Omar Mateen claimed to support ISIS, Nusra Front and Hezbollah. He was a gay man who claimed to be disgusted by homosexuals displaying public affection. He was clearly a disturbed individual — confused, hateful and violent.

Only Mateen is responsible for his despicable actions.

Law enforcement officials rightly labeled his attack an act of terror. Slaughtering innocent people cannot be described by any word other than terrorism.

However, this nation’s perception of “terrorism” has been manipulated to automatically link terror to the Muslim faith. Mass violence committed by non-Muslims is seldom called terrorism.

Unfairly tying terrorism to Islam has resulted in a dangerous backlash against all followers of the religion — 1.6 billion around the world and millions in the United States.

Muslims are being collectively blamed for Mateen’s actions, despite Muslim leaders’ endless statements condemning terrorism.

Arabs and Muslims refuse to be incriminated for acts they did not commit.

Islam and Muslims cannot be held accountable for the Orlando massacre. No more so than Christianity can be held accountable for crimes committed by members of that faith.

Politicians and commentators continue to capitalize on the tragedy, fanning the flames of hate to advance their agendas. Social media trolls who send threats to Muslim American communities— including Dearborn— after terrorist attacks, represent the tips of Islamophobia’s tentacles. The core of anti-Muslim bigotry is self-interested and powerful.

Donald Trump was quick to celebrate the attack. The presumptive Republican nominee embodies the xenophobia industry, which has been scapegoating Islam, immigrants and ethnic minorities to divert the blame from the rich and powerful.

The likely Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, also failed the Muslim American community when she said she would describe the Orlando attack as “radical Islamism.”

Clinton broke off from President Obama’s policy of avoiding those words. Not only does equating terrorism with Islam harm Muslim Americans, it also benefits terrorists in spreading their narrative of a clash of civilizations.

The former secretary of state made that statement the day after the massacre, at a time when the murderer’s motives were unclear. (We still do not know what was going on in Mateen’s head when he decided to carry out the attack.)

The fact that Mateen targeted a gay club prompted some people to argue that Islam’s views on homosexuality are to blame for the assault.

But Islam is not the only religion that rejects homosexuality.

It is no secret that homophobia is prevalent in Arab and Muslim American communities. It is an issue that is being addressed and discussed by both sides of the debates. Numerous activists have called for solidarity between Muslim and LGBT communities, based on the commonality of their struggles.

Despite the acknowledged discrimination or alienation that Muslim American LGBT individuals face within their own communities, not a single prominent Muslim American has ever called for or condoned physically harming gays and lesbians.

There are many openly gay residents who live in majority Muslim neighborhoods here. No one has ever harmed them.Homophobia is far from being an Arab or a Muslim construct. As a matter of fact, those leading the charge against gay people and introducing discriminatory “religious freedom” bills happen to be right wing politicians, who also mostly have Islamophobic inclinations.