In a move fueled by public outcry and aimed at stemming yet another in a long line of public relations disasters, the FBI has announced that it is cancelling its training academy seminar on the inherent evilness of Muslims.
The lecture centered around accusing Muslim charities of being a “funding mechanism for combat” and claiming that mainstream American Muslims are “likely to be terrorist sympathizers.” The lecture included a chart claiming the more religious a Muslim is, the more violent he will be.
It was just one more cause for concern in Muslim-American communities, where FBI surveillance of mosques is already virtually a routine part of life. The surveillance takes on an even more sinister tone when coupled with lectures that lay out an FBI policy of overt persecution.
Cancelling the lecture in and of itself, however, likely means very little, and is more of a public relations move than a serious change in the bureau’s overall policy. An endless list of other shameful moves by the FBI have come and gone in the past, and this is likely to just be one more, quickly forgotten and replaced when the next scandal crops up.
The Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik has demonstrated that Islamophobes are the real threat. FBI should really concentrate on those who prepared these training materials.
The Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik has demonstrated that Islamophobes are the real threat. FBI should really concentrate on the Islamophobes who prepared these training materials.
I am appalled at this news. As a Muslim this is what I have learned and believed:
1. Islam means submission / peace.
2. Islam forbids aggression. Period. The only time Muslims are allowed to fight is in self defense.
3. Islam forbids suicide. There is no place in paradise for people who commit suicide under any circumstance.
4. Islam forbids killing of innocent people. Killing one innocent person is like killing the whole of humanity.
How ironic. The agency that produced arguably our nation's worst traitor, Richard Hanssen, a devout Catholic and Opus Dei member, prancing around pointing fingers at Muslims. I don't seem to remember them going after Catholics as a result of the Hanssen affair.
Ye, I am so inherently evil that I volunteered to serve in the United States Marine Corps for four years, and later for an additional eight years in the US Army, learning how to routinely handle nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons along the way and advise commanders on their uses and limitations. I am so inherently evil that for ten years I worked in nursing homes taking care of the elderly, many of them military veterans of Vietnam and WW2 themselves. I am so inherently evil that I fear for the future of my children and wonder what sort of America has been spawned by our own blindness to issues facing the world and how we deal with those.
Now what could it possibly be that restrains me from using the knowledge I gained in the military for 'evil' purposes? Could it be that I, Muslim or not, am an inherently decent person? Could it be that, Muslim or not, I know right from wrong? Could it be that even though the members of my masjid are fully aware of my military background, not one of them- or anyone in the Muslim community- has approached me to put that knowledge to use for nefarious purposes?
Could it be that, by virtue of even HAVING a program like the one described in the article, the FBI has determined that all observant Muslims are denied the basic American standard of 'innocent until proven guilty'?
Perhaps it would be helpful to non-Muslims if they realized that we believe in the basic goodness of man, and not that we're all basically evil. Perhaps part of the FBI's issue with Muslims is projecting their own outlook on life- and their own apparently inherent 'evil-ness' onto others to justify themselves.
Whoever wrote or presented this program- and the FBI supervisor who signed off on it- needs to be fired immediately and barred from any employment in law enforcement in any capacity. There is no room for that kind of person in my America.
"Could it be that even though the members of my masjid are fully aware of my military background, not one of them – or anyone in the Muslim community – has approached me to put that knowledge to use for nefarious purposes?"
We have a TO&E "3" vacancy in our general staff, if you can qualify. Nothing "nefarious," we use the DEATFBIRS and ABCNNBCBS as "2" assets.