Father of nightclub shooting suspect: 'We are in shock like the whole country'

(Image credit: Steve Nesius/Reuters)

last updated 12 June 2016

The father of Omar Mateen, whose Sunday attack on an Orlando nightclub left about 50 dead and 53 wounded, told NBC News he had no idea his son was planning a crime.

"We are saying we are apologizing for the whole incident," said Mir Seddique. "We weren’t aware of any action he is taking. We are in shock like the whole country." Seddique also said his son had expressed anger at observing two men kissing each other in Miami (Pulse, where the attack occurred, is a gay club), and noted he did not believe the shooting had anything to do with religion.

Though it has not been confirmed that Mateen or his family are Muslim, Rasha Mubarak of the Orlando area branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations released a statement saying, "We condemn this monstrous attack and offer our heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of all those killed or injured. The Muslim community joins our fellow Americans in repudiating anyone or any group that would claim to justify or excuse such an appalling act of violence."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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