Pakistani-American claims reporting Orlando shooter Omar Mateen to FBI

Mohammad A Malik lashes out at Trump for saying Muslims don't report radicalised individuals

WASHINGTON: A Pakistani-American man has said he had reported Orlando shooter Omar Mateen to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2014.

Taking a hit at Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump for accusing Muslims for not sharing such information with authorities, Mohammad A Malik said he informed FBI about Mateen after hearing his radical thoughts ,

“Trump is wrong that we don’t speak up when we’re able… I know this firsthand (about Omar): I was the one who told the FBI about Omar Mateen,” Mohammad A Malik said in a column on Washington Post. 



Malik wrote that a Muslim boy in their neighbourhood in Florida, Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, was reported to be the suicide bomber who attacked a government office in Syria.

Being a patriotic American, Malik said he offered to speak about Moner after reports that American officials were looking for people to give them some background. “I am an American Muslim, and I wanted to do my part. I didn’t want more innocent people to die.”

After that, Malik, who came moved to the US from Pakistan at the age of six, said he met other members of the Islamic community, including Omar, to talk about the bomber. Both Malik and Omar attended the same mosque as the Syrian bomber. “ That’s when Omar told me he had been watching videos of (Anwar Al) Awlaki the Yemen-based Imam whose teaching had radicalised Moner too."



Malik said it raised the red flag for him when Omar told him that the videos were very powerful.

Malik wrote that after speaking to Omar, he contacted the FBI again to let them know that he had been watching Awlaki’s tapes. However, the FBI looked into him and closed the file after finding nothing against him.

Further, the Pakistani-American wrote that Trump wrongly thinks that Muslims hide such information from authorities which, he added, was a common idea in the United States.



“We’re still in shock. We’re totally against what he did, and we feel the deepest sadness for the victims and their families, Islam is very strict about killing: Even in war to say nothing of peace you cannot harm women, children, the elderly, the sick, clergymen, or even plants,” Malik wrote.

“I had told the FBI about Omar because my community, and Muslims generally, have nothing to hide. I love this country, like most Muslims that I know. I don’t agree with every government policy (I think there’s too much money in politics, for instance), but I’m proud to be an American. I vote. I volunteer. I teach my children to treat all people kindly.”

“Trump’s assertions about our community” that we have the ability to help our country but have simply declined to do so” are tragic, ugly and wrong,” Malik said.



Up to 50 people were killed and 53 others injured when a heavily-armed gunman opened fire and seized hostages at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, police said, in the worst mass shooting in US history.

Terrified survivors — who moments before were laughing and dancing with friends — described how the gunman named by media as a US citizen of Afghan descent raked the club with bullets, prompting a police SWAT team to storm the venue.

“We have cleared the building, and it is with great sadness that I share we have not 20, but 50 casualties in addition to the shooter,” Mayor Buddy Dyer told a mid-morning news briefing in Orlando, more than doubling the previously given death toll.

“There are another 53 that are hospitalised.”