by Brent Frazier
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - The three-day course designed to condition police officers to spot the warning signs of terrorism was a legitimate class and the county sheriff said he'd send his officers again.
"Lady Justice is blind," insisted Robert Arnold, the sheriff of Rutherford County. "And opinions on this stuff, that's not our job! Our job is to get the information and to do our job. Not to have an opinion one way, or the other."
Arnold was defending some public criticism of the class that was offered by the non-profit Strategic Engagement Group out of Arlington, VA; a class the sheriff did not endorse, but did allow roughly 20 of his deputies to attend.
"They wanted to go," the Sheriff insisted. "Our officers came to us wanting this training because of the Mosque."
Arnold was referring to the under-construction, always controversial Mosque right outside Murfreesboro city limits. It's set to open in late July or early August.
Some members of the local Islam community do not necessarily take issue with the lesson the officers learned as much as they do the group behind the message.
"It's a group that believes that Muslims should not have any Constitutional rights," insisted Saleh Sbenaty, a professor at MTSU and board member for the local Islamic Center.
"It's a group that also believes that Mosques have no place in the United States and should be expelled," Sbenaty continued.
NewsChannel 5 was unable to reach anyone from the Strategic Engagement Group: a group whose own training materials refer to Islamic centers as "potential military compounds."
Sheriff Robert Arnold insisted his officers were not the only ones in attendance at the conference held at World Outreach Church; rather, he said there were roughly 100 members of the law enforcement community from all over the state at the seminar.
Email: bfrazier@newschannel5.com
