What could have caused the transformation of Orlando shooter Omar Mateen?

Omar Mateen, the Orlando nightclub shooter was reportedly himself a regular at a gay nightspot according to some clubgoers. Samuel King, a year ahead of Mateen in high school posted on Facebook: “He was a jokester and at the time didn’t have an issue with the LGBT community.” On Monday, Mateen’s ex-wife Sitora Yusufiy said. “There were definitely moments when he would express his intolerance towards homosexuals." Recent co-workers described Mateen’s demeanor as aggressive and anti-gay, according to The Daily Beast. [caption id=“attachment_2833862” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Omar Mateen. AP[/caption] This transformation from a tolerant, all-embracing Mateen to an intolerant infuriated person is possibly a result of online radicalisation as some reports suggest. There might be some other underlined reasons as well which aided in seeding hate into this apparently happy man. Syed Shafeeq Rahman, Imam at the Islamic Centre in Fort Pierce where Mateen worshipped, said “he had been a sunny child who enjoyed skipping but something had changed in recent years.” His fellow security guard Eric Baumer told Newsday. “He had bad things to say about everybody-blacks, Jews, gays, a lot of politicians, our soldiers. He told me America destroyed Afghanistan.” According to reports, Mateen’s father posted videos on his Facebook page where, dressed in a military uniform in front of the Afghan flag, he sharply criticised the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani. According to The Washington Post, in a Facebook video posted on Monday, he said, “God himself will punish those involved in homosexuality.” In some other videos, he declared himself the leader of Afghanistan. Also, in videos on his YouTube channel, Mateen’s father has previously paid tribute to the Afghan Taliban. Interestingly, Mateen claimed a solidarity with an al-Nusra bomber and the Islamic State before the attack on the Orlando nightclub. His father’s sharp criticism and demeaning attitude towards homosexuals might have been one of the subtle factors of his transformation. G4S guards, where Mateen has been working since 2007 have been accused of abusing children in the centers where they work, according to The Daily Beast. “I’m amazed at the amount of violence that goes on over there, both against staff and other inmates,” Assistant State Attorney Vicki Nichols said. This violence to which Mateen had been exposed for years might also have played a role in influencing him. Writer Taslima Nasreen tweeted that Mateen was brainwashed by Orlando Mosque Imam to kill homosexuals.

According to Fox News, a Muslim cleric calling for gay people to be executed reportedly preached at an Orlando-area mosque just weeks before the Orlando nightclub shooting. Was it this diktat of the cleric that Mateen was trying to devoutly follow? We don’t know. However, based on reports, it appears that Omar Mateen was a happy person, who had undergone a sad transformation in recent years that possibly drove him to attack the gay nightclub in Orlando. With inputs from agencies.