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Originally Posted by biznatch
For those who doubt that Muslims get treated differently at airports: my friend has no accent, grew up in the US, wears no distinctive clothing, but for some reason always gets "SSSS" printed on his boarding pass. You can say all you want, it's racial profiling, and it's wrong. |
First, right after 9/11 I was flying all over with several Muslims in my department to various research meetings. We were not flying first class, they had no idea who these guys were, and not once were they searched after the period where EVERYONE was searched.
Second, they didn't want to die. One was upset he wasn't searched, he LOOKED like a 'terrorist', he was an Iranian national trying to get US citizenship. He was a young, single male, he grew up in Iran during the 'revolution', there couldn't be a more likely candidate. He hated what his nation had become, and rejected his religion but no way for the TSA to know that.
Third, racial profiling isn't wrong when it focuses on the most likely candidates. Once they stopped searching everyone, it makes more since to search those who are more likely to be terrorists. Having a computer randomly spew out numbers where the white haired Swedish grandmother gets searched and the 27 year old Iranian national male doesn't is a waste of resources. Sure maybe granny is a secret sympathizer, but where is the smart money? When middle aged white Christians start to blow up planes or fly them into buildings then PLEASE profile me, I don't want to die on a flight because someone was too sensitive.