MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) -- A representative of a national Islamic group says a company conducting training this week for deputies with the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office views all Muslims as a threat.
Trainers with Strategic Engagement Group (SEG) are conducting a seminar today and tomorrow at Murfreesboro’s World Outreach Church for about 100 police officers. On its website, SEG says that a coordinated, world-wide Islamic conspiracy to subvert the U.S. Constitution and subjugate the American people is underway.
Rutherford County Sheriff Robert Arnold declined to be interviewed for this story as did the World Outreach Church’s Senior Pastor G. Allen Jackson.
Corey Saylor with the Washington D.C. based Council on American-Islamic Relations says SEG has been on his organization’s radar for quite some time.
"John Guandolo, a former FBI agent who is one of the senior people with Strategic Engagement Group, believes that every major Muslim group in the country is controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood. So those kinds of conspiracy theories just really have no place in serious training for law enforcement."
In a written statement, the Sheriff’s Office says that SEG is on a list of law enforcement trainers approved by the State of Tennessee. However, a state spokesperson notes that the Tennessee Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission relies on local police departments to choose trainers that are “credible.”