A former FBI agent who claims Nashville’s mosques have no legal right to exist is training the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office about Islam and the threats of terrorism.
John Guandolo, vice president of the Arlington, Va.-based Strategic Engagement Group, is leading training being held at World Outreach Church in Murfreesboro. He spoke at an anti-Shariah law event at Cornerstone Church in Madison on Nov. 11, calling local mosques front organizations for the Muslim Brotherhood with no right to exist.
“They do not have a First Amendment right to do anything,” Guandolo said then.
Rutherford Sheriff Robert Arnold said his department simply wants to learn about Muslim culture.
“There are not many classes out there for anything when it comes to Muslims … but this training isn’t just about that, it has many other components to it,” he said. “My stance is and my office’s stance is, we are not here to pick sides. I am here to protect the people of this county, and I am never going to waiver from that.”
Arnold has said the department has no plans to initiate an investigation of any local Muslims.
Guandolo’s role in training law enforcement officials left Murfreesboro Muslims dumbfounded.
Saleh Sbenaty, a member of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, said the sheriff’s office never asked local Muslims to participate in the training. He said the department is supposed to protect the rights of citizens no matter what their faith.
Using a trainer who thinks Muslims have no civil rights doesn’t make sense, he said.
“This training is hate training,” Sbenaty said. “It is not training to keep our whole community safe.”
A national Muslim civil rights group raised questions Tuesday about the training for deputies. In a letter, the Council on American-Islamic Relations asked Tennessee Law Enforcement Training Director Brian Grisham to investigate the appropriateness of training being led by Strategic Engagement Group.
Topic supplemental
Christopher Garrett, a spokesman in the Department of Commerce and Insurance, which oversees police training, said Tennessee’s Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission does not have the authority to investigate a training topic chosen by a local sheriff’s office.
The POST Commission provides credit for police officers who participate in training events and reviews the qualifications of trainers.
Garrett said officers are required to take 40 hours of annual in-service training on firearms, child abuse, emergency vehicles and interactions with people with mental disabilities.
“This training in question in Rutherford County would fall outside of that in-service training,” Garrett said. “It’s common for police officers to take courses and training that is in addition to that.”
The new building for the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, under construction near the corner of Bradyville Pike and Veals Road, has been controversial since it was approved in May 2010.
Opponents organized marches, community events and eventually a lawsuit to block the mosque. Chancellor Robert Corlew III denied a request for an injunction to stop the mosque in November 2010. Still at issue is whether the Rutherford County Planning Commission published adequate public notice before approving the project. A trial on that matter is set for April 25.
A suspicious fire at the mosque site in August 2010, which investigators labeled as arson, is still under investigation. Sbenaty said that the sheriff’s office responded professionally to the fire, and he hopes the department will continue to treat the center fairly in the future.
The Rev. G. Allen Jackson, pastor of the World Outreach Church, was among dozens of opponents who spoke against the mosque to the Rutherford County Commission on June 17, 2010.
“I would submit to you that we have a duty here at home to understand thoroughly the nature, the intent, the funding of any group that is being invited into our community under that general banner (of Islam),” Jackson said at that meeting.
Lucy Phillips, a staff member at the church, said the training was organized by the sheriff’s office and not by the church.
The church hosted a community seminar run by the Strategic Engagement Group on Monday titled, “Understanding the Threat to America.”
That event was put on by the Tennessee Freedom Coalition, which is led by Executive Director Lou Ann Zelenik. She also was one of the organizers of the anti-Shariah event in November.
Zelenik did not respond to repeated phone messages requesting comment. Tennessee Freedom Coalition board member Glen Hughes refused to answer questions about the event when reached by phone.
Frank Gaffney, a former Defense Department official who testified against the Mufreesboro mosque in a lawsuit filed by mosque opponents, is one of the board members of the Strategic Engagement Group, according to the nonprofit’s tax records. Gaffney also spoke at the anti-Shariah event in November.
The phone number listed on the Strategic Engagement Group tax records is out of service. The group’s website lists an email contact, but an emailed request for comment wasn’t returned.