The recent Orlando massacre, the deadliest mass shooting in America's history, was committed by an American citizen wielding a legally purchased firearm.  Predictably, the leftist media have already begun brandishing this fact to "prove" once and for all that the blame lies not with Islam, but rather with insufficient gun control.  However, in deliberately ignoring the motivation behind the attack and instead focusing only on the tool used to perpetrate it, the left have failed to recognize the one crucial question that Americans should be asking:

How did an American-born Muslim become so radical in his beliefs?

Theoretically, the children of first-generation immigrants to U.S. should be have an easier time integrating than their parents.  Yet an examination of the sentiments held by young Muslim Americans demonstrates that they are in fact far more likely to hold radical beliefs.  In 2007, Pew conducted a study whose findings corroborated this trend.

The Pew survey found that among Muslim Americans aged 18-29, 26% believed that suicide bombings could at least occasionally be justified, while 9% of older respondents agreed.  Additionally, nearly one in four (23%) Muslims in the youngest age bracket held a favorable or only partially unfavorable view of al-Qaeda.

But what is behind the surge in radicalism among young Western Muslims?  Policy Exchange (page 15) theorizes that the burgeoning prevalence of radical Islam is not merely a reaction to aggressive American foreign policy.  Rather, it reflects a deep-seated disgust with Western culture.  The Orlando shooting, which put a gay nightclub in the crosshairs, makes a strong case for the cultural argument.

This anti-Western sentiment appears to be inextricably linked with Islam itself.  Pew research (page 6) indicates that Muslims between 18 and 29 in the U.S. tend to be not only more radical, but more observant as well.  Half of respondents under 30 stated they attend a mosque at least once a week; in the older age bracket, this figure dropped to 35%.  Additionally, 60% of those under 30 identify as Muslims first and Americans second, while only about 40% of older American Muslims agree.

The data indicate that radical beliefs strongly correlate with a devotion to Islam.  Thus, if young American Muslims are found to be more religious than their elders – and they are – it stands to reason that they should hold more extreme opinions, too – and they do.  One possible explanation for this phenomenon is the existence of endemic Muslim communities in the U.S.  Though their numbers are steadily growing, the majority of America's Muslims congregate in communities that already have a sizable Islamic population.  As a result, we now have places like Hamtramck, Michigan, which recently became the first Muslim-majority city in the United States.

First-generation Muslim immigrants in America have faced more pressure to integrate than their progeny, who now grow up in relatively insular Islamic communities.  Thus, there is little reason to expect young Muslims raised in such environments to embrace Western ideals to the same extent that their parents have.  If anything, we can expect each successive generation of American-born Muslims to surpass their parents in both faith and zeal.

The issues facing America's Muslim communities are a taboo topic for many in the media.  Rather than addressing the root of the problem, the left have opted to engage in their routine hysterics, scrambling to blame the Orlando shooting on anything but the real culprit.  Yet amid the deluge of politicians and journalists harping on gun control, many Americans are unsatisfied with the canned excuses they are being fed.

The body of evidence has grown too vast to ignore any longer: the problem is Islam itself.