Fourth Muslim group rejects federal grant to fight extremism

The decision made late Friday night by the Bayan Claremont graduate school's board to turn down the money — an amount that would cover more than half its yearly budget — capped weeks of sleepless nights and debate.

Bayan Claremont had received the second-largest grant, among the first 31 federal grants for CVE awarded to organizations, schools and municipalities in the dwindling days of the Obama administration.

At Unity Productions Foundation of Potomac Falls, Virginia, officials said they would decline a grant of $396,585 to produce educational films challenging narratives supporting extremist ideologies and violent extremism "due to the changes brought by the new administration," according to a private message to donors reviewed by The Associated Press.

A U.S. official said the Trump administration has been discussing changing the Obama administration program's name, established as a presidential strategy in 2011, to an iteration of "countering Islamic extremism."