FBI Lesson Plan: Mainstream Muslims Are Violent

FBI Lesson Plan: Mainstream Muslims Are Violent

Not that the FBI is famous for its cultural sensitivity but c'mon. According to Wired's Spencer Ackerman, the bureau teaches its counterterrorism agents that "mainstream" Muslims are "violent," Islamic charities are a "funding mechanism for combat" and the Prophet Mohammed is a "cult leader." Punctuating the link between Islam and terrorist sympathy, the program even featured the above graph showing a sliding scale of Koran-inspired violence:

An FBI presentation titled “Militancy Considerations” measures the relationship between piety and violence among the texts of the three Abrahamic faiths. As time goes on, the followers of the Torah and the Bible move from “violent” to “non-violent.” Not so for devotees of the Koran, whose “moderating process has not happened.” The line representing violent behavior from devout Muslims flatlines and continues outward, from 610 A.D. to 2010. In other words, religious Muslims have been and always will be agents of aggression.

According to Ackerman, the program was leaked to him by FBI whistleblowers who disagreed with the materials. The FBI says the program was "rudimentary" and is no longer being taught, though Ackerman notes that as recently as March the course materials were in use. The news comes as the CIA investigates its Muslim spying program, which "dispatched undercover officers into ethnic communities to monitor daily life and scrutinized more than 250 mosques and Muslim student groups in the years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks" that some say invaded Muslims' privacy.