ACLU Lens: FBI Using Biased Counterterrorism Training Materials
"Biased police training can only result in biased policing. Seeing the materials FBI agents are being trained with certainly helps explain why we've seen so many inappropriate FBI surveillance operations broadly targeting the Muslim-American community, from infiltrating mosques with agents provocateur to racial and ethnic mapping programs. Teaching FBI agents to mistrust their fellow Americans because of their religious beliefs promotes discrimination within the very agency that's charged with protecting their civil rights. Racial, ethnic and religious prejudice have no place in law enforcement."
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By Liz Goodwin
The Lookout – 7 hrs ago
FBI training materials (Obtained by Wired)
The training materials portray "the Islamic practice of giving charity as no more than a 'funding mechanism for combat,'" and feature a chart that shows that "devout" Muslims are violent.
Ackerman writes that FBI whistleblowers passed along the materials to him because they thought the focus on religion instead of other signs of terrorism--such as stockpiling weapons--was the wrong approach. The whistleblowers also worried that the FBI was spreading the same message preached by Al Qaeda--that devout followers of Islam must be violent.
"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," Robert McFadden, formerly of the Navy Criminal Investigative Service, told Ackerman.
FBI spokesman Christopher Allen told Yahoo! News that these training materials are no longer in use.
In July, Ackerman obtained FBI training materials that said the practice of Islam "transforms" a country into a 7th-century way of life. The materials taught that the "Arabic mind" is "swayed more by words than ideas and more by ideas than facts."
Just last month, the Associated Press uncovered that CIA agents helped the New York Police Department spy on Muslims communities by sending informants into area mosques before there had been any evidence of criminal activity. The CIA is now investigating the collaboration to see if it violated the constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of religion.
Read the whole story on the training materials here.
Update: A comment from FBI spokesman Christopher Allen has been added to this story.
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