DOJ, DHS Film Instructs Law Enforcement to Obey Sharia Gender Discrimination

“The First Three to Five Seconds: Arab and Muslim Cultural Awareness for Law Enforcement” is an outrageous example of the U.S. government appeasing the very worst elements of Islam, even at the expense of our own laws and values. This training film not only instructs law enforcement officers to obey Sharia gender rules when conducting investigations, it’s also a flagrant piece of pro-Islamic propaganda that presents Muslim gender discrimination as proof of Islam’s “strong connection to God.”

“The First Three to Five Seconds” was initially developed by the Department of Justice, and it’s now used by both the DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security to train all of their law enforcement personnel. “The First Three to Five Seconds” is described on the DHS website as a film that “introduces law enforcement officers to basic principles of the Arab American and Muslim American cultures.” However, the DHS description hardly does this instructional film justice.

To begin with, there is the outright pro-Islam propaganda. Naturally, all religions see their tenets and customs in a positive light. But it’s not the job of the United States government, in a taxpayer-funded film, to produce religious propaganda which claims that one particular religion’s tenets and customs somehow make that faith “closer to God.”

“The First Three to Five Seconds” opens with the Muslim call to prayer. The narrator proclaims, “In order to keep a strong connection with God, Islam prescribes that believers pray five times a day.” The narration continues, instructing law enforcement officers:

“If you visit a mosque, be aware that there are separate entrances to the prayer sections for females and males as an extension of modesty. To keep their minds on the worship of God, men and women pray in separate sections.”

Muslims might believe that praying five times a day strengthens their connection to God, they might believe that it is immodest for men and women to enter a mosque together, and they might believe that segregating men and women keeps their minds on the worship of God…but that’s opinion, not fact.

Some would argue that Islamic gender segregation is due to an intense, virulent, and pervasive anti-female bias within the faith – something negative, not positive. Yet “The First Three to Five Seconds” uses taxpayer money to promote a positive view of Muslim gender segregation. If a law enforcement agency wishes to instruct its officers in how Muslims pray, fine. Lay out the facts; leave the value judgments out.

Interestingly, the line about Muslims’ “strong connection to God,” while clearly spoken in the film, is absent in the DHS transcript.

Where “The First Three to Five Seconds” hits absolute rock bottom is in its instructions to law enforcement officers, should they have to visit a Muslim home during the course of an investigation. Startlingly, the film tells officers not to enter a Muslim home if there is an adult female occupant who is not in the presence of a Muslim male! The film provides a dramatization in which a male officer knocks on the door of a home. An adult female in a hijab answers meekly, informing the policeman that her husband is not home, so she cannot speak to the officer or allow him inside. The narrator says, “This might seem suspicious,” but, he reassures the viewers, it is indeed “inappropriate” to enter a Muslim house in a situation like that. The officer is shown turning around and leaving.

The narrator states that no officer should enter a Muslim home if they are the opposite sex of the person who is home alone, meaning that a female officer should not enter a home, in the course of a police investigation, if the sole occupant is a Muslim male.

This is nothing more than the U.S. government advocating gender discrimination, pure and simple. Sharia may demand the segregation of the sexes, but U.S. law forbids preventing someone from doing their job solely on account of their gender.

This is the Justice Department violating U.S. law. Think about it; the DOJ and the DHS are telling law enforcement officers that they may NOT carry out an investigation if doing so requires them to be in a house alone with a Muslim of the opposite sex. This is not only an insult to law enforcement…it’s a grotesque negation of core American (and Western) values.

On a personal note, I worked on a project for the Department of Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI) back in 1996 (the DEOMI, just like the DOJ and DHS, uses “The First Three to Five Seconds” as a training tool). I was working on a research project about white supremacist hate groups, which the DEOMI had initiated in response to the racially-motivated killing of a black couple by two white supremacist GIs from Fort Bragg in December ’95. I can only imagine the response from DEOMI brass had I suggested that a good way to deal with white supremacists is to instruct black law enforcement officers to never enter a white man’s home (because, after all, that way we can show the white supremacists that we respect their beliefs, and therefore they’ll become better citizens)!

Obviously, had I ever made such an idiotic suggestion, I would have immediately been bounced out on my rear-end (quite justifiably). Yet now, look what we’re doing. We’re telling law enforcement officers to not do their jobs in the name of appeasing Muslim gender discrimination.

Another disturbing thing about the instructions given in the film is that women are treated like children. It’s incredibly demeaning. When the Muslim woman meekly tells the officer to go away because her “man” isn’t there, and he complies, it’s no different than if a child had opened the door. Just as children need adult supervision, Muslim women, apparently, need “male supervision.” If their “man” isn’t home, law enforcement must abandon the investigation until the woman can be properly “overseen” (in fact, in most cases, police officers are allowed, in the course of an investigation, to speak to a child without an adult being present. So these DOJ and DHS instructions actually treat Muslim women worse than children).

It’s appalling.

It should be noted that “The First Three to Five Seconds” was produced during the Bush Administration. That’s an important point, lest anyone believe that the current desire to kowtow to Islam was born with the Obama presidency. It was not. There have been people in our government, working in various agencies, who have, for years, wanted to appease the worst and most un-American elements in the Muslim community. That mindset existed before Obama was elected president, and vigilance against it must remain, even should Obama be defeated.

Three brief endnotes: The production company hired by the DOJ to produce “The First Three to Five Seconds” was Art Palette Productions, which also produces videos for the SEIU.

In the closing credits, one of the organizations thanked for its assistance in the making of the film is the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center, the Hamas-connected mosque at which current al-Qaeda commander Anwar al-Awlaki served as Imam.

The main consultant on the film was Professor Jack Shaheen, a tireless activist in the cause of suppressing honest discussion about Arab and Muslim terror. Shaheen is the man who shamelessly proclaimed, following the Fort Hood shooting rampage by Nidal Hasan, that Hasan’s “faith and ethnic background had absolutely nothing to do” with his crimes. I have written more about Prof. Shaheen here.

“The First Three to Five Seconds” can be viewed in full below. Or, to view it on the DHS website, click here. On the DHS site, the film is split into two parts. The first part slams the U.S. for “negative stereotypes” of Muslims in the media. It also covers issues involving the Sikh community. All of the material covered in this article is in part two.

After the viewing, the DHS will present you with a questionnaire, to find out if you have properly absorbed the message of the film. You’ll then be asked to submit the completed form to the DHS. As your tax money paid for the film, by all means, feel free to let them know what you thought of it (but be mindful that the Obama Administration is fond of collecting “enemy” emails).

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