FBI Training Courses Full of Anti-Muslim Material, Group Discovers
- Details
- Published on Thursday, 16 February 2012 13:04
Previously published on Wafa
More than 700 documents and 300 presentations of material used by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in its training courses included anti-Muslim information, the Washington-based American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) said in a press release published on Wednesday.
It said that after a team of experts had reviewed more than 160,000 pages of documents related to FBI training material, more than 700 documents and 300 presentations have been deemed unusable by the Bureau and pulled from training curriculum.
This material was deemed to include factual errors, was in poor taste, considered stereotypical or lacked precision, said ADC.
FBI Director Robert Mueller informed members of the Arab and Muslim-American community and interfaith organizations in the US in a recent meeting he had with them of the decision to pull this material out.
The meeting was called for following reports of police and FBI trainees getting exposed to strong anti-Arab and anti-Muslim material.
"The conversation with Director Mueller centered on material used by the agency that depicts falsehoods and negative connotations of the Muslim American community," said ADC.
"Mueller informed the participants that the FBI took the review of the training material very seriously, and he pursued the matter with urgency to ensure that this does not occur again in the future," it said.
Abed Ayoub, ADC Legal Director, stated, "The steps taken by the FBI in addressing this serious matter are certainly welcomed. It is our hope that the Bureau continues to engage with stakeholders in addressing all issues of concern, and continues to work towards resolving these concerns."
The meeting discussed other issues of concern to the Muslim American community including surveillance of mosques, said the statement.
ADC welcomed what it said were the changes proposed by the FBI to the training modules, describing them as a "first step in ensuring that such a mistake does not occur again in the future."
