Global terrorism is one of the most crucial problems nowadays. Even though all militant communities harm the lives of civilians, the most dangerous one is The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS. One of the harmful terrorist attacks of this group was a shooting in Orlando gay nightclub in the year 2016. The United States had to cope with the tragedy, which led to the creation of new policies and other necessary actions. This essay describes the event and examines how the terrorist organization impacts the US through the event.
On June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen entered the Orlando night gay club, Pulse, where he killed 49 people and wounded many others. Mateen proclaimed himself a part of ISIS and demanded that the United States should stop bombings in Syria. Specifically, he pledged allegiance to “the leader of the virulently anti-gay Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a group that releases propaganda videos of gay men being thrown off buildings” (Fitzsimons, para. 2). However, that was not the only reason why Mateen decided to start shooting people.
The killer specified that the other motive for his attack was the death of Abu Wahib. This person was “one of the more visible leaders of the terror group” (Frosch & Hong, 2016, para. 2). Therefore, the terrorist wanted to take revenge by causing harm to civil people. In addition, the officials found out that Abu Wahib was known as “one of the group’s more Internet-savvy leaders, often appearing in propaganda videos” (para. 4). Therefore, there might have even been a threat of an online attack behind the killer’s actions. According to Bradley (2019), US companies invest a tremendous amount of funds in cybersecurity annually. The country tends to apply any possible forces to prevent the attacks.
The US government quickly responded to the situation by releasing new policies to protect citizens. First, Buddy Dyer, the mayor of Orlando, declared a state of emergency for the city. Also, Sacks et al. (2016) claim the attack to be “a hate crime against LGBT people” (para. 7).
Thus, the mayor of New York City ordered the deployment of New York Police Department officers to protect LGBT communities. Newman and Clarke (2010) argue that providing well-trained officers is one of the key factors for preventing military attacks. Moreover, the government started developing more policies related to gun control in the country. It seems that the actions taken by the government were effective and made the power of ISIS weaker (Sands, 2016). The organization has lost a significant number of its members, and it has also suffered financial losses.
ISIS is a Salafi jihadist militant group that has been defined as a terrorist group by the United Nations. The group announced the formation of the Islamic Caliphate on June 29, 2014. According to Kagan, Kagan, Cafarella, Gambhir, and Zimmerman (2016), one of the main intentions of ISIS is to spread its control not only over Middle Eastern territories but also overdeveloped countries. Particularly, they target the United States, where they want to establish their norms and ideology. The shooting in Orlando is an example of how the extremist organization tries to influence the powerful country and impose its own values and wishes. By killing civilians, Mateen demanded that the US should stop the war in Syria and counter-terrorism activities.
To conclude, terrorist attacks are extremely dangerous not only because they cause many deaths but also because they keep other people in fear. The shooting in Orlando organized by ISIS demonstrated how much influence ISIS ideology might have on a person and a community. Even though it is impossible to bring dead people back to life, the government coped with the situation with as much strength and dignity as possible. However, the officials have to continue creating policies that will help to defend citizens.
References
Bradley, T. (2019). The standard cybersecurity model is fundamentally broken. Forbes. Web.
Fitzsimons, T. (2018). What really happened that night at Pulse. Web.
Frosch, D., & Hong, N. (2016). Transcripts Show ISIS Influence on Orlando Gunman. The Wall Street Journal. Web.
Kagan, F. W., Kagan, K., Cafarella, J., Gambhir, H., & Zimmerman, K. (2016). US grand strategy: Destroying Isis and al Qaeda, report one: Al Qaeda and Isis: Existential threats to the US and Europe. Washington, DC: The Institute for the Study of War.
Newman, G. R., & Clarke, R. V. G. (2010). Policing terrorism: An executives guide. Darby, PA: Dianne Publishing.
Philip, P. (2019). Does ISIS have a lone wolf network access to the globe? Web.
Sacks, C. A., Malina, D., Morrissey, S., Campion, E. W., Hamel, M. B., & Drazen, J. M. (2016). In the wake of Orlando — Taking steps against gun violence. New England Journal of Medicine, 375(9). Web.
Sands, T. (2016). Strategies for combating Islamic State. Social Sciences, 5(3), 39. Web.