorist plots, conspiracies and racist rampages”? The SPLC’s synopsis of Mateen’s terror attack suggests an answer:
Mateen called 911 during the attack to pledge allegiance to ISIS and mentioned the Boston Marathon bombers. He also demanded that U.S. bombing of Syria and Iraq stop. His father initially told NBC News that his son had expressed outrage when he saw two men kissing in Miami. Others described Mateen as a violent, deeply conflicted man who had beaten his former wife and often frequented gay bars. The FBI interviewed Mateen in 2013 and 2014 but reportedly found no evidence that he was tied to terrorism.
The SPLC said Mateen was “right-wing” because he “expressed outrage when he saw two men kissing in Miami.” As for the suggestion that Mateen was secretly homosexual himself, the FBI said they found no evidence to corroborate this.
While the SPLC constantly harps against “anti-LGBT hate groups” on the right, Mateen’s animus against gay people does not on its own justify listing the ISIS supporter as “right-wing.” His father actually attended a Hillary Clinton rally in 2016.
Mateen was not the only figure removed from the list. Luqman Ameen Abdullah, a Michigan imam killed by the FBI in a 2009 shootout, also appeared on the list. While Mateen targeted LGBT people, Abdullah merely shot at FBI agents who were attempting to arrest him. There was no indication why the SPLC included Abdullah on the list.
Oddly, the SPLC also included two black power-supporting cop killers on the “Terror from the Right” list. These names have not yet been removed.
The list includes Army reservist and Afghanistan veteran Micah Xavier Johnson, who shot 12 police officers, killing five, in downtown Dallas following a Black Lives Matter protest. Johnson notably told a hostage negotiator he wanted to “kill white people,” especially white police officers. He had also expressed support for black separatist groups on Facebook, which SPLC oddly noted in the very article listing him as right wing. Oh, I suppose he used a gun … does that make him pro-Second Amendment?
The SPLC list also includes Gavin Eugene Long, another black military veteran who killed three police officers in Baton Rouge, La. While Long considered himself an antigovernment “sovereign citizen,” he was part of a black separatist group. He also claimed in YouTube videos that he was a former member of the Nation of Islam and complained about “crackers” in another video.
The Orlando shooter did not support Republicans or conservative principles, and neither did Abdullah, Long, or Johnson.
Ironically, the only reason the SPLC could consider these radical Islamic terrorists “right wing” in any way — besides the tenuous anti-LGBT connection — is to admit Islam’s long history of spreading by the sword. Mateen and Abdullah were “right wing” in the sense of trying to return to the violence by which Islam originally spread, but even modern terrorism is a very different thing from the Arab armies that captured the Middle East in the 600s A.D.
Besides, any such suggestion would get someone branded “Islamophobic” by the SPLC.
The SPLC did not respond to PJ Media’s request for comment in time for publication.
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