We’ve seen blowback from Muslim groups and others about President Obama’s watered down Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) program even though Muslim activist groups had a hand in CVE from the start. Apparently, there’s similar negative feedback from groups like the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the American Association of School Administrators, the American Federation of Teachers union (AFT), etc. about the FBI’s “Don’t Be a Puppet” initiative to curb kids from engaging in “violent extremism.” The Wall Street Journal describes the website of “Don’t Be a Puppet” and some of the concerns critics have about it, stating:

The website—which walks users through various topics related to extremism and allows them to “free the puppet’ [sic] after each section—references religious and environmental extremism, white supremacy, and anarchists. It offers short explanations of the Sept. 11 attacks, as well as the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City.

Specifically, the advocacy groups have raised concerns that the computer program can too easily be interpreted as singling out Muslims. Critics have taken issue with several of the potential signs of extremist behavior that the website warns users to report—such as “talking about traveling to places that sound suspicious” and “using code words or unusual language.”

They have also objected to a video of an Arab-American woman on the site who said she had perceived the FBI as “the enemy” as she recounts reporting to authorities how she was the victim of a hate crime.

“We know we need to be hypervigilant. But there’s a difference between being hypervigilant and engaging in racial profiling,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “This program, while probably well intended, shouldn’t go forward.”

It’s important to note the leftist AFT advocates for issues like “global migration policy” as well as pushing “federal, state and local governments to expedite the processing and resettlement of tens of thousands of men, women and children, and meet immigrants’ needs for jobs, education, housing, security and healthcare[.]” It doesn’t sound like an organization that has the best interests for U.S. national security to say the least.

It’s interesting that these groups find the FBI program unsatisfactory even after it has been modified to meet the demands of groups like CAIR. The Clarion Project states, “Following pressure from the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the site was altered to remove all references to Islamism or Islamic extremism.” For example, the website describes ISIL/ISIS as:

…a highly violent extremist group that has killed thousands of men, women, and children, mostly Muslims. The group calls itself the “Islamic State,” but its members follow an extreme, fringe interpretation of Islamic law. They do not represent mainstream Islam, and the vast majority of Muslims are horrified by their actions. ISIL members work to enslave or kill anyone who disagrees with them and have taken over parts of Iraq and Syria. ISIL continues to actively recruit U.S. citizens, especially young people.

The politically correct FBI conveniently leaves out the fact that ISIS is an Islamic terrorist group, and even though they mention their commitment to Islamic law, they make the group seem like a couple of lunatics that have very few Muslim followers. While it is true most Muslims do not support the Islamic State it is important to note that “Tens of millions of Muslims the world over support ISIS, and more than 200 million do not express an explicitly unfavorable view towards ISIS.”

On the list of “International Violent Extremist Groups” on the FBI website, of the six organizations named, they happened to mention Kahane Chai. The Mackenzie Institute reveals how this is a Jewish organization in Israel and its “core membership is believed to be fewer than 100.” So much for real threats like the killing machine Boko Haram – which was left off the list.

Furthermore, when it came to providing examples of “Domestic Extremist Ideologies” the FBI named mostly groups that oftentimes get associated with the “right wing” – such as Sovereign Citizen, Abortion, Militia, and White Supremacy Extremists. It sounds like a list taken straight from the radical leftist Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) – which may even be the case. On the FBI’s “Hate Crimes” page they name SPLC as one of the organizations that they have established “partnerships” with in order to solve issues and such.

Of course, like other CVE type initiatives the program addresses the broad issue of “violent extremism” instead of looking at the ideology that drives people toward Islamic terrorism. For instance, a section of the website asks the question, “Why do people become violent extremists?” – giving a vague answer that could be used to describe most people at some point in their lives.

But apparently, the website’s altered language isn’t good enough for AFT and others. Not only is the FBI failing to appease these groups but it is also handicapping our ability to combat terrorism in the process. It’s time the FBI disregards input from these activist groups and makes a concerted effort at countering the true source—jihad, not ‘extremism.’ When U.S. national security is compromised in order to placate special interests we all lose.