Profiling Is Not the Answer
by TChris
Random searches of New York subway passengers have been unproductive, leading some to advocate for racial or ethnic profiling:
If "looks like a young Muslim" or "looks Middle Eastern" is an easily visible characteristic that terrorists are likely to have, it belongs in the profile.
Apart from the legal and ethical issues that surround profiling, its advocates build their case on a false premise: that terrorists are visually identifiable.
Leaving aside the fact that more than half of the Arabs in the United States are Christians, Arabs simply do not possess to any set of physical characteristics that either plainly bind them together or set them apart from many other American communities. Arabs are a very diverse ethnic group who can resemble almost any group of southern Europeans, Latin Americans, Central and South Asians or Africans.
Even more preposterous would be any attempt to identify Muslims by appearance, as Muslims come from almost every part of the world, and constitute one-fifth of humanity. And, because about one-third of American Muslims are African-Americans, any futile attempt at profiling of Muslims, especially in urban areas such as New York City, will immediately degenerate into yet another way of profiling black people.
There are better answers, including improved intelligence gathering and the presence of explosive-sniffing dogs. Searching suspicionless passengers -- whether randomly or because they fit a profile -- reduces our freedom without providing significant protection against terrorism.
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