• Watch: CAIR Video News Update, February 14, 2014
  Topics include: CAIR Calls for Hate Crime Probe of Calif. Mosque Vandalism | CAIR-NJ Files EEOC Complaint for Muslim Worker Fired Over Hijab | CAIR-CA Joins Muslim Community in Praying for Rain | CAIR-TX Promotes Volunteerism with Cleanup | Hundreds Turn Out for CAIR-WA Lobbying Day at Capitol | CAIR Rep Discusses No-Fly Lists on Al Jazeera America | CAIR Joins Effort Against NSA Spying
  
• Islamophobia Watch: Religious Discussion Dominates Idaho Zoning Hearing on MosqueThe Rev. Jim Jones of the Blazing Grace Church in Pocatello brought a copy of the Koran to the lectern. He said Islam faith preaches intolerance of others and promotes the killing of Christians and Jews. "I get very fearful because I live close to this place," he said about the proposed Islamic Center.
  
• British Journalist Mehdi Hasan to Keynote CAIR-MI 14th Annual Banquet

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CAIR Asks Virginia Sheriff to Drop Anti-Muslim Trainer
Notorious conspiracy theorist claims CIA director is secret Muslim

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 2/14/14) -- A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization today called on the Culpeper County Sheriff's Department in Virginia to dropnotorious anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist John Guandolo, who is scheduled to offer a three-day program later this month on "Jihadi Networks in America."

In a letter to the sheriff delivered today, Corey Saylor, director of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations' (CAIR) Department to Monitor and Combat Islamophobia, wrote in part:

"Mr. Guandolo has a lengthy record of anti-Muslim extremism and unprofessional behavior. His views on Islam are the equivalent of historical anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic falsehoods. Guandolo offers only his own prejudiced and inaccurate conspiratorial views, not solid counterterrorism training." 

As noted by the Southern Poverty law Center (SPLC), Guandolo is "a disreputable character, who regularly attacks the U.S. government, claims that the director of the Central Intelligence Agency is a secret Muslim agent for the Saudi government and says that American Muslims 'do not have a First Amendment right to do anything.'"

SEE: Virginia County Sheriff Hosting Anti-Muslim Training by Disgraced Conspiracy Theorist John Guandolo (SPLC)

He detailed his bizarre claim about the CIA director's alleged conversion to Islam in an interview with another notorious Islamophobe, Robert Spencer.

In his training materials, Guandolo refers to America's mosques and Islamic centers as "barracks" and falsely claims "it is a permanent command in Islam for Muslims to hate and despise Jews and Christians." Additionally, an article published by the Tennessean on February 15, 2012, reports Guandolo's belief that mosques are "front organizations for the Muslim Brotherhood with no right to exist."

SEE: US Military School Taught Soldiers to Wage "Total War" Against Islam

Guandolo is a former FBI agent who had to resign after it was revealed that he had sexual relationships with agents and a key government informant. During a 2012 anti-Muslim training in Tennessee, he was videoed shoving a local news camera that attempted to record the training.

He is linked to one of nation's the most vicious anti-Muslim groups, ACT! for America.

SEE: ACT! for America to Launch Anti-Muslim Website for Law Enforcement
CAIR Islamophobia Backgrounder: ACT! for America and 'Brigitte Gabriel'

Following calls for reform by CAIR and other groups following revelations of apparently widespread anti-Muslim bias in the training of law enforcement, security and military personnel nationwide, the Obama administration removed biased and inaccurate materials about Islam from trainings.

SEE: CAIR Asks Sec. Napolitano to Probe Use of Islamophobic Trainers
Video: CAIR Decries Anti-Muslim Police Trainers
Obama Orders Clean Up of Islamophobic Terror Training

An 80-page report by Political Research Associates (PRA), titled "Manufacturing the Muslim Menace: Private Firms, Public Servants, & the Threat to Rights and Security," details a systemic failure to regulate content in counterterrorism training.

Washington Monthly magazine also published a major investigative article showing similar anti-Islam attitudes by private trainers of law enforcement agencies.

CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

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