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Why does this keep happening? As I have pointed out whenever stories like this have shown up in the past, it is one of the most obvious indications of how dangerously misleading it is to call Islam a "religion of peace" and take groups like CAIR at face-value as moderates despite troubling matters such as the arrests noted below. But it will keep happening until the FBI has the courage to face up to the implications of the fact that the roots of violent jihad ideology are found in the Qur'an and Sunnah. And as long as it keeps happening, we are all that much more at risk. From WND, with thanks to all who sent this in:
FBI counter-terrorism agents in Florida attended a "sensitivity training" workshop yesterday conducted by a controversial Islamic lobby group.Although it has been described by two former FBI counter-terrorism chiefs as a spin-off of a U.S. front for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, led the workshop on "Islam and the American Muslim community" at the FBI's Jacksonville Division All Employee Conference.
CAIR's Florida branch, CAIR-FL, said in a statement that "more than 150 law enforcement agents, including FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force supervisory personnel, attended the workshop that examined basic Islamic beliefs and concepts, common stereotypes of Islam and Muslims and ways in which to improve interactions with the Muslim community."
"This type of positive interaction between law enforcement officials and the Muslim community helps break down barriers to communication and promotes mutual understanding," said CAIR-FL Chairman Parvez Ahmed.
Ahmed said his group wants to expand the program to help train law enforcement authorities in other parts of the state.
Officers already have been trained in Miami and in other states, including Kentucky, where 13 FBI agents received training in Lexington in October....
CAIR claimed that when compared to the year preceding Sept. 11, its 2002 report on bias or hate-related incidents against Muslims showed a 64 percent increase.
Justice Department spokesman Jorge Martinez told WorldNetDaily, on the contrary, he saw a vastly improving situation in "backlash" incidents since a "spike" in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
'Enrichment training'
As WorldNetDaily reported last year, the FBI put its agents and new recruits through a Muslim sensitivity program that included inviting Muslim clerics and leaders to preach about the allegedly peaceful attributes of Islam.
National Arab-American and Muslim leaders have made presentations at an FBI training course on civil rights in Washington D.C., and at the FBI Academy at Quantico, Va., as part of "Enrichment Training Sessions" for new special agents there.
In addition, the imam of a large Manhattan mosque has lectured veteran counterterrorism investigators at the FBI's New York field office about misinterpretation of the meaning of jihad in the Koran, the sacred book of Muslims.
The sensitivity training program, denounced by some active and former agents, was mandated last year by FBI Director Robert Mueller....
Since 9-11, CAIR, a spin-off of the Islamic Association For Palestine, has seen three of its former employees indicted on federal terrorism charges.
Randall Todd "Ismail" Royer was sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges he trained in Virginia for holy war against the United States and sent several members to Pakistan to join Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Kashmiri terrorist group with reported ties to al-Qaida.
In a plea bargain, Royer claimed he never intended to hurt anyone but admitted he organized the holy warriors after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S.
After his arrest, Royer sought legal counsel from Hamas lawyer Stanley Cohen, who said after 9-11 he would consider serving as a defense lawyer for Osama bin Laden if the al-Qaida leader were captured.
Another CAIR figure, Bassem Khafagi, was arrested in January 2003 while serving as the group's director of community relations. The previous December, Ghassan Elashi, the founder of CAIR's Texas chapter, was indicted for financial ties to Hamas leader Musa Abu Marzook.
Posted by Robert at December 2, 2004 8:15 AM
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We need to put the FBI organizers into a dhimmi database exposing their idiocy.
Posted by: Andrew![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at December 2, 2004 8:43 AM
Yeah, I don't know what to say. It's astounding. It's breathtakingly stupid. It's bizarre. But you have to hand it to the American branch of Hamas. Ooops, I mean CAIR. Their PR is very good. Very sly. Very slimey. Very disgusting. But very good. They see gullible fools, so they take advantage of them.
Posted by: feralee at December 2, 2004 8:46 AM
When Will Christian Churches,and Jewish synagogues begin giving "sensitivity" training to Muslims? Maybe they can conduct their classes in the madrassis of Lebanon,Syria,Saudia Arabia,and the Palestinian territory. But I think we should start with the Waahabist influenced Mosques and madrassis in Britain,Denmark,The Netherlands,Canada and the USA, ETC.ETC.... What would be better; to teach the "sensitivity" training before or after the hate classes are given? Just asking!
Posted by: Mackie at December 2, 2004 8:50 AM
More detail on CAIR -- and please note the remark of founding member Omar Ahmad quoted in the penultimate paragraph.
CAIR was founded in 1994 by alumni of an older group, the Islamic Association for Palestine. The IAP, founded by senior Hamas figure Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, calls for the destruction of Israel and the creation of an Islamic state under Islamic law in Israel's place. (In 1996, CAIR would condemn the U.S. government's decision to deport Marzook as an 'anti-Islamic' act.)
CAIR's first executive director, Nihad Awad, publicly declared himself a supporter of Hamas at a 1994 forum at Barry University in Florida.
One of CAIR's original advisory board members, Siraj Wahhaj, served as a character witness for Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman. Rahman is the blind Egyptian cleric convicted in 1995 of conspiracy to bomb New York landmarks. CAIR described Rahman's conviction as a hate crime.
CAIR's founding chairman, Omar Ahmed, also an IAP alumnus, is said to have declared at a public event in California in July, 1998: "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran . . . should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth." Ahmed has since disputed the accuracy of the quote--five years after it was reported by a California newspaper.
After the 9/11 attacks on the United States, CAIR's Web site featured a link titled, "Donate to the NY/DC Disaster Relief Fund." The link connected to the Web site of the Holy Land Foundation, a charity closed down by the United States three months later as a Hamas front."
at December 2, 2004 9:24 AM
Okay, I'm going to go out on a limb and give the FBI agents the benefit of the doubt. Whenever we get any "multicultural sensitivity" crap at work, my coworkers and I surreptitiously look at each other, roll our eyes and smile at the idiot who thinks he's "enlightening" us. If nothing else, we've learned the enemy's tactics.
Posted by: 3812Michelle at December 2, 2004 12:00 PM
Repeated reports like this make me wonder:
Has the FBI been infiltrated by Jihadists?
One third of American Muslims believe the war on terror is a war on Islam; unless these same Muslims are utterly ignorant of their own faith, they must conclude that they have an obligation to wage Jihad against the US government. Has CAIR said one word about this problem? And remember the context: it is indisputable that groups and individuals who accept this same ideology and goal are actively trying to deliver WMD to American cities. Those are the stakes.
The Jihad is on and has been going on for years. We might as well call Homeland Security the 'Department of Domestic Anti-Jihad'. And we invite folks who are at the very least sympathetic to the Jihad to 'teach' law enforcement?
Something is very, very wrong.
Posted by: JTF at December 2, 2004 12:26 PM
I guess CAIR's thinking is that if they do enough of these propaganda exercises then maybe one or two of the FBI agents will convert to the RoP.
With the FBI , the State Department and various US education boards now falling over themselves to "reach out" to islam can the American posters at JW stop being so hard on us Europeans for being the only dhimmis in the world ?
at December 2, 2004 12:58 PM
So will the FBI also bring a Video about citizens obeying the law and reporting suspected
terrorist behaviour,CAIR Canada posts a "Mission Statement" that declares their goal is to educate Canadians and Muslims about Islam,there is nothing in the statement about Muslims accepting other cultures and faiths or even obeying the law while in Canada.
CAIR has already been accused of being funded by Saudis that push Whahabbism in the Mosques and seminars at convention centre meetings. I'd love to see a Imam in my Church try to explain why Islam and Allah is the true religion and that Jesus isn't the Messiah,the Imam would be listened to but not taken seriously,just try going to a Mosque and saying Muhammed wasn't a prophet and Allah isn't the same God that Christians worship....does Theo van Gogh come to mind if you did something like that.
at December 2, 2004 1:45 PM
They should have had some other training materials such as video tapes of muslims beheading infidels,video and oudio tapes of imams preaching hatred against infidels,the video clip "dirty kuffar",rap music,the video tape of the 9/11 attacks,the Madrid bombings,Theo Van Gogh,etc.
These FBI officers are taugh guys and they are not stupid either....it is amazing that all of them just sat there without asking challenging questions,or at least asking for reciprocity in the sensitivity training,such as having same kind of christian seminars in mosques and muslim schools allover the world.
This either extremely stupid or it could be a smart diversionary taqyia-style tactic,to make the enemy think we actualy believe their deception.
at December 2, 2004 6:23 PM
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