By Britt Nelson

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff

The horrific Orlando murders are echoing and vibrating messages of love around the world like a stone thrown into a pond. Massive rallies are being held around the world in memory of those killed.

United States President Barack Obama has spoken several times since a Muslim gunman early Sunday morning opened fire with an assault rifle inside a gay nightclub, killing 49 and wounding 53.

So have all the candidates for President – every day issuing statements and appearing on TV news shows — on and on. Political commentators and news writers can’t write or speak fast enough to keep up with it all. New developments are instant ‘breaking news’ reports.

President Obama and presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are in a silly war of semantics over three words — radical Islamic terrorists – it’s an exercise in futility. The Orlando gunman professed his allegiance to Islam and ISIS radicals during the crime. Call it whatever you want Mr. President.

Democrats across the board are now calling for a new ban on assault rifles plus additional restrictions placed on those individuals on the ‘No Fly’ list and other ‘Terror-Watch’ lists maintained by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and those that are under FBI investigation or surveillance, to keep them from legally purchasing firearms. The Orlando shooter was known to the FBI long before he committed the nightclub killings, but he legally purchased that assault rifle in early June for $1,600 and the handgun he had during the massacre, according to news reports.

It’s unlikely the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress will do anything soon about stricter guns laws in some sort of knee-jerk reaction to the Orlando killings, but they should.

Stronger gun laws should have been passed after that deranged 20-year-old man shot up the Sandy Hook Elementary School with an assault rifle killing 20 innocent children and six staff members in Connecticut in 2012. There was plenty of political talk and debate about banning assault rifles, banning large capacity magazine clips and better background checks, but nothing was done.

Blame the National Rifle Association, blame the Republicans, blame the criminals, blame the Democrats, blame the President, blame the spineless lawmakers — they are all to blame for doing absolutely nothing to stop the availability of military-style assault weapons and limit gun sales in general.

Records show that on any given day in America an average of 90 men, women and children die from gun violence. But still nothing gets done to stop the bloodshed. For instance, this past weekend saw 7 people shot dead and 35 others wounded in Chicago, according to ABC-TV 7 in that metropolis. That’s just one city, in one weekend. But it’s the mass shootings that get the attention of everyone.

All this death and madness comes just a week after the world said goodbye to legendary boxing champ and humanitarian Mohammad Ali, who converted to Islam in 1964. Ali was also a radical Islamic in his day, but he shunned violence, war and killing when he refused to serve in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He never once advocated death for anyone.

Ali is remembered for many reasons among them the words he spoke so eloquently. Humanity around the world — no matter your beliefs — needs his words now more than ever. For Christians the word of Jesus brings peace and everlasting life to believers. For all the great religions of the world have their roots in peace and love, but not radical Islamic terrorists who are hell bent on destruction of the Western World by any means possible to them – assault rifles, pressure-cooker bombs or suicide vests. If ISIS had a nuclear weapon, they would probably use it.

But to ISIS and the other radical Islamic extremists, Ali’s words are meaningless; for others, these words bring universal inspiration, acceptance and hope.

“We all have the same God, we just serve Him differently. Rivers, lakes, ponds, streams, oceans all have different names, but they all contain water. So do religions have different names, and they all contain truth, expressed in different ways, forms and times,” said Ali. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Muslim, a Christian, or a Jew. When you believe in God, you should believe all people are part of one family. If you love God, you can’t love only some of his children.”

What’s apparent here is that today’s true Islam needs to get involved in weeding out and eliminating the extremist element among them, but they don’t. Islamic mosques need to better monitor their members for extremist views and activities, but they don’t. Islamic families need to report their husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, fathers and mothers who are planning terrorist attacks, but they don’t. This fact is so evident with the Orlando shooting. FBI and police investigators now are saying the man’s wife knew he was going to commit this horrific act and she may have driven him to the nightclub before the shooting. This is crazy. This is why these lone-wolf attacks are so difficult to stop, but Orlando apparently could have been prevented.

There is a war underway in America today –a radical Islamic war– against non-Muslims whether President Obama wants to acknowledge it or not. Many of the recent mass killings and bombings in the states have been Muslim related. The Orlando killings are now the record holder for a mass shooting in the U.S. This shooting is still receiving massive media coverage. It could be safe to say that right now, planning is underway by other Islamic extremists; lone-wolf or in conspiracy, for an even more deadly attack in the USA – but the unknowns are only when and where.
About the author

Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.

Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member