(ATLANTA, GA, 3/2/2018) – On Monday, March 5, the Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Georgia) plans to publicly release a report documenting the false and defamatory anti-Muslim teachings of a police instructor who has been teaching Islamophobic courses to officers across Georgia since 2013.
SEE: Downloadable Letter & Report on Anti-Muslim Georgia Police Instructor
At the joint noon news conference, CAIR-Georgia, the ACLU of Georgia, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, and Project South also plan to call on the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police (GACP), the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council (P.O.S.T.) and other law enforcement agencies to stop hosting or accrediting the anti-Muslim courses offered by David Bores.
WHAT: Press Conference on Anti-Muslim Police Instructor, Report on Anti-Muslim Police Training Course
WHERE: Media outlets interested in attending can email [email protected] for the address of the press conference.
WHEN: March 5, 2018 at 12:00 pm, God willing
CONTACT: CAIR-Georgia Executive Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, [email protected]
[MEDIA NOTE: On March 8, Bores is scheduled to deliver a presentation titled “Islam in America” to the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office. CAIR-Georgia has shared the report with Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith]
SEE: “Islam in America” Training on March 8 at Barrow County Sheriff’s Office
SEE ALSO: AJC – Barrow Sheriff Defends Islam in America Training
“Although the titles of these presentations about Islam vary, they invariably spread conspiracy theories about American Muslims, inspire animosity toward Islam and call for unconstitutional government action against Georgia Muslims,” said Ruwa Romman, communications director for CAIR Georgia.
“This police instructor lacks any formal education related to Islam or any other faith. He would not be qualified to teach religion to middle school students, much less to law enforcement officers,” said Murtaza Khwaja, staff attorney for CAIR Georgia.
“Our state’s police officers must learn to serve and protect all Georgia residents, including more than 100,000 Georgia Muslims,” said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, executive director of CAIR Georgia. “Georgia law enforcement would never allow a racist or an anti-Semite to teach any courses, much less courses related to the African-American or Jewish communities.”
Mitchell said, “It is unconstitutional for law enforcement agencies to officially teach one man’s radical interpretation of any religion as if it were fact.”
Backgrounder:
Since resigning as the police chief of Woodstock, Ga., in 2012, David Bores has traveled across Georgia to deliver presentations regarding what he refers to as “a bad topic: Islam.”
Bores normally delivers his anti-Islam presentations to rightwing political groups, but he has also taught P.O.S.T.-certified courses about Islam to the Georgia Police Academy, the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association, and at least nine local police departments.
Officers have received training credit for Bores’ courses, which teach what he describes as “the various conflicting messages of Islamic theology; the historical roots that serve at its foundation; the key principals (sic) that govern how Islam should be understood; the evolutionary development of Jihad; and the major elements of Sharia law.”
Among other false and defamatory remarks, Bores has taught various audiences that:
- “Eighty percent of the mosques in this country preach violence.”
- A mosque is an “armory” undeserving of First Amendment protection
- “[The] First Amendment shelters all of Islam and it should not.”
- American Muslims are part of a Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy to somehow impose “Sharia” upon the nation.
- Muslim student groups at “the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, Georgia State, and Georgia Southern University” are part of that fictional conspiracy.
- Islam allows Muslim men to molest male children: “Little boys don’t wear beards. That means they can be molested. They’re toys. They’re sex toys.”
- “Islam regards the female body essentially as evil and the cause of sexual immorality.”
- “The number of mosques that have risen in our country since 9/11 virtually has doubled. We have some 58 in Georgia. All of this represents sedition under Title 18 United States Code.”
Bores has also said that former President Barack Obama somehow “embraced Islam,” claimed that Georgia House Speaker David Ralston “supports Sharia law in Georgia courts,” and implied that German Jews were partly to blame for the Holocaust.
Last December, CAIR-Georgia submitted the report about Mr. Bores’ presentations to P.O.S.T. Director Ken Vance, whose agency oversees the training of law enforcement officers across Georgia.
CAIR-Georgia’s report, which was compiled over several months, contains time-stamped quotes, course syllabi, slideshow images, links to audio and video files, and other pieces of evidence.
P.O.S.T. immediately agreed to investigate the matter, but the agency has not yet decided whether to cancel the accreditation for Mr. Bores’ courses.
CAIR is America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding. La misión de CAIR es mejorar la comprensión del Islam, fomentar el diálogo, proteger las libertades civiles, capacitar a los musulmanes estadounidenses, y construir coaliciones que promuevan la justicia y la comprensión mutua.
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CONTACT: CAIR-Georgia Executive Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, [email protected]