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Airport Security: Let's Profile Muslims

Whovian

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interesting perspective from a Muslim American woman. here's the highlights. Detailed info and studies are in the linked page.

Airport Security: Let's Profile Muslims


As an American Muslim, I’ve come to recognize, sadly, that there is one common denominator defining those who’ve got their eyes trained on U.S. targets: MANY of them are Muslim—like the Somali-born teenager arrested Friday night for a reported plot to detonate a car bomb at a packed Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in downtown Portland, Oregon.

We have to talk about the taboo topic of profiling because terrorism experts are increasingly recognizing that religious ideology makes terrorist organizations and terrorists more likely to commit heinous crimes against civilians, such as blowing an airliner out of the sky. Certainly, it’s not an easy or comfortable conversation but it’s one, I believe, we must have.

And more Americans, it seems, are willing to choose racial and religious profiling as one part of keeping our skies safe. At the beginning of the debate, 37 percent of the audience was for religious and racial profiling, while 33 percent were against and 30 percent were undecided. By the end of the debate, 49 percent of the audience was for religious and racial profiling, 40 percent were against and the rest were undecided, meaning that that the motion carried. Of course, this “victory” in a scholarly debate doesn’t mean that the motion would necessarily win any broader popularity contests.

In the debate, I said, “Profile me. Profile my family,” because, in my eyes, we in the Muslim community have failed to police ourselves. In an online posting of the Intelligence Squared video, a Muslim viewer called me an “Uncle Tom.”

As attorney R. Spencer MacDonald put it in an article in the Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law, we can have “rational profiling.”

I know this is an issue of great distress to many people. But I believe that we cannot bury our heads in the sand anymore. We have to choose pragmatism over political correctness, and allow U.S. airports and airlines to do religious and racial profiling.
 
It's good to know that there's at least one Muslim in the world, that understands that the sooner we exterminate the Islamic extremists, the better off things will be for Islam, as a whole.

Commons sense before political correctness.
 
In the debate, I said, “Profile me. Profile my family,” because, in my eyes, we in the Muslim community have failed to police ourselves.

...have failed to police ourselves. And continue to fail; consciously fail. Either out of fear of, or out of a hidden support of terrorists - and there may be more reasons as well. But I think fear and support could be the front runners. Put another way, if Islam, mosques and Muslims decided they didn't want terrorists usurping their religion any more, terrorists would be the new dodo bird, and it would happen quickly.
 
...have failed to police ourselves. And continue to fail; consciously fail. Either out of fear of, or out of a hidden support of terrorists - and there may be more reasons as well. But I think fear and support could be the front runners. Put another way, if Islam, mosques and Muslims decided they didn't want terrorists usurping their religion any more, terrorists would be the new dodo bird, and it would happen quickly.

Maybe when Christians start policing themselves, there won't be any more dead gay teens. Pot, meet kettle.
 
Maybe when Christians start policing themselves, there won't be any more dead gay teens. Pot, meet kettle.

Who was it that put Timothy McVeigh to death? In case you haven't noticed, Christians police each other, everyday.

I bet you would bitch too much if profiling were taking place, because 99% of the terrorist attacks were carried out by white, Christian Americans. That, would be politically correct.
 
Common sense is we should profile Muslims....They are the ones committing the terrorist attacks.........
 
Profiling can probably have beneficial effects. However, if we solely rely on profiling, then it is easy to defeat since terrorists can start recruiting people who don't fit the profile. In the end, however, I don't think it's a failing of one religion or another. Or some thing where "Muslims have to police themselves" or whatever other nonsense you want to make up. This is a clear example of the failures and dangers of theocracy and the ability to warp religion to achieve political gains. This is nothing new. We still do it to a much much lesser extent.

In the end, we should realize the probabilities and statistics at the heart of the matter here and make appropriate decisions and actions based off of that. Not some over emotionalized rhetoric and appeals to authority.
 
Profiling can probably have beneficial effects. However, if we solely rely on profiling, then it is easy to defeat since terrorists can start recruiting people who don't fit the profile. In the end, however, I don't think it's a failing of one religion or another. Or some thing where "Muslims have to police themselves" or whatever other nonsense you want to make up. This is a clear example of the failures and dangers of theocracy and the ability to warp religion to achieve political gains. This is nothing new. We still do it to a much much lesser extent.

In the end, we should realize the probabilities and statistics at the heart of the matter here and make appropriate decisions and actions based off of that. Not some over emotionalized rhetoric and appeals to authority.

The argument that we keep hearing from the government is how the current groping strategy would have detected the panty bomber. The fallacy with the argument, is that he would have been smoked out, more quickly, if he had been pegged because he was a Muslim, paying for a one way ticket with cash and had no luggage; plus, he was already on the terrorist watch list. Only a complete fool would insist that those factors aren't reason enough to place a person under extra scrutiny.

Let's face facts: a 7 year old white boy, from Ohio, with autism, isn't a threat. Strip searching him does nothing but open a window for a bad guy to slip through.
 
It's good to know that there's at least one Muslim in the world, that understands that the sooner we exterminate the Islamic extremists, the better off things will be for Islam, as a whole.

Commons sense before political correctness.

All Muslims KNOW it's the right thing to do, but is a very emotionally charged concept. No one wants to be part of a group with extremists like these. Imagine how all Germans were once associated with Nazis.
 
Maybe when Christians start policing themselves, there won't be any more dead gay teens. Pot, meet kettle.

Not familiar with any stories of dead gay teens who were killed in the name of Christ. Do you have evidence of a trend or are you referring to something more anecdotal...?




.
 
Not familiar with any stories of dead gay teens who were killed in the name of Christ. Do you have evidence of a trend or are you referring to something more anecdotal...?


.

Oh please, I can't beleive that you never heard of Matthew Shepard, or the Christens Kill the gays bill in Uganda. Or the recent incidents in which 4 teens killed themselves because they were bullied for being gay.
 
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All Muslims KNOW it's the right thing to do, but is a very emotionally charged concept. No one wants to be part of a group with extremists like these. Imagine how all Germans were once associated with Nazis.

Well, from a historical POV, most Germans were proud to be associated with the Nazis. Not comparing Muslims to Nazis, only pointing out a historical fact. Basically, "no government exists, but through the power of the people". It's just like Russians, who thought that Stalin just wasn't aware of the famine in the Ukraine. They refused to accept that he caused the famine in the Ukraine.

Most Germans didn't know the Holocaust was even taking place; but, they did allow Hitler to take and keep power. So, is the Holocaust the fault of the German people? Ultimately, yes.

It boils down to two things: 1) the people are too stupid to realize what's going on, or 2) they're complicit with what's going on. There's really no in between.
 
Actually, let's profile danger...if it happens that the danger of the day is a muslim terrorist than that's how it should be.
 
Well, from a historical POV, most Germans were proud to be associated with the Nazis. Not comparing Muslims to Nazis, only pointing out a historical fact. Basically, "no government exists, but through the power of the people". It's just like Russians, who thought that Stalin just wasn't aware of the famine in the Ukraine. They refused to accept that he caused the famine in the Ukraine.

Most Germans didn't know the Holocaust was even taking place; but, they did allow Hitler to take and keep power. So, is the Holocaust the fault of the German people? Ultimately, yes.

It boils down to two things: 1) the people are too stupid to realize what's going on, or 2) they're complicit with what's going on. There's really no in between.
Proud to be associated with the Nazis is an overgeneralization. You see lots of propaganda films...does not prove pride by most.
 
Oh please, I can't beleive that you never heard of Matthew Shepard...

That was a robbery gone bad. Not to mention one of them got the needle and the other got life without parole.

... or the Christens Kill the gays bill in Uganda.

That's Africa.

Or the recent incidents in which 4 teens killed themselves because they were bullied for being gay.

Ask any qualified mental health professional and they'll tell you that suicide is a symptom of mental illness. Terminal illness isn't murder.
 
Quick question...

How do you know someone is a Muslim at the airport security gate? Do they dress like a Muslim? well then the Muslim-terrorist just won't look like one. Do they talk with an Arabic accent? Well not all Muslims are Arab and one can be taught an American or other accent in phrases needed to get through an airport. Do we ask everyone in the US what their religion, because of domestic terrorists, as well as those entering the US? They can lie...

How do we do it?
 
Proud to be associated with the Nazis is an overgeneralization. You see lots of propaganda films...does not prove pride by most.

There was no anti-Hitler party in Germany. Believe everything you see in the film footage.
 
Oh please, I can't beleive that you never heard of Matthew Shepard, or the Christens Kill the gays bill in Uganda. Or the recent incidents in which 4 teens killed themselves because they were bullied for being gay.

You are all over the board. And nothing in your response addressed my not so complicated question....



.
 
There was no anti-Hitler party in Germany.

That's because the Nazis killed them. Seriously, he was widely popular but there was a lot of resistance including coup and assassination attempts by high-ranking military and members of his own Party.
 
If, for some reason, this country decided to erase certain amendments to the Constitution and actually allow for racial/religious profiling... how would such a move be kept within the confines of an airport?

Has anyone even stopped to consider how the act of superficial profiling would affect more than those we're "afraid of" at the moment? You could look at any crime in which a particular demographic garners a considerable majority of offenses and act accordingly. For instance:

Assume we were to force sobriety checks on caucasian men under 18 upon recognition of them operating a motor vehicle (because, for debate purposes, they make up the vast majority of DUI arrests). Would the defense be "but millions more teen drivers are law-abiding"? That wouldn't work... because the same argument doesn't work for the billions of law-abiding muslims. Is this the method we'd like to employ on a much larger scale (with regard to law enforcement)?
 
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Profiling can probably have beneficial effects. However, if we solely rely on profiling, then it is easy to defeat since terrorists can start recruiting people who don't fit the profile.

You're right. But! The traveling public will accept security measures much more readily and willingly if we profile based on, "Hmmm, let's see....who's been committing these acts of terrorism?"

I want every single Muslim woman (anyone) wearing facial covering to be forced to remove that facial covering so that facial recognition software has a chance. I want every single person who's wearing flowing robes to be body scanned or patted down. If these people think we are infringing on their religious freedom, they can walk.

Great post, Whovian. Really, a step in the right direction by the Muslim community.
 
Maybe when Christians start policing themselves, there won't be any more dead gay teens. Pot, meet kettle.

You're claiming dead gay teens and pot smoking are done in the name of Jesus then? You're ludicrious comparison is too laughable to even acknowledge any other way.
 
Quick question...

How do you know someone is a Muslim at the airport security gate? Do they dress like a Muslim? well then the Muslim-terrorist just won't look like one. Do they talk with an Arabic accent? Well not all Muslims are Arab and one can be taught an American or other accent in phrases needed to get through an airport. Do we ask everyone in the US what their religion, because of domestic terrorists, as well as those entering the US? They can lie...



How do we do it?
You train the TSA in questions to ask, and methods to indicate a person is being evasive, and then set them aside for more in depth discussion and investigation.
 
Profiling is already being done. I'd like to see a poll on how many Arab Moslem males didn't get a little extra security check at the airport. Checking everyone else is for the non-Arab terrorist, but mainly to disguise the Arab male profiling.

It is what it is. Why be naive?
 
You train the TSA in questions to ask, and methods to indicate a person is being evasive, and then set them aside for more in depth discussion and investigation.

You realize TSA already DOES train individuals to do this type of thing? They're not hugely wide spread and tend to be at the big airports because its expensive training to get someone actually skilled at it. The people routinely and rather ignorantly comparing things to Israel need to realize we're gigantic compared to them.

We have 303,289,200 more people in our country. That's almost 42 times more than Israel. We have 14,000 registered airports in our country as compared to 31. That's more than 400 airports for every one they have. We have almost as many Category X airports, the largest designation, as they have airports in general. In three weeks of time half the population of Israel will have passed through Chicago O'Hare International Airport alone.

The feasability, both in logistics and in cost, to roll out an Israel type of airport security would be mind boggling. The training involved, the higher pay for every employee that would be required, the higher quality employee that it would need, in and of itself presents huge issues in those two realms.
 
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