LOCAL SHERIFF HIRES ISLAMOPHOBIC ORGANIZATION TO "TRAIN" HIS OFFICERS ABOUT LOCAL MUSLIMS (perhaps the KKK wasn't available?)

            My hard-earned tax dollars at work...  Our local sheriff here in Murfreesboro, Tennessee has accepted an Arlington, Virginia hate group's invitation to allow them to "train" our law enforcement officers on "the threat to America" posed by Muslims and Islamic Centers such as the controversial mosque being constructed less than a mile from my house.  A local Christian mega-church, whose pastor Rev. G. Allen Jackson spoke against the new mosque during court proceedings, has graciously offered their facilities to host the training sessions, because "...I would submit to you that we have a duty here at home to understand thoroughly the nature, the intent, the funding of any group that is being invited into our community under that general banner (of Islam)...".

             I guess if the Civil Rights movement of the 60's were taking place today our local authorities would turn to the KKK for educational guidance.  We're so fucking proud...

             An article in this morning's Nashville Tennessean (motto: "Helping Tennesseans housebreak puppies since 1907!") says the sheriff's office has hired ex-FBI agent John Guandolo, VP of a group called Strategic Engagement Group, to train Rutherford County's finest.  SEG has a stated position that mosques and Islamic centers are "potential military compounds", and Guandolo was recently quoted as having said of them "They do not have a first amendment right to do anything."
             The three day "training" session (which concludes today) is being held at the World Outreach Church here in Murfreesboro, which recently hosted an event called "The Threat to America" which was sponsored by a group called Tennessee Freedom Coalition.  The article says THAT group is led by Lou Ann Zelanik, who ran and lost in her bid for a seat in the state House of Reprehensibles on an anti-mosque platform, and little else.  During last summer's heated mosque controversy here in Murfreesboro Ms. Zelanik tried in vain to make her Islamaphobic positions central to the campaign, and lost badly in the process.  She's a real piece of work...
             The local rag here in Murfreesboro has a quote from Saleh Sbenaty, a member of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro:
“I was completely taken by shock when I heard the news last night about this training by a private organization that is brought by a small number of radical members of the community,” said Sbenaty, who has served as a spokesman for the local Muslim community throughout the controversy. “Deputies are paid by our tax dollars and they are being trained on a mission of hate that this group has brought from outside Tennessee.

           The mosque controversy here in Murfreesboro brought unfavorable national attention to our community, and many of us participated in tolerance rallies meant to counter the bigotry being spouted by a noisy minority of local residents.  Now our sheriff's department is using our tax dollars to enrich the same hate groups who are fomenting this kind of horseshit nationwide, under the guise of "training" a law enforcement agency that is supposed to represent and protect all of Rutherford County's residents... not just the lunatic fringe.
            The sheriff seems a little surprised his department's training methods are being questioned, saying " There are not many classes out there for anything when it comes to Muslims... but this training isn't just about that, it has many other components to it... My stance is and office's stance is we are here to protect the people of this county, and I am never going to waiver from that." 
             Suddenly I can hear fifes and drums in the distance...
            Sheriff Arnold went on to explain that training like this evolves over time, likening it to advances made in CPR training over the decades:
“This is kind of like CPR,” he explained. “It took 20 years to perfect CPR. When we first started doing it, we weren’t’ doing it correctly ... but at least we were doing something. And over time we got to where we are today with CPR. I’d say we are saving a whole lot more people today than we were when we first started training people in CPR because we’ve learned all this stuff over time, and to learn stuff over time you have to start the learning at some point.”



              Yeah, paying folks who profit from prejudice to come into your town, putting their little seminar up at one of the largest churches in the area so they can spout their hate rhetoric to officers who are being paid to attend those sessions is just like rudimentary CPR training... except that it isn't. 

             If tolerance seminars had been conducted by the Sheriff's Department to help his deputies understand the Civil Rights movement, I guess they would have started with cross construction and the application of flammable liquids.            

*********UPDATE**************UPDATE*********************UPDATE*************

             I just got a call from Sheriff Arnold returning my voice mail message concerning this matter, and he had a few clarifications I'd like to pass along.
             First of all, he insists my tax dollars aren't being spent to fund this right wing organization's Islamaphobic training sessions, but that the thing is funded by that organization itself.  He also said the Strategic Engagement Group was recommended to the Rutherford County Sheriff's Department by the FBI, and when asked for a specific name within the FBI to whom I could address my concerns, I was told it was done by recommendation of the FBI's Springfield office in Murray County.  (get back to you on that as things unfold...)

             Sheriff Arnold was quick to say that he wasn't taking sides on the mosque issue, despite media attempts to vilify him or the department.  I expressed my concerns that simply by having his employees attend a seminar hosted by a group that uses, in my opinion, hate speech, he was giving tacit approval to their message and opinions on the matter.  I conveyed my Civil Rights/KKK analogy and told him I thought we would be embarrassed years from now by giving voice to intolerant points of view concerning Muslims in our community.  (for what it's worth, I'm not sure he got my analogy at all... probably having more to do with my lousy communication skills than to his understanding of the comparison)
               I asked if he had had a lot of feedback from the public, and he said so far there had been two complaints about the seminar as opposed to more than twenty calls in favor of it.  Apparently, the folks who are offended by this are greatly outnumbered by those who think Muslims with scimitars are building bombs in their basements and planning to put our women under burkas...  Who knows?
              In short, the guy was straight up about it, and honestly interested in hearing what I had to say.  At least I wasn't told to go fuck myself or something...