re: Some background info on Omar Mateens Father...

Top comment on Reddit r/worldnews on this very same article. Trust me, I'm not a sympathizer, his father seems like a lunatic too. I just like an objective point of view...and dailymail is generally a lousy source of information anyway. I also find the points below interesting. Middle eastern politics is batshit crazy...as are most of the inhabitants lol.

quote:

---

I speak Dari (the Afghan dialect of Farsi), and have listened to the video clips where the man is speaking. He's ethnically Pashtun, and a nationalist. His politics seem to be all over the place but there are some recurring themes:

1) He believes Pakistan, through its proxy the ISI, is interfering in the domestic politics of Afghanistan. This is a prevailing view point among Afghans of all ethnic groups and political persuasions.

2) He condemns ISIS several times in the videos. He sees them as a foreign entity set to destroy the will and aspirations of the Afghan people and thinks it may be a Pakistani plot.

3) He condemns both Ashraf Ghani and Dr. Abdullah, both of whom were the Presidential candidates in the last election, as being corrupt, incompetent and not serving the interests of the Afghan people. Again, these are views that are shared by large swaths of the Afghan people.

4) In the section where he states his 'support' for the Taliban, he sees them as fellow Pashtun nationalists waging a war of freedom against occupation and seems to downplay the religious angle. I'm not trying to brush it away, I'm simply trying to put it in its proper context.

Many Afghans see the Taliban as "children" of the land who are simply being used as pawns by outside forces. I don't fully agree (the ISI part is true), as I think it denies agency, but this is a point of view among some even secular Afghans.

edit: Thanks for the gold, stranger. I also want to point out that I do not in any way condone sympathy for the Taliban who are brutal, inhumane and without mercy. I also think this guy is a bit of a nut job but he's someone who seems to share the view points of a large number of Pashtun Afghans.

---

Discuss away...