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Muslim Civil Rights Group Calls on Culpeper County, VA to Strip Anti-Muslim Zealot Guandolo of Special Deputy Sheriff Title

Group Files FOIA to Determine Extent of Relationship and Payroll

Washington, DC – On the heels of Texas law enforcement agency stripping accreditation from renowned anti-Muslim zealot John Guandolo’s police seminars, civil rights advocates are now calling on the Culpeper County, Virginia sheriff’s office to strip Guandolo of his claimed title of “special deputy sheriff” in the county.  Muslim Advocates and Virginia lawyer Hassan Ahmad have filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the sheriff’s office to determine the extent of the relationship, which Guandolo claims in his official biography, and whether taxpayers are paying him a salary.

According to Juvaria Khan, Muslim Advocates staff attorney, “Taxpayers deserve to know if they are subsidizing Guandolo’s bigotry and discredited conspiracy theories. Culpeper County should disavow Guandolo and his discriminatory ‘trainings.’”  

As the FOIA states, “For close to a decade, Mr. Guandolo has toured the country, claiming during public appearances, presentations, and internet posts that a vast conspiracy exists among Muslim groups to ‘overthrow America and establish Islamic law.’  Through such inflammatory rhetoric, Mr. Guandolo has sought to inculcate anti-Muslim prejudice among local law enforcement authorities and communities at large.”

Last week, a Texas agency rescinded the law enforcement accreditation it provided for a training conducted in San Angelo on May 4 by anti-Muslim zealot John Guandolo. The decision came after Muslim Advocates and other civil rights advocates raised concerns in a joint letter urging the agency to rescind this accreditation because “Guandolo’s anti-Muslim rhetoric and ‘teachings’ disparage the faith of millions of Americans and promote biased policing that discriminatorily targets individuals and communities based on religion and ethnicity—not on evidence of actual wrongdoing.”

Muslim Advocates is a national legal advocacy and educational organization that works on the frontlines of civil rights to guarantee freedom and justice for Americans of all faiths.

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