Yes to profiling!

We should never forget that the vast majority of Muslims are NOT terrorists. That said, most terrorists these days are Muslims.

Douglas MacKinnon makes a good point in today’s Washington Times:

“Estimates are that there are as many as 6 million Muslim Americans living in the United States. Should one percent of that number sympathize with al Qaeda or other terrorists, then you are talking about 60,000 individuals. Let's give a very reasonable benefit of the doubt and say that 99.9 percent of all Muslim Americans are disgusted by the heinous crimes being committed by these terrorists. With that almost absolute number, there still could be 6,000 Muslims, already in our nation who support the obscene. Six thousand. There were only 19 hijackers.”

Three years ago nearly my entire family—aunts, uncles, cousins, grandma—flew to California to celebrate a recent wedding. It was my first time flying after 9/11 and I was curious to witness the new security precautions. I had heard they were randomly checking passengers, but I was shocked to witness just how random these checks were. Out of myself, my brother, father, and uncles, the security personnel pulled aside my 85 YEAR-OLD GRANDMA!!! (Luckily they checked her, though, because she had 3Ibs of Semtex hidden in her Depends®. Apparently she was on a suicide mission for the SCLF (Senior Citizens Liberation Front), which is considered to be the secret military wing of the AARP, who put her up to the mission.)

But seriously folks, I realize profiling isn’t a nice thing, and I feel sort of bad shilling for it because I have friends who will certainly get profiled, if they haven't been already. In fact, a friend of mine from Turkey is on his way to America as I type (he’ll actually be staying at my place for a couple of weeks while he gets things in order). He’s the nicest, most gentle person you’ll ever meet and the last person to harm anybody. Yet, if airport security see him in line and proceed to spot-check the 80-something old lady behind him, well, something is very wrong.

Political Correctness is inspired by all the right intentions—but the path to hell is paved with good intentions. Muslims are mistaken if they direct their anger at America or other countries that are instituting security profiling. It’s not like we woke up one day and said, “Hey, let’s bother Middle Eastern-looking people at the airports for no good reason.” Our society is being forced to do this because of the actions of the terrorists. If Muslim Americans are angry about profiling, let them direct their anger where it belongs: at the terrorists.