Tommy Newell, a councilman for District 4 in Berkeley County, which is in the Charleston metropolitan area, posted the photo on Facebook. In the photo, he's wearing a kaffiyeh, a traditional Arab headdress, and brown thobe, an ankle-length tunic.
"I had the ultimate and absolute honor of playing a terrorist (Shiek of Berkeley County) in a training exercise for our American Badasses," Newell said in the post, which has since been deleted. "I don't care if me cussing hurts your little feelings cupcake!!! These men and women are the reason this country is feared and loved by other countries."
Other people in the photo also wore headdresses and tunics. One wore a niqab, a full-face veil worn by many Muslim women.
A spokesperson for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) lambasted the photo as offensive and dangerous.
"It's an issue that this official thought it was okay to dress in stereotypical Arab clothing and declare himself a terrorist and 'shiek' of Berkeley County. This in itself is offensive. It's also an issue that there's counter terrorism training and they dress all the terrorists as Arab and Muslims," Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for the civil rights group, told CNN.
"This isn't foreign dress. American Muslims wear thobes and kaffiyehs and niqabs. This affects people in America who wear this clothing in their ordinary lives and can be negatively impacted by discrimination, bias or even violent hate crimes because of these types of actions."
Newell did not respond to CNN's numerous requests for comment. But the councilman told CNN affiliate WCIV that he "didn't do anything wrong."
Newell told WCIV he was "hired by a private company to play a role as an actor" for a tactical training exercise and that the traditional clothes were provided.
CAIR on Wednesday called for an investigation into "how this happened, who Newell was working for, and if this training was for military personnel," Hooper said.
Berkeley County government did not respond to CNN's numerous requests for comment.
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South Carolina official faces criticism for dressing in traditional Arab clothing to play a terrorist in a training exercise - CNN
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