Hatewatch Tweets
Hatewatch is managed by the staff of the Intelligence Report, an investigative magazine published by the Alabama-based civil rights group Southern Poverty Law Center.
FBI Suggests Anti-Muslim Ideologue As Recommended Reading
A recently released FBI training manual lists books by Robert Spencer, a prominent anti-Muslim figure in America, as recommended reading for field agents hoping to further their understanding of Islam.
The revelation, first reported by Gawker, is particularly troubling considering Spencer’s positions on Islam have contributed significantly to the spread of anti-Muslim sentiment in America. Spencer co-founded the hate group Stop Islamization of America and was profiled due to his anti-Mulsim beliefs in a recent issue of the Intelligence Report. But more recently, Spencer heavily influenced Anders Behrin Breivik, who killed scores of people with a fertilizer bomb in Oslo and a shooting spree on the nearby island of Utoya on July 22. Breivik repeatedly cited Spencer in his 1,500-page manuscript that argued Islam is destroying Western civilization.
Spencer has written a dozen books on the topics of Islam and the Koran. Specifically, the FBI recommended Spencer’s The Truth about Muhammad and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam – both of which hinge on Spencer’s skewed interpretation of Islam as a violent religion inseparable from the actions of its radicalized adherents.
The PowerPoint presentation was obtained by groups including American Civil Liberty Union in northern California and the Asian Law Caucus, a San Francisco-based civil rights group.
on July 28th, 2011 at 12:40 pm
To further add that the discourse is not just one of hate regarding Muslims, especially, but also the political Left. The language used is often one of threat, danger and even war with regard to “Islamisation” and the so-called “Eurabia.”
The chief person who has been spreading this type of discourse around the Western world is the Dutch politician, Geert Wilders. For about the past two years, Wilders has traveled far and wide, to Denmark, Canada, various parts of Europe, as well as the US.
When even mentally healthy people hear speeches given by some political leaders that their “way of life is under threat” from “Muslims” – they might want to take action to do something about it.
Lastly, we need to come to the realization that dangerous and violent-provoking Islamophobic discourse is not just an “American-only” problem, but one that will require an international effort to combat.
As far as Islamophobic-biased “counter-terrorism training” we should note that the use of Islamophobic stereotypes is also not unique to the US, but such stereotypes are present, as I know, in the Dutch counter-terrorism frameworks too. again, this problem with the mainstream of Islamophobia is an international problem.
on July 28th, 2011 at 3:30 pm
You people are treating Islam like it’s not a threat at all. It is. Why don’t you do reports on radical Islam too?
Anti-Muslim violence: 76
Islamic violence: 3500+ (9/11, London subway, Spain train, African embassy, Mumbai)
on July 28th, 2011 at 8:36 pm
Especially shocking that the FBI would recommend any books from the “Politically Incorrect Guide” series, given the partisan nature of those books and the FBI’s supposedly being a “nonpartisan” organization.
on July 28th, 2011 at 9:30 pm
Marcus, this site does report on Muslim hate groups *in the US*, which is its brief. They ran a story on the Nation of Islam fairly recently.
And, as this site has reported, Islamic fundamentalist groups are responsible for a tiny minority of terrorist acts in both the US and Europe. The most active terrorist groups in Europe are seperatist groups, mostly Irish, Corsican and Basque.
on July 28th, 2011 at 9:44 pm
PS From memory, every issue of the Intelligence Report has at least some reporting on non-white hate groups. And yet the SPLC seems to be accused of ignoring non-white groups at least once a week.
on July 28th, 2011 at 10:17 pm
The trainers and manuals employed by the FBI to train their recruits is akin to using a KKK manifesto to teach people about African Americans.
on July 28th, 2011 at 11:55 pm
Hey Marcus, let me show you what the real threat is:
Islamic violence: 3500+
Violence in the name of Liberal Democracy:
Wars in Korea and Vietnam: 3-4 million
Overthrow of Sukarno in Indonesia: 1-1.5 million
First Gulf War + sanctions: 1.5 million
Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: Who knows, they “Don’t do body counts.”
Clearly we can see that the United States is a far greater threat to the world than radical Islam.
on July 29th, 2011 at 8:19 am
“Politically Incorrect” = “I can’t back up my idiotic claims, so I’ll just allege that there is a conspiracy theory against me.”
on July 29th, 2011 at 10:39 am
This is very disappointing news. One would think that the FBI, which has a dedicated civil rights unit as well as community outreach programs intended to promote tolerance and reduce civil rights abuses, would know better. There is even a link to the SPLC on their hate crimes web page:
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/in.....ate_crimes
I hope that the inclusion of Spencer’s work was just a result of poor vetting rather than a deliberate act by someone with an anti-Muslim agenda.