This is a lengthy article but I recommend your reading it in full-- it's both interesting and a rather shocking revelation of the kinds of things those training our local law enforcement personnel about Islamic terrorism are teaching and an embarrassing account of how easy it seems to be to become a certified instructor. In a nutshell, it seems as though the only qualifications are that one adopt a strongly anti-Muslim world view and create a semi impressive sounding resume-- whether or not it's accurate or made up-- read the article to see what I mean by that.
I hope to do a more detailed analysis of this article and its claims, and more importantly, the claims made by some of the individuals who are teaching our law enforcement personnel, but for now, I have two initial observations: First, that we can solve the easier of the two problems rather simply if we adopt a realistic set of standards for those who teach our cops about how to spot actual terrorists within the Muslim community in America. This might raise a constitutional issue related to the 10th amendment which you can explore by reading the article, but I'm confident it would not be difficult to create a set of standards which the federal government could impose on the states that would survive judicial review. The more difficult issue relates to the fact that the curriculum of the teachers cited in the article tends to be a conservative and anti-Muslim view that a majority of the nation's law enforcement officers seem receptive to since it comports with the world view they already hold. The article notes that officer feedback provides one of the only metrics for evaluating instructor competence, and officers tend to review most positively those instructors who tell them what they most want to hear, no matter how racist or untrue such instruction may be.
Like I said above, this article is well worth your consideration. I hope to get back here to write more about it in the next few days.
I hope to do a more detailed analysis of this article and its claims, and more importantly, the claims made by some of the individuals who are teaching our law enforcement personnel, but for now, I have two initial observations: First, that we can solve the easier of the two problems rather simply if we adopt a realistic set of standards for those who teach our cops about how to spot actual terrorists within the Muslim community in America. This might raise a constitutional issue related to the 10th amendment which you can explore by reading the article, but I'm confident it would not be difficult to create a set of standards which the federal government could impose on the states that would survive judicial review. The more difficult issue relates to the fact that the curriculum of the teachers cited in the article tends to be a conservative and anti-Muslim view that a majority of the nation's law enforcement officers seem receptive to since it comports with the world view they already hold. The article notes that officer feedback provides one of the only metrics for evaluating instructor competence, and officers tend to review most positively those instructors who tell them what they most want to hear, no matter how racist or untrue such instruction may be.
Like I said above, this article is well worth your consideration. I hope to get back here to write more about it in the next few days.
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