The Washington State Chapter of  and at least 18 other civil rights and community-based organizations are requesting that the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice initiate an investigation into the patterns of biased and inaccurate trainings provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) for the purpose of training its agents and other law enforcement agencies. The letter also asks the DOJ to issue a directive to the agency banning the use of trainers or ‘experts’ who use false, misleading and fear-producing information about any race religion or ethnic group including about Islam and Muslims.  

The letter seeking the investigation was sent to Justice Department officials in Washington, DC and Seattle on October 3, 2011. Click here to read the full letter and view attachments, in pdf format.

CAIR-WA held at news conference on October 3, 2011 to announce the letter. Click here to view photos from the news conference.

According to the group letter, “These trainings repeatedly appear to contain extreme bias against the Muslim community by inaccurately and disproportionately labeling Muslims as terrorists and vice versa, and by wrongfully correlating the theology of Islam with the political ideologies held by various terrorist groups.”  The signers assert that a DOJ investigation can improve the quality of trainings provided by and for the FBI, thereby developing the Bureau’s integrity and efficiency and improving the safety and security of all Americans.

The letter to the DOJ cited the following incidents regarding inflammatory and misleading trainings provided by the FBI include (click here to see the letter for full details)

• August 2, 2010 – A coalition of civil rights organizations, including CAIR, sent a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller expressing their concern over a known anti-Muslim speaker being invited by Virginia’s Tidewater Joint Terrorism Task Force to provide training to state and federal law enforcement officers.[1] The speaker, Robert Spencer, is a co-founder of the group “Stop the Islamicization of America,” which is on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of hate groups.[2] The response to the letter indicated that Mr. Spencer had been invited to speak due to his status as a best-selling author.
• March 21, 2011 – Training for FBI agents in Quantico, Virginia, titled “Strategic Themes and Drivers in Islamic Law” was delivered by an FBI Intelligence analyst, William Gawthrop.[3] The presentation wrongfully asserted that Zakat, the Islamic practice of giving alms, “constitute[s] a funding mechanism for combat” and that in the Islamic world view, “there can be no peace between” Muslims and non-Muslims “until dar al Islam [Muslims] conquers and assimilates its adversary.”[4] Further, the presentation stated that “the strategic themes animating these Islamic values are not fringe; they are main stream [sic]” and that “the individual applying these values and practices may likely be pious and devout adherents, i.e., a true believer as opposed to ‘radical.’” Other presentations authored by Mr. Gawthrop include “Doctrinal Basis for Jihad”[5] and “Militancy Considerations”[6] which includes a chart depicting a positive correlation between piety and violence for Muslims, but a negative correlation for Jews and Christians. Mr. Gawthrop’s presentations are contrary to a recently released empirical study revealing the positive correlation between mosque attendance and civic engagement for American Muslims.[7] Further, Mr. Gawthrop’s extreme anti-Muslim opinions were made public in an interview with WorldNetDaily in 2006, long before he was hired by the FBI to provide trainings for its agents.[8] In the interview, Mr. Gawthrop is paraphrased as saying, “the Pentagon needs to develop a broad new strategy to deal with the threat from Islamic terrorists. But to do so, officials must first overcome the political taboo of linking Islamic violence to the religion of Islam, its sacred scripture and the personal example of its revered prophet.” Mr. Gawthrop was also quoted as saying, “Muhammad’s mindset is a source for terrorism.”
• April 28, 2011 – Dr. Ghada Ellithy, a Seattle resident and American citizen, attended the FBI’s Seattle Citizens’ Academy in which a document was distributed which compared Islam with Nazism. The document, which appeared to be authored by FBI Counterterrorism Agent Gerry Sames, stated: “A careful comparison of Arab/Islamist propaganda and Nazi propaganda reveals the closeness of these links, as does analysis of the main Arab political parties in the immediate postwar period.” Dr. Ellithy sent Agent Sames a letter on May 5, 2011 addressing her concerns. She has not yet received a response (see a copy of the handout and Dr. Ellithy’s letter enclosed).
• June 8, 2011 – Mr. Gawthorp delivered an FBI-sponsored lecture titled “Strategic Themes and Drivers in Islamic Law” to dozens of law enforcement officials in New York City.[9] During the presentation, Mr. Gawthrop asserted that the fight against al-Qaida is a “waste” compared to the threat presented by the ideology of Islam. Further, contrary to the FBI’s own stated counterterrorism tactics, Mr. Gawthrop stated that it would be a waste of time to turn to the American Muslim community for assistance in finding and stopping radical terrorists. The release of the video of Mr. Gawthrop’s presentation followed the release of a statement from the FBI in which the Bureau indicated that Mr. Gawthrop’s presentation in March 2011 was a “one time only affair.” After the release of the video of Mr. Gawthrop’s June 8, 2011 lecture, the FBI amended its release to note that Mr. Gawthrop provided “training on behalf of the FBI” until “August 2011.” 
• July 2011: In response to a FOIA request submitted by civil rights organizations in Northern California, the FBI disclosed various documents used in trainings.[10] Among the materials, which were dated January 2009, was a document titled “Islam 101” which stated that Islam “transforms [sic] country’s culture into 7th century Arabian ways.” Further, a document titled “Recommended Reading” listed a book, The Arab Mind, which contains broad and often false generalizations about Arab culture, a book titled Islam and Terrorism which states on the book’s back cover that “…terrorists are practicing Islam just as Muhammad intended…,” as well as The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam, by Robert Spencer which is packed with misleading and false information about Islam and Muslims..
• September 10, 2011 – FBI-Seattle agents Brenda Wilson and Daniel Guerrero participated in an outreach workshop in Seattle, delivering a presentation to members of the East African, Muslim, Sikh, and Arab communities. In the presentation, Agents Wilson and Guerrero addressed terrorist groups and community members stated that there was an almost exclusive focus on Islamic groups. On one slide addressing state-sponsored terrorism, there was a photo that many audience members believed was a Shia Islamic leader based on his attire and facial features. When audience members asked Agents Wilson and Guerrero if the photo was Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a political and religious leader who led the 1979 Iranian Revolution and died in 1989, the agents indicated that they did not know who was pictured in the photo.[11]
• September 12, 2011 – Senator Joe Lieberman and Senator Susan Collins sent a letter to John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism and Deputy National Security Advisor, expressing their concern over inaccurate, biased counterterrorism trainings provided by and for law enforcement agencies.[12] The letter stated that “agencies providing grants to state and local law enforcement lack meaningful standards for counter-terrorism curriculum and an adequate vetting process for individual trainers.” Further, Lieberman and Collins wrote: “State and local law enforcement often have little to no guidance from the federal government on what counter-terrorism training should entail" and "the result has often been cases of trainers spewing inaccurate or even bigoted information to state and local law enforcement personnel, stigmatizing Muslim-Americans generally, and in effect, lending support to the false narrative that we are 'at war' with Islam." Lieberman and Collins expressed “serious concerns that improper training may not be isolated occurrences and could be detrimental to our efforts to confront homegrown terrorism…Since Muslim Americans are our main allies in the fight against violent…extremism domestically, any training that implies otherwise is both inaccurate and counterproductive.”