Profiling of Muslims: Latest Republican campaign issue By Abdus Sattar Ghazali

Profiling of Muslims: Latest Republican campaign issue

By Abdus Sattar Ghazali

Al-Jazeerah, August 24, 2006

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 bombing plot in Britain announced 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 requiring people of "Middle Eastern and South Asian" descent to 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 U.S.-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 have 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 on the show 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."

The 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 the 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.

On the other hand, the GOP politicians’ endorsement of profiling coincides with a rise in ethnic profiling, harassment and discrimination against the Muslims and Arabs. 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 Texas men are 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 drop terrorism charges against the Dearborn men. The arrest of the men on terrorist charges 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 U.S. 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.

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 was the trigger for 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. (Daily Mail London – August 19, 2006)