DVD to reach over 200,000 federal law enforcement officials, will significantly increase awareness of Arabs and Muslims

Washington, D.C. | January 25, 2007 | Today, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties announced the release of a training DVD about Arab Americans, Arabs, Muslim Americans and Muslims. The DVD, entitled "Introduction to Arab American and Muslim American Cultures for DHS Personnel," was created as a training program to facilitate the interaction of DHS personnel with the community. The release of the DVD marks the culmination of more than one year of development and creation.

This DVD will reach more than 200,000 DHS employees across the nation. These include employees of all DHS component agencies such as the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), US Coast Guard, US Secret Service, and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) among several others.

The program includes a 50-minute panel discussion covering: the basic tenets of Islam; demographics; cultural norms and more; and history of Arabs and Muslims, both abroad and in the United States. The panel includes distinguished subject matter experts and is moderated by Daniel Sutherland, Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at DHS. The panel also features ADC Director of Diversity and Law Enforcement Outreach Nawar Shora. Nawar also participated in a 2003 Department of Justice Community Relations Service training video.

This project is another example of the Arab-American community constructively working with government agencies to help in fulfilling the agencies‘ mandates more effectively and efficiently, while at the same time protecting the rights of all individuals who interact with the agencies.