Orlando shooting suspect’s father is a former TV show who said he was the President of Afghanistan.
While police are investigating Omar Mateen, the man who killed 50 people and injured several others at a gay nightclub in Orlando yesterday morning, The Washington Post has learned that his father, Seddique Mateen, has a strange TV history. According to reports, Omar Mateen’s father once hosted a political talk show, and now, according to several videos posted on Facebook, claims to be the current president of Afghanistan.
From the Washington Post:
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…
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.”
Seddique Matten’s most recent video was recorded and posted on YouTube was posted over a year ago, and apparently consists of him declaring his candidacy for president of Afghanistan. However, Afghanistan’s actual presidential elections took place two years ago.
The Post points out that “Mateen appears incoherent at times in the video, and he jumps abruptly from topic to topic. His use of Dari, instead of Pashto, the language of Pashtuns, was another strange element of his presentation, given that he is discussing issues of Pashtun nationalism.”
While Mateen no longer uploads videos to YouTube, Mateen still updates his Facebook page. In fact, Mateen has posted on the page at least seven times in the last 24 hours. In a video hours before the Pulse nightclub shooting, Omar Mateen’s father posted a video titled “Provisional Government of Afghanistan — Seddique Mateen,” where he orders the imprisonment of various Afghan leaders:
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.
According to the LATimes Omar Mateen’s father, would travel from Florida to California every three months to film broadcasts at a studio in Canoga Park, California.
Omar Mateen’s father, Seddique, was known to some of the world’s Afghan exiles from a TV show he hosted on a satellite network, Payam-e-Afghan. Seddique Mateen, 59, flew from Florida to California every three months to film broadcasts at the channel’s Canoga Park studio, according to network owner Omar Khatab.
Mateen’s father said that he believes his son was motivated to commit a massacre after he witnessed two men kissing while he was in Miami, pointing out, “We are apologizing for the whole incident. We weren’t aware of any action he is taking, we are in shock like the whole country. This had nothing to do with religion.”
Via Washington Post
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