Sheriff Israel's Deputy Trained Mosque Members on How to Deal With Shooter
Encourage concealed handguns to protect Muslim mosques, but not American schools.
That’s the contradictory message that a Florida law enforcement agency is sending after a buried “Islamic protection” program came to light.
Sheriff Scott Israel and all of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office are under extreme scrutiny in the fallout of the Parkland, Florida school shooting… and now a piece of information from several years ago is raising even more questions about double standards and priorities.
As the infamous school tragedy unfolded two weeks ago, not one but four Broward County deputies stood outside the building and did nothing to stop seventeen murders from taking place inside. This appalling failure came after the sheriff’s office and the FBI failed to follow up on warnings from tipsters and threats from the suspect.
Excuses provided by the sheriff for this inaction have ranged from “we didn’t know” to “we were told to wait” — but while defending a school seemed to be a shockingly low priority, it turns out that the sheriff’s department took a very different tone when it came to protecting Islamic mosques.
“The Broward County Sheriff’s Department had been spending resources on firearms training at radical area mosques with attendees being taught how to protect themselves,” reported Canada Free Press, which uncovered an original report from WTVT in Tampa from 2015.
A Muslim deputy reportedly led the efforts to make sure than mosques in south Florida were trained, armed, and prepared to deal with a mass shooting. If only the law enforcement officers had taken the safety of schoolchildren as seriously.
“Broward County Deputy & CAIR FL employee Nezar Hamze found time to instruct mosque attendees to arm themselves against active shooters, but Sheriff opposes arming teachers,” pointed out terrorism analyst Kyle Shideler. “Why the double standard?”
Broward County Deputy & CAIR FL employee Nezar Hamze found time 2 instruct mosque attendees 2 arm themselves against active shooters, but Sheriff opposes arming teachers. Why the double standard? https://t.co/NkxUYZAOs8
— Kyle Shideler (@ShidelerK) February 23, 2018
CAIR is the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a group that has had suspicious connections to radical Islamic cells including Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in the past. The United Arab Emirates officially labeled CAIR a terrorist organization in 2014, but the group continues to be a powerful Islamic voice in the United States.
In a detailed article that was shockingly supportive of lawful concealed carry — as long as Muslims were the ones going armed, it seems — Fusion TV outlined the training that Broward County Deputy Hamze was providing to prepare a local mosque for “Islamophobia.”
“Hamze, a Broward County Sheriff’s Office deputy, practicing Muslim, and regional operations director for CAIR, was leading an active shooter training for the Tampa-area Daarus Salaam Mosque,” Fusion reported. “The goal: to help worshipers understand how they can better protect their loved ones and their mosque from Islamophobic shooters.”
Incredibly, the sworn Broward County sheriff’s deputy suggested 24 /7 concealed carry within the mosques to keep Muslim practitioners — including families and children — properly defended.
“As part of a comprehensive safety plan, he urged mosque leaders to put together a safety and security council, consisting of members who have concealed carry permits who are on the site at all times,” Fusion stated. “Attendees should also consider buying guns for themselves and their homes, he suggested.”
Deputy Hamze’s training instructed mosque attendees to do precisely what his own department failed to do in Parkland: Take threats seriously, and fight attackers without hesitation… using lethal force if necessary.
Let that sink in: Broward County Sheriff Israel is scolding Americans and the NRA for daring to suggest that concealed carry and armed teachers could help defend schools… but his own deputies are telling mosques to do exactly this in order to protect themselves from largely-imagined “Islamophobia.”
Though Broward County badge-wearers were telling Muslims to not hesitate but to fight and survive, sworn deputies stood outside a school… and by cowardice or incompetence, did nothing while children were slaughtered.
Where were the sheriff’s priorities? How is this not a shocking, inexcusable double standard?
The more evidence that comes out about this situation, the more appalling it gets. The two-facedness of Sheriff Scott Israel and his entire department — indeed, the entire narrative being pushed right now — needs to be exposed.
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