CAIRO – America’s Department of Justice has been urged to cancel a training session for prosecutors and law enforcement personnel featuring anti-Islam conspiracy theorist John Guandolo who claims that CIA director is a “secret Muslim”.
"Any prosecutor or police officer whose view of the world has been colored by John Guandolo's Islamophobia and conspiracy theories would inevitably view every Arizona Muslim with suspicion," Ibrahim Hooper National Communications Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said in a statement obtained by OnIslam.net.
"The Department of Justice should intervene to prevent the civil rights of Arizona Muslims from being negatively impacted in the courts and in interactions with law enforcement."
Hooper’s calls to the DOJ was echoed in a request by CAIR, America’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, to cancel a training planned later this week in Arizona.
Offered by Guandolo, a session titled “Understanding the Threat” is sponsored by Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, on September 19 in Tempe, Arizona.
Demanding protection of Arizona Muslims civil rights, CAIR said Guandolo's conspiracy theories, including claims that respected Arizona Muslim leaders are members of the Muslim Brotherhood and that the current CIA director is a Muslim "agent," will prevent local Muslims who come in contact with the justice system from being treated fairly.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an organization that tracks hate groups in America, describes Guandolo as "a disreputable character, who regularly attacks the US government.
Known as conspiracy theorist, Guandolo claims that the director of the Central Intelligence Agency is a secret Muslim agent for the Saudi government and says that American Muslims 'do not have a First Amendment right to do anything.'"
In February of this year, Virginia's Rappahannock Regional Criminal Justice Academy rescinded its earlier approval of in-service training credits for state law enforcement scheduled to attend a training Guandolo was conducting in Culpeper, Va., after being made aware of his anti-Islam rhetoric.
In May, a sheriff in Kansas decided not to partner with a citizens group sponsoring a Guandolo training after being informed of his conspiracy theories. When a journalist at Kansas' Wichita Eagle covered the controversy, Guandolo accused the reporter of material support of terrorism.
Anti-Muslim Extremism
CAIR's request to the DOJ comes as Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Monday a strategy designed to disrupt Americans from joining terrorist groups.
"Anti-Muslim extremism is never the answer to legitimate concerns about those who might adopt extremist religious views," said Hooper.
Imraan Siddiqi, president of CAIR's Arizona chapter, echoed similar concerns.
"Sadly, this continues a disturbing trend by Maricopa County of promoting discriminatory practices, such as the racial profiling of Latinos, which was deemed unconstitutional," Siddiqi said.
"We have already seen an upswing in cases of religious questioning at the border, which could certainly be a result of biased law enforcement trainings such as this."
In August, CAIR joined a coalition of 75 groups urging the Obama administration to take "immediate action to end the use of anti-Muslim training materials and address anti-Muslim conduct exhibited by agencies throughout the federal government."
Although there are no official figures, the United States is believed to be home to between 6-8 million Muslims.
Anti-Muslim training materials for army, police and government officials have been a major concern for Muslims in the US.
In 2012, the New York police used a video screening accusing Muslims of launching a holy war on the West as a training material for its officers.
The film, “The Third Jihad: Radical Islam’s Vision for America”, says "the true agenda of much of Muslim leadership here in America" is to "infiltrate and dominate America."
It claims that there were three jihads: One at the time of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him), a second in the Middle Ages and a third that is underway covertly in the West today.
In July 2011, the FBI used training materials that claim Islam “transforms [a] country’s culture into 7th-century Arabian ways”.
Earlier in 2011, CAIR and the University of California released a report titled “Same Hate, New Target: Islamophobia and Its Impact in the United States 2009-2010,” which warned of growing Islamophobia in the US since President Barack Obama was elected.
Last September, Danger Room cited an FBI training material which described Muslims as "terrorist sympathizers", who turn into violent people once they become pious.
It also described Islam as an indicator of terrorist activity and that the Muslim practice of giving charity as no more than a “funding mechanism for combat.”
Earlier this February 2012, the FBI purged hundreds of documents offensive to Muslims and their faith, describing those document as "offensive" while others were "inaccurate" and "overbroad".
The White House also ordered a government-wide review of counterterrorism training late last year.
