Screening for Muslims

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/01/04/tsa.measures.muslims/index.html?iref=allsearch A Muslim-American group criticized a TSA (Transportation Security Administration) plan for enhanced screening procedures for US bound passengers traveling through “state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest.” According to an undisclosed senior government official, these countries include Cuba, Sudan, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and Yemen. The guidelines target 13 nations which have a majority of Muslims in its population.
Ac cording to the group, The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the enhanced screening processes specifically target Muslims. The group feels that the policies “disproportionately target American Muslims who have family or spiritual ties to the Islamic world... These new guidelines, almost every American Muslim who travels to see family or friends or goes on pilgrimage to Mecca will automatically be singled out for special security checks -- that's profiling," said Nihad Awad, the council's executive director. "While singling out travelers based on religion and national origin may make some people feel safer, it only serves to alienate and stigmatize Muslims and does nothing to improve airline security." In a broader sense the group feels that the tougher measures are a result of religious and ethnic profiling.
The council is not alone. According to a statement from the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), "Singling out travelers from a few specified countries for enhanced screening is essentially a pretext for racial profiling, which is ineffective, unconstitutional and violates American values. Empirical studies of terrorists show there is no terrorist profile, and using a profile that doesn't reflect this reality will only divert resources by having government agents target innocent people.”
A spokesperson for the TSA, Kristen Lee responded to the claims, “TSA does not profile… TSA security measures are based on threat, not ethnic or religious background.”
This article presents the issue of ethnocentrism based on points of view. The TSA policy does not take into respect the view that may be seen on the other side of the issue, of the Muslim people. Although the policy is in the best interest of everyone, as it aims to be, the methodology is not sensitive to Muslims as a whole. In this situation the in-group of the general populous, who may view Muslims as the “enemy” because of occurrences in the past, may not be aware of such profiling. The out-group, the Muslims, are not being objectively evaluated, but are profiled as “terrorists” because of their ethnic backgrounds and religion.
These views are a direct effect of false consciousness and categoric knowing. Categoric knowing is based on assumptions from limited information, such as the assumption that Muslims are more prone to being terrorists than any other race, although there is not actual terrorist profile. False consciousness is also a factor in clouding the objectivity of those who have provided to the security plan. The inner prejudice toward Muslims because of previous attacks, do not form a logical basis for implementing an act that would target a specific group of people.

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