Manufacturing the Muslim Menace - Political Research Associates

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Manufacturing the Muslim Menace A request to the CI Centre for access to training materials and interviews with principals was rejected. PRA requested interviews with CI Centre faculty, participant data, and an opportunity to send an investigator to observe the “Global Jihadist Threat Doctrine” course at PRA’s expense. CI Centre has responded to PRA’s assertion that Centre spokespeople employ Islamophobic narratives by threatening legal action and denying PRA’s assertion. For this investigation, we closely analyzed the writings and speeches of CI Centre instructors Walid Phares, Clare Lopez, Tawfik Hamid, and Stephen Coughlin, combined with the extensive attendee feedback published on CI Centre’s website reflect the firm’s stated focus and course descriptions. ENDNOTES 1 Encyclopedia of Race and Ethnic Studies (Routledge: 2003), 218. See also Runnymede Trust, Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All (1997), p. 5, cited in Muzammil Quraishi, Muslims and Crime: A Comparative Study (Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.: 2005), 60. 2 “Clare Lopez,” Patriots Symposiums. http://www.patriotsymposiums.com/Claire_Lopez.html 3 Henry Morgenstern, “News Talk 710 Cairo,” Dori Monson Show, (May 2008). 10 POLITICAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATES
Private Firms, Public Servants, and the Threat to Rights and Security Manufacturing the Muslim Menace PRIVATE FIRMS, PUBLIC SERVANTS, AND THE THREAT TO RIGHTS AND SECURITY Early one evening in December 2009, a police dispatcher in suburban Henderson, Nevada, alerted officers on patrol to watch for suspicious people spotted “kissing the ground” in a gas station parking lot. Within minutes, police pulled into the Rebel Mini Mart lot and began to interrogate seven Muslim men of Middle Eastern and South Asian descent for doing nothing more than praying at sunset next to their legally parked van. Police detained the group of friends for forty minutes, searched the van, and questioned them about their schooling, jobs, and countries of origin. In response, one of the men asked an officer, “Any time Muslims pray, is that suspicious activity? Just being Muslim?” The officer, recorded by one of the seven, responded, “So here’s the thing, I’ll be honest with you. Based on the studies, the classes that I have gone to, and based on the events that happened around the world, can you fault people who don’t understand something for being concerned?” 1 The Los Angeles Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a nationwide civil rights organization, filed a lawsuit on behalf of these individuals (known as the “Henderson Seven”) to remedy the violation of their Constitutional rights to be free from warrantless search and seizure. What kind of “studies” and “classes” taught this officer to be suspicious of mere prayer? Post 9/11, public agencies are turning to an unregulated industry of private contractors and firms to develop counterterrorism expertise. Private counterterrorism training companies draw on public dollars to instruct public servants—including police officers like those in Henderson, Nevada—with messages implying that Muslim identity is sufficient grounds for suspecting potential involvement in, or support for, terrorism. The messages that emanate from some private training contractors offer a reflection of what these courses teach. This report examines three prominent training entities—Security Solutions International (SSI), The Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies (CI Centre), and International Counter- Terrorism Officer’s Association (ICTOA). Each group, in its own way, has the effect of demonizing Islam to front-line law enforcement, defense, and intelligence professionals. Given the inflammatory and inaccurate content of such trainings, abuses like the Henderson Seven case are bound to multiply in number and severity. Through a variety of channels, these three groups and the instructors they utilize (who often speak in settings outside their organizations) influence the mindset of security and law enforcement professionals in a manner that will distort intelligence analysis and render innocent people suspect—thereby endangering fundamental freedoms as well as community safety and national security. Just as the Judeo-Christian tradition, which once supported divine right of monarchs, was reinterpreted to accommodate the democratic ideals, Islam as practiced in America continues to undergo transformation through interaction with American political and cultural norms. In direct contrast to this process of accommodation, which other religious groups have experienced throughout American history, the private counterterror trainers and speakers profiled in this report risk fostering resistance, suspicion, and confrontation. A milieu of distrust and fear may fuel unconstitutional deprivations of civil liberties, racial, ethnic, and religious discrimination, and the marginalization of communities who are portrayed as latent supporters of terrorism. POLITICAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATES What kind of “studies” and “classes” taught this officer to be suspicious of mere prayer? 11
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