Actually Profiling Sounds Kinda Good

22 February, 2006. 408 words.

Today, conservative bloggers are berating Democrats for their obvious hypocrisy in objecting to the Dubai Port Sale when they previously objected to any sort of profiling against Muslims. I hate to admit this but, um, they’re right. About two things: 1) Democrats are being blatantly hypocritical (but then, they’re politicians), and 2) My objection to the Dubai Port Sale is indeed based solely on the fact that we’re talking about the UAE, so I guess I’m engaging in profiling like everyone else.

A month ago, I would have said that discriminating against Muslims just because they were Muslim would be criminally preposterous. Now? It’s hard not to notice that all of the riots, hate speech, embassy burning, deaths, and death threats surrounding those Danish cartoons have come from… well, Muslims. It makes me wonder if some profiling isn’t such a bad idea after all.

Does that mean I think we should round up all the Muslims in America and deport them? Or put them into camps? Or shoot them on sight? Definitely not. But I’m coming to believe that a Muslim — particularly a Middle Eastern Muslim — might just deserve a little extra suspicion simply because of their faith. After all, there is no evidence whatsoever that peaceful Muslims represent the majority right now.

And there’s also this: After reading the NY Times article Furor Over Cartoons Pits Muslim Against Muslim, I’ve come to realize that even a peaceful Muslim might not be beyond suspicion — apparently most moderate Muslims are scared to death of their more outspoken militant brothers, so they might easily cave in and do whatever is demanded of them. (And any moderates that aren’t scared to death are probably sitting in jail.)

I know this goes completely against the “innocent until proven guilty” paradigm. But remember, that legal stuff only applies after someone’s in jail. So I say, screw tolerance and feel free to check out any Muslim immigrants with exhaustive background checks and lie detectors. At least until the Muslim “street” can grasp the concept of critical thinking and take a joke.

Other topical articles: Grow up Moslem Brethren, Learn to Overcome Impotent Rage by Sampathkumar Iyangar. I sure hope he doesn’t get any death threats or jail time. God “Doesn’t Like People To Draw” on Michelle Malkin’s blog. That’s FUBAR city. People who tell their kids that “God doesn’t like people to draw a lot” are really in the wrong country.

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