Profiling: Pros and Cons?
Comments (0) A British MP has caused some controversy by publicly stating that profiling of Muslims is to be expected in the light of recent events:
He said: “I think most people would rather be profiled than blown up. It wouldn’t be victimisation of an entire community.
What I like is that Muslim organizations and Muslims with influence are starting to finally speak up in mainstream society, bringing up important issues like the fact that many of the terrorist attacks happening in the world today are being committed by Muslims, and in the name of Islam.
What I don’t like is firstly that things have actually come to this, and secondly that profiling based on race or religion could really backfire. First of all, this opens a whole can of worms in terms of who is Muslim and who isn’t. Is it based on name? On one’s parents’ religion? What’s next? Requiring people to put their religion or religious background on their passports? Like what was done to Jews in Soviet Russia? And how hard would it be for someone to bypass such a superficial system of checks: a change of name, a change of outfit?
I do think that people of certain names, backgrounds, looks and ages will, and it could be easily argued, should, be scrutinized more than the mostly superficial checks that airline passengers are subject to. However, I think the issue needs to be approached intelligently, to find efficient solutions (and there have to be many complementary solutions, there really is no one simple magic answer), that precisely and successfully help identify and quarantine those who intend to use public spaces as personal, fatal soap boxes. We could start by hiring people of higher and more sophisticated educational backgrounds to screen passengers, and we could invest in providing training to airport personnel to better understand things like body signals, psychology, etc.
All of which leads me to wonder if perhaps we’re headed for this.
Themocracy