CAIR Asks Virginia Sheriff to Drop Anti-Muslim Trainer

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization today called on the Culpeper County Sheriff's Department in Virginia to drop notorious anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist John Guandolo, who is scheduled to offer a three-day program later this month on "Jihadi Networks in America."

In a letter to the sheriff delivered today, Corey Saylor, director of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations' (CAIR) Department to Monitor and Combat Islamophobia Department, wrote in part:

"Mr. Guandolo has a lengthy record of anti-Muslim extremism and unprofessional behavior. His views on Islam are the equivalent of historical anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic falsehoods. Guandolo offers only his own prejudiced and inaccurate conspiratorial views, not solid counterterrorism training." 

As noted by the Southern Poverty law Center (SPLC), Guandolo is "a disreputable character, who regularly attacks the U.S. government, 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.'"

SEE: Virginia County Sheriff Hosting Anti-Muslim Training by Disgraced Conspiracy Theorist John Guandolo (SPLC) 
http://bit.ly/1ezejir  

He detailed his bizarre claim about the CIA director's alleged conversion to Islam in an interview with another notorious Islamophobe, Robert Spencer.

VIDEO: John Guandolo Claims CIA Director John Brennan is a Secret Muslim https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aieUdwZoYMg  

In his training materials, Guandolo refers to America's mosques and Islamic centers as "barracks" and falsely claims "it is a permanent command in Islam for Muslims to hate and despise Jews and Christians." Additionally, an article published by the Tennessean on February 15, 2012, reports Guandolo's belief that mosques are "front organizations for the Muslim Brotherhood with no right to exist."

SEE: US Military School Taught Soldiers to Wage "Total War" Against Islam http://rt.com/usa/us-students-war-islam-930/  

Guandolo is a former FBI agent who had to resign after it was revealed that he had sexual relationships with agents and a key government informant. During a 2012 anti-Muslim training in Tennessee, he was videoed shoving a local news camera that attempted to record the training.

He is linked to one of nation's the most vicious anti-Muslim groups, ACT! for America.

SEE: ACT! for America to Launch Anti-Muslim Website for Law Enforcement http://imagine2050.newcomm.org/2013/06/25/act-antimuslim-website-guandolo-nativist/  

CAIR Islamophobia Backgrounder: ACT! for America and 'Brigitte Gabriel'
http://bit.ly/1f1vT3g

Following calls for reform by CAIR and other groups following revelations of apparently widespread anti-Muslim bias in the training of law enforcement, security and military personnel nationwide, the Obama administration removed biased and inaccurate materials about Islam from trainings.

SEE: CAIR Asks Sec. Napolitano to Probe Use of Islamophobic Trainers http://tinyurl.com/3qgb5uu  

Video: CAIR Decries Anti-Muslim Police Trainers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxX5y7zX8RU  

Obama Orders Clean Up of Islamophobic Terror Training
http://tinyurl.com/74ozglm  

An 80-page report by Political Research Associates (PRA), titled "Manufacturing the Muslim Menace: Private Firms, Public Servants, & the Threat to Rights and Security," details a systemic failure to regulate content in counterterrorism training.

SEE: Manufacturing the Muslim Menace
http://tinyurl.com/4qeretq  

Washington Monthly magazine also published a major investigative article showing similar anti-Islam attitudes by private trainers of law enforcement agencies.

SEE: How We Train Our Cops to Fear Islam
http://tinyurl.com/4ajnx3h 

CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

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CONTACT: CAIR Department to Monitor and Combat Islamophobia Director Corey Saylor, 202-384-8857, E-Mail [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, E-Mail: [email protected]; CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787, 202-341-4171, E-Mail: [email protected]

SOURCE Council on American-Islamic Relations