Former TPMer Spencer Ackerman has a big scoop for Wired on several of the FBI’s counterterrorism briefings, which instruct agents that mainstream American-Muslims are likely to be terrorist sympathizers and that the Prophet Muhammad was a “cult leader.”
The author of several of the briefings in question? William Gawthrop, who gave an interview to the conspiracy website WorldNetDaily back in 2006 in which he claimed that “Muhammad’s mindset is a source for terrorism.”
Previously disclosed FBI training material from 2009 recommended a book by anti-Muslim blogger Robert Spencer. The new material is dated as recently as this year.
The presentations, Militancy Considerations, Strategic Themes and Drivers in Islamic Law, Doctrinal Basis for Jihad and Chart: Violence and Adherence to the Torah, Bible and Koran were all posted on Wired’s website.
One of the charts graphs the connection between major religions and violence. The chart claims that adherents to the Torah and the Bible got less violent over time, but that non-violence flatlined amongst Muslims in the seventh century.
Writes Ackerman:
The stated purpose of one, about allegedly religious-sanctioned lying, is to “identify the elements of verbal deception in Islam and their impacts on Law Enforcement.” Not “terrorism.” Not even “Islamist extremism.” Islam.What’s more, the Islamic “insurgency” is all-encompassing and insidious. In addition to outright combat, its “techniques” include “immigration” and “law suits.” So if a Muslim wishes to become an American or sues the FBI for harassment, it’s all just part of the jihad.
Here’s Ackerman discussing the story on the Rachel Maddow Show:
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