FBI Training No Offensive Language Toward Muslims

Afternoon Take: FBI to Change Counterterrorism Training Policies

By Chad Brand, CQ Staff

The FBI is reportedly amending its training materials to eliminate references to Muslims and Arab-Americas that it deemed offensive, a change at least one high-ranking Democratic senator has championed.

The bureau recently notified Congress that it removed the references it deemed offensive, along with language saying that agents had the ability to suspend the law and impinge on the freedoms of others in the course of investigations, the New York Times reported. The story noted that Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., wrote to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, earlier this week about the training material.

Durbin’s letter raised concerns that an internal review of its training materials by the bureau uncovered evidence of instructions for agents to make assumptions about Islam, Muslims and Arab Americans based on crude stereotypes, including language such as “Islam is a highly violent religion,” and “mainstream American Muslims are likely to be terrorist sympathizers.”

Durbin asked the FBI make the training materials public and hold accountable the individuals responsible for the language deemed offensive.

Rep. Trent Franks, one of a group of House Republicans that has questioned whether the Obama administration’s review of its counterterrorism training policies put politics over security, said he was unhappy with what he called the FBI’s lack of communication with Congress about its training manual reviews. The Arizona Republican said he wants details about who advised the FBI during the process.

“The FBI must not permit outside parties to censor the true or critical material from FBI training curricula just because someone feels it to be politically incorrect,” he told CQ. “We want to know who these outside reviewing parties are, what their affiliations are, and whether they are being permitted in some instances to overrule the judgment of seasoned FBI trainers.”