One reason to be thankful for Malcolm

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This:

Mr Turnbull, asked whether he regarded the Orlando gun massacre as a radical Islamic terrorist attack, said the gunman’s links to Islamic extremists were still unclear.

“It appears that the killer identified himself as being inspired by or connected with Daesh, or ISIL. Beyond that, we don’t have any further information. He clearly had a murderous hatred of gay people and took the shocking criminal actions that he did,” the Prime Minister said alongside Foreign Minister Julie Bishop in Perth.

“The extent of his connection with ISIL is something that the FBI are still investigating and you would understand that neither Julie nor I are in a position to say more about that than what the FBI knows and is able to say publicly.

“There is clearly a very real risk of self-motivated, self-activated acts of terrorism of individuals who, through one means or another, are inspired by or claim to be inspired by terrorist organisations and terrorist ideology.”

Mr Turnbull’s response echoes that of President Barack Obama, who also refused to name the connection with Islamist extremism, saying: “We have no definitive assessment on the motivation.”

The killer, Omar Mateen, reportedly exhibited hatred towards women, blacks and gays before pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group and launching the attack.

Mateen, an American of Afghan heritage, had also previously claimed ties to Shi’ite militia Hezbollah – a sworn enemy of Islamic State.

It’s certainly bloody awful but one can only imagine the kind of rhetorical damage that Tony Abbott would be doing right now. It appears that the perp is a local psychopath that has attached himself to the ISIS brand rather than being a trained jihadi of some sort. It is thus an illustration of how strategically dangerous it is to alienate the local Muslim population when it is they that are best placed to finger such nutters to authorities.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.