Publicity for Guandolo's "Understanding the Threat" presentation
“American Muslims do not have a First Amendment right to do anything.” – John Guandolo, from his Understanding the Threat trainings, quoted by the Southern Poverty Law Center
Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, known in Colorado circles for opposing gun-limiting legislation, is sponsoring John Guandalo, disgraced former FBI agent and current anti-Muslim speaker, at the Centennial Gun Club August 13-15, 2015.
Guandolo plans to speak on "
Understanding the threat of the Global Islamic Movement” to an audience of law enforcement professionals, legislators, church security, and the public. His bigoted "trainings" have been canceled in TX, AZ, VA, and KS. Colorado should not be the one state that allows him free access to misinform law enforcement and the public.
Rocky Mountain Gun Owners , in promoting the August 13-15 event, describe John Guandolo as a counterterrorism expert, including impressive details about Guandolo's military and security background.
RMGO does not mention that John Guandolo was fired from the FBI for having a sexual relationship with a witness; nor does it mention that the FBI is now backing away from some of the "groundbreaking" inflammatory anti-Muslim propaganda Guandolo helped to inspire at the agency.
FBI Director Robert Mueller has ordered the training stopped and the training material purged. The FBI also gave assurances that it would not use such material again.
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Southern Poverty Law Center, Intelligence Report
Guandolo recently spread the "Shock Claim!", and presents it in his lectures as fact, that John Brennan, Obama’s CIA Director, is a secret convert to the Muslim Brotherhood. Snopes says 'No...not even close."
I forced myself to watch 20 minutes of Guandolo’s 2014 presentation at Colorado Christian University. Although the “facts” he presents are not facts but paranoid fears and opinions, he doesn’t come off as crazy. He is well-spoken, clean-shaven, humorous, a competent communicator. He lectures on this same anti-Islamic theme all over the country, although his presentations have been canceled in four states, as public pressure from churches, community organizations, and citizens was brought to bear.
Many people of good will believe that this anti-Muslim bigotry poisons our political discourse, within and without the United States. People of the Islamic faiths have as many shadings from liberal/secular to moderate, to fundamentalist, as do Christians or any other religions.
That Guandolo is willfully blind to this obvious continuum and instead chooses to paint all Muslims as "Jihadists" who are out to destroy America is an indication of the depth of his bigotry. Rocky Mountain Gun Owners should not be promoting such nonsense, even though it helps them to get more donations from paranoid gun owners.
Guandolo’s presentation in Centennial should be canceled, as they have been canceled in Kansas, Texas, Arizona, and Virginia. I’m calling on our Attorney General, Cynthia Coffman, as chief law enforcement officer in Colorado, and all local Sheriff Departments, to boycott Guandalo’s presentation to law enforcement officers. I can't imagine a modern police department attending a training on how to racially profile the public and to discriminate against them.
In other states, coalitions of religious and community groups like the ACLU, the Interfaith Alliance, the Center for American Islamic Relations, Right Wing Watch, the progressive press and social media, concerned citizens, and congregations that truly promote peace and tolerance have defeated Guandolo and caused his lectures to be canceled. Hopefully, Guandolo and RMGO will find that Colorado also is “no state for hate”.
Much of the material here is crossposted on my diary at Coloradopols.com, where I write frequently under the alias "mamajama55"