Is Profiling of Muslims Way to Go?

By Don Nadeau, on December 31, 2009, in Travel

• Note: This post uses the word profiling in the way most Americans do–the selection of a group for special attention.

Just because you do not believe in wide-scale profiling of American Muslims does not mean you are soft on terrorism. It also does not mean that specific groups of American Muslims should never be profiled.

For instance, I believe that al-Qaeda-type terrorism makes war on nations. We should not approach it as if it was merely a crime problem. I believe that Islamic terrorists should be treated just as if they were the enemy during World War II or other American wars, in other words not in U.S. civil courts. They should be treated morally and fairly, but not in a New York City courtroom.

However, as for weapons in this war, I do not believe that a religious profiling of U.S. Muslims, which blankets a huge group of innocent people, will improve the overall safety of Americans.

More than a moral issue

In a war, a nation sacrifices certain freedoms. However, it is important that a free people preserve as many liberties as possible. Otherwise, the positive values of a country may be changed forever.

The blanket religious profiling of Muslims that many propose to control airline-targeted terrorism is simply not the right thing to do on many levels.

It is morally wrong because it would impact negatively so very many innocent people, but even more importantly in the context of war, it is tactically wrong.

If you treat innocent people as the enemy in such an all encompassing way, you can be quite sure some will cooperate with that enemy. While others may not act, they will be sympathetic. The nation may lose the overwhelming willingness of American Muslims to cooperate in identifying threats.

Identifying Muslims 101

If only we profiled Muslims, some say, we wouldn’t have to take our shoes off at TSR security points. And, “My 80-year old grandmother wouldn’t have to be searched.”

Tell me. How do you recognize a Muslim? What do they look like?

• Do Nigerians (some 50% Muslim) “look like” Muslims?
• Does/did (he may be dead) Adam Pearlman (Adam Yahiye Gadahn) from Orange County?
• Does John Walker Lindh from Marin County?
• José Padilla from Chicago and New York City?
• People from Bosnia and Herzegovina (40% Muslim) who came to the U.S. during the Bosnian war?

Well then, should we just profile those of Arab descent? After all, “they” caused 9/11.

Again, take a look at Lindh, Padilla, and Pearlman on the list above.

Say what you want about it, but al-Qaeda performs as an equal opportunity employer. Pearlman comes from a Jewish background.

Setting up a watch list

If you desire profiling, how do you create a watch list of all American Muslims and include this information in the electronic strip on passports when the U.S. Census Bureau doesn’t even ask religious affiliation?

You can’t just presume that everyone from a so-called Muslim country is a Muslim. You can’t even assume that everyone from the Middle East is Muslim.

For example, some 40% of Lebanese are Christians, including my friend Jihad, whose family has been Christian since nearly biblical times. Believe me, he would not want to end up on a Muslim watch list.

Counter-productive

With estimates ranging from some 2 to 7 million, Muslins outnumber Jews in the United States. In stark contrast to countries like France and the UK, American Muslims have achieved economic and educational equality with the general population. Probably because of this, you have not seen the bitterness that sparked major riots in France.

Overwhelmingly, U.S. Muslims have remained loyal to the United States.

Are we to reward this loyalty by making their each trip an embarrassment or worse?

Should we profile certain Muslims

I am not saying that we should not profile citizens of countries that have shown support of terrorism, who want to travel to the U.S. However, with very few exceptions, American Muslims have not shown this propensity. In fact, American Muslims have helped identify those who have.

However, there are specific groups of Muslims and others in the U.S. that probably require profiling.

The Department of Homeland Security would certainly want to look closely at Americans who travel to countries that have supported, either privately or publicly, Islamic terrorism, and those who hang out with Islamic extremists who preach hate.

I am certainly not against this type of profiling based on suspicious behavior within limited groups.

Northwest 253

Having both flown on Northwest flight 253 and visited Ground Zero earlier this year, I need no reminder of just how serious the issue of airline safety is.

However, blanket religious profiling of a humongous group that includes nearly all innocent people is not the way to achieve it.

Those 80-year old grandmothers

As for searching the 80-year old grandmother, that may be the result of inefficient security procedures. Strangely, TSA agents seem to spend more time looking for weapons than on the type of individual profiling for suspicious behavior that I have observed at airport security points in other countries.

Passing through TSA security the day after the bomb failed to explode on Northwest flight 253, I don’t remember one TSR agent looking directly at my eyes, while talking to me, which supposedly can often tell a trained security person your state of mind. No one questioned me. Hardly a word was spoken.

In fairness, the first agent could tell from my passport 1) that I had not visited any problematic countries, and 2) that I travel frequently without blowing up anything. In fairness too, no one has done lethal harm to a flight after passing through U.S. airport security since TSA has been on its watch.

Nevertheless, I wish TSA would somehow cut down on the number of 80-year old grandmothers being searched by refining its techniques. This might dampen the call for a massive profiling of innocent people.