Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

COLUMN: Security begins with good police work
By Blake Hasenmiller
Iowa State Daily (Iowa State U.)
08/21/2006

(U-WIRE) AMES, Iowa — A few weeks ago, London authorities arrested 24 people who were suspected of plotting to blow up as many as 10 planes flying over the Atlantic Ocean into the United States. These 24 suspects, unsurprisingly, happened to be Muslims.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Muslim terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center towers and Pentagon. Muslims were also responsible for the 1979 takeover of the American embassy in Iran, the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the 2004 Madrid train bombings and countless Palestinian terrorist attacks in Israel since its creation. These are just a few of the many examples of the terrorism caused by young, male, Muslim extremists around the world.

In 1998, Osama bin Laden, the leader of the terrorist network al Qaeda that was responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, issued a fatwa saying, "The killing of Americans and their civilian and military allies is a religious duty for each and every Muslim to be carried out in whichever country they are until Al Aqsa Mosque has been liberated from their grasp and until their armies have left Muslim lands."

According to more extreme interpretations of the Quran, nonbelievers of the Muslim religion are supposed to be given the choice to either convert to Islam, submit to Islamic rule as second class citizens or be killed.

The Muslim extremists who believe this are unable to tolerate the things America stands for, such as democracy, freedom of speech and freedom of religion. They have been brainwashed to hate us, and will stop at nothing to kill us. They have been promised free passes to heaven, so not even fear of death can stop them.

We do have an advantage, however. Almost all of these Muslim terrorists are Arabic. This makes it very easy to spot potential terrorists in places where they could be particularly dangerous, such as airports.

Unfortunately, some Americans think we should ignore this edge to ensure that nobody's feelings get hurt.

Airports do not have an unlimited amount of time and money to spend on security. They would have to be downright stupid to ignore the fact that young, Middle Eastern men are statistically much more likely to be terrorists. Overlooking this would be a waste of resources for the airport and dangerous for its customers.

Racial profiling is simply a matter of playing the odds, and although the vast majority of young, Middle Eastern men are not terrorists, the odds are that anyone who is a terrorist will most likely fit that description.

Even the people who are being profiled are receiving a benefit from it. They, like everyone else, are safer because the airports have found a more effective way to keep from having their planes blown up. Although the people being profiled are inconvenienced more than the average person, it doesn't mean that they aren't still benefiting from the increased safety.

It is true that racial profiling is not fair. It's a good deal for some and a better deal for others. Not using racial profiling, however, is a bad deal all around, which is not fair to anyone.

There is a point where it's necessary to stop trying to make everything equal or fair for everyone and start trying to do what is effective.

Our first goal should be to keep America safe, not to keep it politically correct.

- Blake Hasenmiller is a junior in industrial engineering from DeWitt.

[ Back to Student Voices ]