Father of Orlando shooter, Seddique Mateen, recently visited Congress, State Department, Writes open letters to President Obama

Father of Orlando shooter, Seddique Mateen, recently visited Congress, State Department, Writes open letters to President Obama

Little is known about the personal life of Omar Mateen, the man who pledged allegiance to ISIS before butchering more than 50 people inside an Orlando nightclub early Sunday morning, but his political activist father, who is running for President of Afghanistan, seems to have an odd relationship with the U.S. Government and sympathies toward the Taliban. 

Here is what we know about the Orlando shooter’s father: 

His name is Seddique Mateen and he is from Afghanistan. 

Mateen told NBC News early on Sunday that his son became angry while seeing two men kiss. 

“We were in Downtown Miami, Bayside, people were playing music, and he saw two men kissing each other in front of his wife and kid and he got very angry. 

They were kissing each other and touching each other and he said, ‘Look at that. In front of my son they are doing that.’ And they we were in the men’s bathroom and men were kissing each other.’” 

Mateen has his own television show, which broadcasts out of California. 

It is called the “Durand Jirga Show” and features Mateen discussing Middle Eastern politics. The show is posted on YouTube. 

According to the Washington post, the show demonstrates the Orlando shooters father’s sympathetic views toward the Taliban: 

In one video, Mateen expresses gratitude toward the Afghan Taliban, while denouncing the Pakistani government. 

“Our brothers in Waziristan, our warrior brothers in [the] Taliban movement and national Afghan Taliban are rising up,” he said. “Inshallah the Durand Line issue will be solved soon.” This April, Mateen was in Washington DC doing advocacy work with Congress and the State Department Seddique Mateen is an effusive poster on social media. 

The following posts from his Facebook describe a trip to Washington DC in April. He can be seen posing in front of State Department offices & the Democratic Foreign Services Committee offices. 

One caption in English reads: “We have the duty to tell the world that Pakistan is the killer of Afghan people.” 

It is not clear who he personally met with in Washington D.C.  

Mateen has met with prominent members of Congress on past trips to Washington D.C. These posts from 2015 show Mateen with Reps Charlie Rangel, Dana Rohrabacher and Ed Royce. Royce is the Chairman of the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs.