Monday, May 26, 2008

CAIR whines that Seattle police training course links Islam to terrorism

The unindicted co-conspirator CAIR tries to stop a police training course that sounds more realistic than most. "But Solomon Bradman, CEO of Security Solutions International, which is conducting the program, said, 'I can't take the responsibility of my course linking their religion to terrorism. I think their religion got linked to terrorism a long time ago.'" Solomon Bradman is a clear-sighted and honest man.

"Does course on Islam give law enforcers wrong idea?," by Janet I. Tu for the Seattle Times, May 23 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Some local Muslim community members are upset about a training course for local law enforcement, saying it could promote stereotypes and ethnic and religious profiling.

The program, called "The Threat of Islamic Jihadists to the World" and conducted by a Miami-based company, began Thursday and continues today at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission campus in Burien.

It is billed as providing insight into the formative phases of Islam, the religion's different branches, radical Islam and how to respond to terrorist acts.

But Arsalan Bukhari, president of the Washington state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said the program appears to be linking an entire religion to terrorism.

"Most police officers don't have a basic grounding in Islam, so before you teach them about Islam, how can you teach them about radical Islam?" he asked. "It just makes you nervous because when a law-enforcement person pulls someone over, when they see a Muslim person or someone who appears Muslim to them — all this information they just learned kicks in."

See? If you inform police about the violent teachings of Islam, they will end up victimizing innocent people!

It's a canny charge. He is trying to push the victim buttons that have always worked so well for CAIR. But on what is it based? Absolutely nothing.

Bukhari believes the need for police training on issues of profiling and bias was highlighted by an incident last summer in which the FBI launched an international search for two men who took photos below deck on a Washington state ferry. The FBI announced earlier this month that the men were tourists, not terrorists.

Even if that is true, it has nothing to do with what they have learned or not learned about Islam. According to reports at the time, these two men "had more than the average interest in the working parts of the ferry, the layout of the ferry, the size of it -- more than you would see in normal passenger."

If Islam is a religion of peace, are we supposed to be not concerned about Muslims acting suspiciously, even if an investigation shows that there was nothing untoward going on?

Bukhari said law-enforcement agencies need to learn about Islam, but not just in the context of terrorism.

But Solomon Bradman, CEO of Security Solutions International, which is conducting the program, said, "I can't take the responsibility of my course linking their religion to terrorism. I think their religion got linked to terrorism a long time ago."

The purpose of the course, Bradman said, is to teach officers how to protect people from terrorism. His company has provided training to hundreds of agencies, including the FBI, the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security.

The two-day program covers some of the history of Islam to provide an "understanding of the terror mind-set and reasons for global jihad," Bradman said. It's not intended to be an all-inclusive course on Islam.

There are other organizations, such as CAIR, that have worked with law-enforcement agencies to provide that broader training, he said....

Quite so.

Thanks Jihad Watch

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