Authorities have identified the Orlando gunman as 29-year-old Omar Mateen. He was born in 1986 in New York to Afghan parents. Since 2007 Mateen had worked as a security guard at G4S, the largest private security firm in the world. The FBI interviewed Mateen in 2013 and 2014 for possible terrorist ties. According to The New York Times, he was placed under FBI surveillance for a time, but the agency eventually closed its inquiry. There are reports that Mateen called 911 around the time of the assault and declared his allegiance to the Islamic State, but no audio of the call has been released to the public. We speak to Imam Daayiee Abdullah, executive director of Mecca Institute. Imam Abdullah also is one of the first openly gay imams in the Western Hemisphere.
Transcript
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AMY GOODMAN: Vigils are being held across the country following what’s been described as the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. At least 50 people died in Orlando, Florida, early Sunday morning after a gunman opened fire at a packed gay dance club. More than 50 others were injured, the victims overwhelmingly Latino and young, between 20 and — in their twenties and thirties. Authorities identified the gunman as 29-year-old Omar Mateen, who used a semiautomatic weapon that would have been prohibited under the Assault Weapons Ban that Congress allowed to expire more than a decade ago. On Sunday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the shooting. This is the group’s executive director, Nihad Awad.
NIHAD AWAD: Our hearts, thoughts and prayers are with the victims of their — with the victims and their families. We offer condolences to the families, and we pray for the recovery of the survivors. This is a hate crime, plain and simple. We condemn it in the strongest possible terms. It violates our principles as Americans and as Muslims.
AMY GOODMAN: Joining us now is Imam Daayiee Abdullah, executor director of Mecca…