Profiling
of Muslims: Latest Republican Campaign Issue
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Canada
Mark
Flanagan, a congressional candidate in Florida,
has become the fourth Republican office-seeker
to call for profiling of Muslim airline passengers
since the alleged airline bomb plot in Britain
was revealed earlier this month.
"It is a fact that over the past 34 years,
starting with the Munich Olympics, the majority
of terrorist attacks have been carried out by
Muslims," said Mark Flanagan, a candidate
in the 13th District of Florida, in a statement
on August 21. Flanagan's political consultant,
David Johnson explained that under the proposal,
passengers who appear to be Arab or Muslim would
be pulled out of security lines for additional
screening.
Flanagan claimed that he was the only congressional
candidate calling for profiling of Muslim passengers.
But he was wrong. There were at least three other
Republican politicians who called for profiling
of Muslims last week.
Declaring that airport screeners shouldn't be
hampered by "political correctness,"
House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King also
endorsed last week that people of "Middle
Eastern and South Asian" descent should undergo
additional security checks because of their ethnicity
and religion. Peter King is seeking re-election
from the third district of New York.
Discussing the recent revelation of an alleged
plot in England to blow up US-bound airliners,
the Republican Congressman said that "if
the threat is coming from a particular group,
I can understand why it would make sense to single
them out for further questioning." His prejudice
against the American Muslims is nothing new. In
2004, he said that 85 percent of the mosques in
the United States had extremist leadership.
Joining the fray, Paul Nelson, a Republican running
in the third district of Wisconsin, also endorsed
the idea last week on a local radio show. Asked
how screeners would spot a Muslim male, Nelson
said, "If he comes in wearing a turban and
his name is Muhammad, that's a good start."
GOP gubernatorial candidate in New York, John
Faso also joined the chorus of profiling. In light
of alleged UK plot, Faso said law-enforcement
officials should be able to question a Muslim
man without fear of being slapped by an ACLU lawsuit.
“Looking for Muslims for participation in
Muslim jihad is not playing the odds. It is following
an ironclad tautology."
The rhetoric comes at a time when the Republican
Party apprehends losing control of Congress in
the November elections. According to Harris Interactive
Poll, if elections for Congress were held today,
45% of Americans say they would vote for the Democratic
candidate and 30% would vote for the Republican.
According to a Newsweek poll, right now 53 percent
of Americans would like to see the Democrats win
control of Congress, compared to just 34 percent
who want the Republicans to retain control.
While the GOP politicians’ seized upon the
alleged London plot and called for profiling,
Muslims and Arabs witnessed a rise in ethnic profiling,
harassment and discrimination. On three occasions
in a nine-day stretch from August 8 to August
17, a total of five Arab-American men and a Pakistani
woman were tagged as potential terrorists.
Two Dearborn men were arrested, on August 8, in
southeastern Ohio after being caught with a dozen
prepaid cell phones and $11,000. On August 11,
three Texan men were arrested near a Wal-Mart
outlet in Caro, Michigan after buying 80 cell
phones. Police said the men also had videos and
photos of the Mackinac Bridge and 1,000 more cell
phones in their van.
Three days later the FBI says it found no evidence
the Texas men had terrorist ties or were planning
to blow up the bridge. On August 15, prosecutors
in Ohio dropped terrorism charges against the
Dearborn men. Their arrest was a clear case of
racial profiling. The men are of Palestinian descent.
On August 17, a terminal at the Tri-State Airport
in West Virginia was shut down for nine hours
after an airport security screener grew suspicious
of two bottles of liquid inside the carry-on bag
of a Pakistani woman traveling to Detroit to visit
her mother in Jackson. Chemical tests of the bottles'
contents turned up no explosives.
In this charged atmosphere when passions are running
high it is not surprising that many Americans
harbor anti-Muslim feelings. According to a recent
The USA Today/Gallup poll, 39 percent of Americans
said they felt at least some prejudice against
Muslims. The same percentage favored requiring
Muslims, including those who were US citizens,
to carry a special ID to help prevent future terrorist
attacks. And 22 percent of respondents said they
wouldn't want Muslims as neighbors.
One wonders if the result of a similar Gallup
poll next year may not be different than this
one if the media continues a biased posture towards
the Muslims: perceived threat to national security
is being used for political purposes and most
of all the government continues its anti-Muslim
policies here and abroad.
Finally, here is a take on the alleged London
bomb plan that sparked the latest round of hysteria
against Muslims:
The Briton alleged to be the ‘mastermind’
behind the airline terror plot could be innocent
of any significant involvement. Rashid Rauf, whose
detention in Pakistan triggered the arrest of
23 suspects in Britain, has been accused of taking
orders from Al Qaeda’s ‘No3’
in Afghanistan and sending money back to the UK
to allow the alleged bombers to buy plane tickets.
But after two weeks of interrogation, an inch-by-inch
search of his house and analysis of his home computer,
officials are now saying that his extradition
is ‘a way down the track’ if it happens
at all. It comes amid wider suspicions that the
plot may not have been as serious, or as far advanced,
as the authorities initially claimed. Analysts
suspect Pakistani authorities exaggerated Rauf’s
role to appear ‘tough on terrorism’
and impress Britain and America. (The Daily Mail
London – August 19, 2006)
(Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Executive Editor
of the online magazine American Muslim Perspective:
www.amperspective.com)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
