'Profiling' of Muslims in US slammed
The increasing number of crimes caused by anti-Islam hatred has become alarming in the US, the Council on American Islamic Relations warned.In a letter to US President Barack Obama, CAIR's national executive director, Nihad Awad, complained about the situation.
Washington-based CAIR officials claim that new airport security guidelines, under which anyone traveling from or through 14 Muslim-majority nations will be required to go through enhanced screening techniques before boarding flights, will disproportionately target American Muslims who have family or spiritual ties to the Islamic world and are therefore subject to religious and ethnic profiling.
In a statement, the CAIR leadership claimed that the Transport Security Administration's security directives would result in the profiling of Muslims."Under these new guidelines, almost every American Muslim who travels to see family or friends or goes on pilgrimage to Mecca will automatically be singled out for special security checks--that's profiling," said Awad.
While singling out travelers based on religion and national origin may make some people feel safer, it only serves to alienate and stigmatize Muslims and does nothing to improve airline security, he said.
"We all support effective security measures that will protect the traveling public from an attack such as that attempted on Christmas Day," added Awad. "But knee-jerk policies will not address this serious challenge to public safety."
Awad’s complaint is that using enhanced screening on travelers from or through the 14 countries “will disproportionately target American Muslims who have family or spiritual ties to the Islamic world and are therefore subject to religious and ethnic profiling.”
That’s true, it will. Persons with ties to the Islamic world are disproportionately represented in the types of jihadist attacks on Americans and other Westerners that have made all this screening necessary.
Awad compares the new directive to “knee-jerk policies [that] will not address this serious challenge to public safety.”
But I think this may be the first public policy on airline safety since 9/11 that hasn’t been a knee-jerk policy. The decision to isolate 14 troublesome countries for more careful handling is a rational course based on what we know about this enemy, even if it is still too timid. It was the no infant formula, no nail clippers, no toothpaste rules that were knee-jerk policies. And the TSA wanding 100% of fat Irish guys—as an affirmative action program to avoid wanding of guys who look like Mohammed Atta—is a knee-jerk policy.
Or maybe just a jerk policy.
5 comments:
profiling is one method to make you feel safer- but it is really a false sense of security. Random sampling is likely a much better system. Similarly, If terrorists know what we look for, or what countries we screen- they will simply find ways to bypass it.
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/will-profiling-make-a-difference/?scp=1&sq=profiling&st=cse
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/260720/january-05-2010/the-word---ideal-or-no-deal
Random sampling is stupid, Mr. Anonymous. We are not looking for random people, we are looking for Muslims. Every single Muslim who ISN'T a jihadist should welcome the tighter screening, as it would reassure their fellow passengers that they don't pose a threat to safety. Of course the jihadists will continue to look for ways to bypass security, but it doesn't follow that we should therefore not try to catch them the best we can.
my argument is not that muslims aren't committing these acts of terrorism. I am arguing that targeting them specifically is not "the best we can." as you put it. The tighter you squeeze your fist, the easier it is for the sand to slip through.
likewise, targeting muslim groups makes it even easier for other non-jihadist groups to target the U.S. Just take a list of these terrorist organizations and you'll see that the U.S has more than its fair share of enemies who aren't muslim.
http://www.cdi.org/terrorism/terrorist-groups.cfm
I looked at the website as you suggested, Mr. Anonymous, but that didn't help your argument. Sure, there are other 'terrorist' organizations in the world, but over 90% are Muslim and are focused on mindless, death-loving jihad. Combine the two thoughts, then: Airports should scan and search every Muslim, and randomly search everybody else.
As for your statement that the tighter you squeeze your hand, the more the sand escapes? That is only if you are dealing with rational people. Jihadists reject reason and negotiation, they only understand force. Look at that long list of jihadist groups around the world and the killings that are happening every single day in the name of islam.
I overheard two Muslim men at the census meeting the other day muttering about 'profiling' as if it were a dirty word. They suspect the Census Bureau is trying to trap them into revealing harmful information, and they were calling that 'profiling.' Profiling is a smart way to make better deductions. If an Arab Muslim thinks that it is demeaning to be searched at the airport, just how do you think the non-Muslims feel about it? Searching us is completely stupid. Perhaps you aren't aware that on 9/11, a ticket agent almost kept Mohammed Atta off his plane because of the way he and his companion looked and acted, but stopped himself because he didn't want to 'profile' anyone.
Anonymous:
I appreciate your point, but I don't see where terrorists who know what countries we screen can simply bypass that--it's not that easy to disguise your nationality or where you're traveling from. The new policy isn't perfect, but it's much better than nothing.
As for the list of non-jihad groups, I'm at a loss to see where the threat from Khmer Rouge or the FLN can be compared with that of Islamist jihadists since the eighties.
Post a Comment