This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

The attack on the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando has forced politicians – including Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton – to debate how to describe what motivated the shooter.

Mr. Trump uses “radical Islamic terrorism.” President Obama and Mrs. Clinton remain reluctant to say those words preferring “violent extremism,” “terrorism” or, as of yesterday, “radical Islamism,” insisting there’s no link between a murderer like Omar Mateen and Islam.

In fact, what motivated Mateen – and countless other jihadists like him – was the totalitarian doctrine the authorities of Islam call “sharia.” It may seem “radical” to objective observers. For the recognized leaders of the faith, however, it is mainstream.

For them, the millions of Muslims who don’t follow the comprehensive, brutally repressive dictates of sharia are the “radicals.” They’re called apostates.

And sharia’s punishment for leaving Islam, like for being gay, is death.

This is Frank Gaffney.