Community Relations Service

Daryl Borgquist
202/305-2966

      WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service (CRS) will sponsor an Arab, Muslim, and Sikh Awareness and Protocol Seminar for law enforcement, local officials, and community leaders at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel, 200 SE Second Avenue, Miami, Florida on Thursday, June 26, 2003 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The morning session and opening remarks are open to the media. The "train-the-trainer" seminar in the afternoon is open to registered participants only.

     CRS National Director Sharee M. Freeman and Marcos Jimenez, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, will make opening remarks.

     The seminar is cosponsored by the Florida Commission on Human Relations, Florida State University, the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights, the Miami Dade Community Relations Board, the City of Miami Community Relations Board, the Miami Dade County Independent Review Panel, and the National Conference for Community and Justice.

     This is one of a series of educational "train the trainer" seminars for community leaders, law enforcement, Federal, State, and local officials. "Train the trainer" seminars are sponsored by the Community Relations Service as a continuation of its efforts to address issues affecting Arab, Muslim, and Sikh populations in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Community dialogues, forums, and cultural awareness and protocol seminars sponsored by CRS to assist and educate citizens, officials, and law enforcement about the Arab, Muslim, and Sikh cultures have been effective in defusing racial tensions towards members of those communities. Community representatives from the Southeast Region will be attending the seminar. The cultural awareness presentations will be made by members of the Arab, Muslim, and Sikh communities.

     This is the fourth national seminar of this series. Seminars were held on May 29, 2003 in Reading, Pennsylvania, June 6, 2003 in San Francisco, and June 12 in Sayreville, New Jersey. The next seminar is scheduled to be held in Aurora, Colorado on July 9, 2003.

     CRS is a unique federal agency dedicated to preventing and defusing racial and ethnic conflicts. For more information about the Community Relations Service, a component of the U.S. Department of Justice, see its web site at: www.usdoj.gov/crs.

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