Orlando attack and the “Lone Wolves”


Sofokleousin.gr – June 15, 2016

The day before yesterday, a 29-year old named Omar Sadiki Metin, an American citizen of Afghan origin, attacked a city club where homosexuals frequented in Orlando, Florida, USA. Fifty persons were killed and about sixty wounded. FBI said the responsible of the attacks is believed to be extreme Muslim and that, hours before, people linked to the Islamic State provided information indicating that he is behind the blow.

This bloody attack reminds us of the new old Al-Qaeda strategy, the “lone wolves”. This was the strategy used by Al-Qaeda during the French magazine Charlie Hebdo attack, in early 2015. The mastermind of this strategy was Anouar Al Awlaki, who was born in 1971 in the US and held a Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado. He was killed by US drone in Yemen in 2011.

The strategy works as follows: they communicate through social media with people in the West and begin to “feed” them with their ideology. When someone shows great response, they offer more information on how to organize terrorist attacks, how to build bombs, what types of weapons will be used and how. The important thing in this strategy is that the secret services can not easily stop it and find who follows it. Their only solution would be to treat all Muslims living in Western countries as potential bombs.

The US lead the last days to the presidential elections. Recent results show that Democratic candidate is Hillary Clinton and Republican is Donald Trump. The government program proposed by Trump has a clearly Islamophobic nature and the election results show that the majority of Republican voters embrace it.

It is undeniable, I think, that Donald Trump is the one who will capitalize more the fact of the attack in Orlando. American voters will feel that they have only two options: (a) To vote for the party facing terror by war (Republicans) or (b) To vote for the party that faces terror peacefully (Democrats). They think that there is no third option, which is wrong, so will they will end up to the first one.

Al Qaeda was created in 1989 when the Republican George Bush Sr. was US president. Also, the terrorist attack of September 11th took place when the president was George Bush Jr. During the presidency of the second, Al-Qaeda strengthened significantly in Iraq to form the core of the Islamic State today.

The biggest losers of the recent attack, of course, will be the Muslim citizens of Western countries. But for us, the Europeans, the future does not seem very promising with Trump on our heads. This attack will not be the last. We must prepare for more “lone wolves” in the streets of Europe and America. Unless we follow the third option: to diversify our policy by correcting our mistakes in the Middle East and other Muslim countries.