"How We Train Our Cops to Fear Islam"

[bourbon]

even if a prelude to a review by a think tank

The aforementioned think tank report:

Manufacturing the Muslim Menace: Private Firms, Public Servants, & the Threat to Rights and Security, by Thomas Cincotta. Political Research Associates, 2011. (PDF)

Note: Political Research Associates is a progressive think tank of the Noam Chomsky stripe, and is dedicated to the study of right-wing groups. While I have read some interesting work by PRA’s head, the organization is not an impartial observer. I would say it is similar to the Southern Poverty Law Center, only without the shameless greed and intelligence gathering.

[bourbon]

Do the trainers have to be US citizens for the DHS funded programs?

It might be worth bringing over some retired cops with CT backgrounds from the UK or France to work the lecture circuit; former Special Branch or DST types.

[Sergeant T]

Finally got around to reading the Stalcup & Craze piece. The whole thing had the feel of clues in search of a mystery. Guess this is what passes for journalism these days.

I had the benefit of an excellent course while I was in patrol entitled Understanding Islamic Militant Terrorism and Prevention Strategies. (Kroll presented the class under contact.) IMHO it was very well done. The instructors took great pains to delineate between Whabbism and the rest of Islam. Also explained in detail the Sunni/Shiite differences, kunyas, etc. They compared and contrasted AQ with other terror organizations and talked about their grand strategy. None of it had that “how to spot the sleeper cell at your local 7-Eleven” feel. Very well rounded package.

On the whole I think it's better to bring in outside subject matter experts on something like this. The catch is to not leave them alone as instructors. (This is true if the topic is Islam or traffic law.) If they're not law enforcement having a certified law enforcement instructor ride along seems like a simple, logical solution. The other option, having cops stretch themselves into cultural/academic unknowns in order to generate a syllabus, usually produces moderately piss poor results. Some of the terrorism courses I took immediately after 9/11 were less than well done. One was a week long laundry list of all the possible ways AQ might try to kill us while the instructor pushed this piece of crap book like some revival tent preacher. On the topic at hand I think no matter who does the teaching someone else is going to have a problem with it. If it's law enforcement teaching their own then “the community” will say they're not being culturally sensitive. If it's an outside group law enforcement will say they're being forced to bow at an alter of “cultural awareness”.

[Jedburgh]

Danger Room, 14 September 2001: FBI Teaches Agents: ‘Mainstream’ Muslims Are ‘Violent, Radical’

The FBI is teaching its counterterrorism agents that “main stream” [sic] American Muslims are likely to be terrorist sympathizers; that the Prophet Mohammed was a “cult leader”; and that the Islamic practice of giving charity is no more than a “funding mechanism for combat.”

At the Bureau’s training ground in Quantico, Virginia, agents are shown a chart contending that the more “devout” a Muslim, the more likely he is to be “violent.” Those destructive tendencies cannot be reversed, an FBI instructional presentation adds: “Any war against non-believers is justified” under Muslim law; a “moderating process cannot happen if the Koran continues to be regarded as the unalterable word of Allah.”

These are excerpts from dozens of pages of recent FBI training material on Islam that Danger Room has acquired. In them, the Constitutionally protected religious faith of millions of Americans is portrayed as an indicator of terrorist activity.

The piece cites one particular FBI analyst as being the source of many such briefs. I know the guy, and, to put it quite mildly his approach could be the source of Robert McFadden's critical quote: “Teaching counterterrorism operatives about obscure aspects of Islam, without context, without objectivity, and without covering other non-religious drivers of dangerous behavior is no way to stop actual terrorists.” McFadden is correct - yet this guy is not only putting out products to agents, he is training and mentoring other analysts. A sad situation.

[Rex Brynen]

The piece cites one particular FBI analyst as being the source of many such briefs. I know the guy, and, to put it quite mildly his approach could be the source of Robert McFadden's critical quote: “Teaching counterterrorism operatives about obscure aspects of Islam, without context, without objectivity, and without covering other non-religious drivers of dangerous behavior is no way to stop actual terrorists.” McFadden is correct - yet this guy is not only putting out products to agents, he is training and mentoring other analysts. A sad situation.

You're indeed putting it mildly.

[Rex Brynen]

Counter-terrorism expert Jarret Brachman weighs in on the issue of poor quality FBI training--and notes that Jihadist forums are citing it as evidence of US hostility to Islam:

There’s been a lot of attention in recent months on the cadre of counterterrorism trainers who are peddling paranoia and fear about what they believe is the “real” problem: Islam itself. As one who provides training for law enforcement and government audiences, I’m particularly concerned about this issue.

Not only is their brand of anti-Islamic training factually incorrect but it actually becomes self-fulfilling as it serves to confirm that what many Western Muslims already suspect is being the case. Today, Ackerman over at Wired’s Danger Room has a great new piece looking at some training being provided to FBI from some of these “Islam is the Problem” trainers.

Although I’m not shocked to hear that agencies of the USG are paying for this kind of garbage before, I am resolute in my commitment to work toward some kind of solution. But before I do, I figure I’d profile what’s being said within the English-language Islamic forums upon hearing this story. Here are some quotes about news that “CT experts” are conducting anti-Islamic training for USG with my reactions interspersed:

Forum User: “Looks like years of sucking up to the authorities, throwing innocent Muslims under the bus and cooperating with the feds has done “American Muslims” no good at all. In fact, the Maghrib crowd are probably all under surveillance as the FBI views them as potential terrorists”

JB reaction: This kind of exasperation is being echoed throughout the forums. Despite ten years of rhetoric about the need to engage the American Islamic community with respect , the USG continues supporting individuals who advocate suspicion of the religion.

In the meantime, questions get raised in Congress (and it is about time too):

The FBI swears it has stopped teaching agents that “mainstream” Muslims are proto-terrorists and that Mohammed is a “cult leader.” But top Senators aren’t prepared to let the FBI turn the page on its anti-Islam counterterrorism training, revealed by Danger Room on Wednesday.

“There is no room in America for the lies, propagated by al-Qaida, that the U.S. is at war with Islam, or the lie propagated by others that all Muslims support terrorism,” Sen. Joe Lieberman, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, told Danger Room.

Lieberman is one of the most consistently hawkish members of Congress. Not coincidentally, he’s been disturbed at recent reports that “inaccurate or even bigoted” anti-Islamic sentiment — his words — is substituting for diligent, responsible counterterrorism. In a letter this week to John Brennan, the president’s assistant on homeland security, Lieberman called for “meaningful standards” on law enforcement counterterrorism training, a point he reiterated to Danger Room.

[jmm99]

from some folks not known for their timidity: (con the training), The Federal Bureau of Idiocy (16 Sep 2011); and (pro the training), Far-Left "journalist" assails FBI training materials that depict Islam accurately; FBI folds, and New York Times takes up Hamas-linked CAIR's cause of trying to force the FBI to stop telling the truth about Islam (16 & 17 Sep 2011).

Here is the Powerpoint presentation re: Strategic Themes and Drivers in Islamic Law -which is of interest to me, but not something that I have the expertise to rip apart or endorse with respect to the "Muslim Mainstream".

Based on my reading of AQ materials, the slides might be more correctly characterized as "Strategic Themes and Drivers in Islamic Law as Viewed by AQ". The "Law" slides do not reflect that limitation.

I'd be interested in what Omarali50 and others of Islamic background think of the "Law" slides.

Regards

Mike