Ignoring Reality

At 2:35 a.m. on June 12, Omar Mateen called 911 from the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. For 30 minutes he’d been on a killing rampage and he wanted the world to know why. He spoke for less than a minute.

“In the name of God the Merciful, the beneficent,” he began. “Praise be to God, and prayers as well as peace be upon the prophet of God.” And then he announced: “I wanna let you know, I’m in Orlando and I did the shootings.” The dispatcher asked for his name. “My name is—I pledge of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of the Islamic State.” The dispatcher asked again for his name. Mateen said: “I pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, may God protect him, on behalf of the Islamic State.”