More than a dozen advocacy organizations are demanding the FBI dismantle a website it created to educate students about violent extremism, claiming it perpetuates profiling and negative stereotypes of Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim, and encourages the policing of ideas and beliefs.
The “Don’t Be a Puppet” website allows users to explore how and why people become violent extremists through a game in which correct answers or actions cut down strings holding a puppet, which hangs suspended on the Web page.
Sprinkled throughout the game are images of propaganda, real photos of extremists like members of the Ku Klux Klan and Osama bin Laden, and victim testimonials.
The website “gives the false impression that there is a path to becoming a violent extremist, and that teachers and community leaders should look for ‘warning signs’ that a person may be on what the site calls the ‘slippery slope of violent extremism,’” the coalition of groups wrote in a letter sent to FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday. “Many of the signs referenced on the website bear no connection to criminal activity and are, in fact, protected by the First Amendment.”
The organizations, which include the American Civil Liberties Union, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and others, took particular exception to a testimonial video featuring an Arab Muslim American woman who referred to the FBI as her perceived “enemy.”
The groups also charge in the letter that the website calls for individuals to report innocuous activity that signals no meaningful tie to extremism by, for example, encouraging them to contact someone they trust if another person they know is traveling to “places that sound suspicious.”
“A trip to France or Germany, which are home to many far-right groups, is not likely to be considered suspicious by most teachers and community leaders,” the groups wrote. “Although there should be nothing inherently suspicious about traveling either to Saudi Arabia or Iraq, where some Muslim holy sites are located, bias could lead individuals to report innocent, constitutionally protected activity to law enforcement.”
In addition, the FBI website also urges individuals to to contact someone if someone is using “unusual language,” “several different private cellphones and private messaging apps” or “studying or taking pictures of potential targets,” the groups say.
“Bias could easily lead individuals to conclude that speaking foreign languages, such as Arabic, amounts to using ‘unusual language,’” they wrote. “They may also draw improper inferences that Arabs, Muslims or South Asians who are using Internet applications, or visiting and photographing monuments or other attractions for tourism reasons, are somehow engaging in suspicious behavior.”
With the Islamic State group’s online recruitment efforts having proved particularly effective, the FBI launched the website in February in an effort to combat the radicalization of young people.
But the groups’ letter doesn’t mark the first time the site has come under fire. After it was field-tested in November, Muslim and Arab advocacy groups invited to preview it immediately complained, arguing it would exacerbate an environment of bigotry and bullying.
The program was supposed to go live later that month, but was instead delayed. It’s unclear whether any changes were made during the postponement, and the FBI did not immediately provide comment to U.S. News on that topic. The website does direct users seeking information on how to prevent and report bullying to a separate anti-bullying government website.
Department of Education officials, meanwhile, have been urging schools to combat discrimination against students, especially those from Syria and Middle Eastern countries and those perceived to be Muslim.
The department issued guidance to school districts, colleges and universities in January urging administrators to be proactive in dealing with everything from name-calling to defamatory graffiti and physical violence directed at such students.
According to the department, more than 4.7 million foreign-born individuals are enrolled in prekindergarten to postsecondary education in the U.S., representing 6 percent of the country’s total student population. Another 20 million students are the children of foreign-born parents.
The signatories on Tuesday’s letter argue that the FBI’s encouraging the use of the website in schools will not only hinder free speech and debate on controversial issues, but also isolate students and subject them to bullying.
“This website will seriously damage trusted relationships between educators and students and cannot be described as a legitimate or credible law enforcement tool,” they wrote.