They shouldn’t focus on Male Muslim pacafists. Or male muslim Insurance agents. Or Giraffes. I think that’s about it.
I’d rather the law enforcements take a rational approach to all suspect activity, not just focus on a persons appearance on the offchance that they are extremists.
Before you say anything more stupid (you know who you are), please review the FBI terrorist alerts for the past several years. You will find that if a 12:1 ratio exists, it is in the direction of 12 white assholes to 1 “muslim male extremist between 17 and 40.” Don’t think Timothy McVeigh is a fair example (although he committed arguably the second worst act of terrorism on US soil), how about the unibomber, the smiley face mailbox bomber, the bombing of the abortion clinic, Columbine, the derailing of the Amtrak Train in 1995, the alleged Anthrax mail guy, the mass shooting in Georgia 2 years ago… these are off the top of my head, but if you want to go back to '72, we can make one hell of a list. White people commit plenty of mass murders, violent acts and other atrocities right here in America. If you aren’t sure what the racist element of the shit presented in the OP is, you are beyond help.
Possibly. It depends on how you use the word. From dictionary.com:
We may not have as much history as the Germans, but I think a case can be made for definition two. Of course, “race” in the context of “racism” usually refers to definition one, but there’s really no word, that I can think of, that applies just to hating a people because of their nationality, since “bigot” and “xenophobe” qualify, but they’re broader than just that.
The thing with profiling is that it’s not just who you pick out to profile, but what you plan to do to them that you don’t do to everyone else. And how ready you are to presume guilt before evidence is found.
The email in the OP does represent a strawman. It addresses only the aspect of who is being singled out, and in a pithy way makes the case that this is justified. However, I think many people who warn against racial profiling are more concerned with the intensity of guilt presumption against those profiled.
In other words, while male muslim extremists are certainly more likely than some other people to be terrorists, if you start treating an individual in that category as if he is a terrorist simply on the basis of his age, skin color, and religion than you are being racist and violating his rights. This goes above and beyong having his luggage searched more carefully. If that were the only consequence of profiling then I don’t think it would worry people the way it does.
Aw c’mon, Hentor, don’t leave us in suspense. Let 'er rip.
This is the Pit, not some Methodist lawn party. 
No, no – I think that email makes good sense. And we should apply it to other problems as well. Why, if you compile a selective list of people robbed and/or murdered in various urban areas, you would quickly see that this specific list of crimes were always perpetrated by young black males with illegal, concealed handguns.
Clearly, if one sees a young black man, one should take defensive action. Call the police! Run for your life! Common sense tells us that there is a very good chance he has an illegal concealed handgun with which he will rob and/or kill you. It’s sad that we Americans are so bent on being “PC” that we force police to waste their time stopping the cars of white people, when they could be so much more effective if they focused all their efforts on detaining and searching young black men for illegal, concealed handguns.
While it would be foolish to ignore the trend put forth in the OP, it would be even more foolish to forget that many “Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40” are white. I don’t see how it’s a very useful thing to know, even if it was know without exception that the only people who would commit terrorist attacks were “Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40” ( which I’m not saying at all ), how are you going to tell them apart from the general population?
::sadly packing away the picnic basket, apple pie, gingham napkins and lemonade::
Who murdered Robert Kennedy?
Sirhan Sirhan, on behalf of Palestine.
On the street, we know what these guys look like by now. All the rest is just PC posturing.
Why not re-read my OP to see that in fact, this is but one example. Also, if you cannot see the blatant racism inherent within the example, then might I suggest again that you re-read it since obviously you only skimmed it and took one line to quote without fully considering what exactly it was you were saying.
That’s right! There’s no justice like mob justice. And if you accidentally harrass a few Indian Sikhs, well they shouldn’t have brown skin and be wearing turbans in the first place, what with the Robert Kennedy assassination and all.
let’s not forget that famous Muslim, Lee Harvey Oswald who killed John F. Kennedy.
Or the famouse male Muslim, Lynette Squeeky Fromme who took a shot at RR.
or the Arab fundementalist John Hinckley Jr. who did the same thing.
By george, you’re right! we can tell jus’ by lookin at 'em.
but remember ‘don’t shoot til ya see the white of their eyes’
Small nitpick: she shot at Ford, not Reagan.
oops. you’re correct. (and there I was worried about how to spell “Regan” “Reagan”??) :smack:
Muslim extremists are a “race”?
“Muslim” isn’t a race.
That in and of itself demonstrates how idiotic the email is. Next time somebody can tell a Presbyterian from a Methodist by looking at 'em, let me know, because that individual will be qualified to profile “Muslims.”
Which explains all the Sikhs that were murdered right after 9/11.
A towelhead’s a towelhead, right?
Chump.
Me, he’s talking about me! (I fel so loved!)
Of course, the idiot ignores that I said profiling is bad and we shouldn’t focus on religion or ethnicity, but we should also not ignore the very real threat of Islamic extremism. Saying that “white guys are the real problem” does not address the threat we face from terrorist groups who are, I promise, out to get us.
I think we should handle things the way the Israelis do: ask every passenger questions, lead away the ones who don’t check out for more focused questioning.
We’re not looking for appearnace, but intent. The sad thing is that some of you, like Hentor and Wring, are as bad as rabid right wingers.
They assume that an Arab face must hide evil intent; you think that an Arab face must not be checked for intent.
Me, I go for the middle path-not to be fooled into racism on the hand or to overcompensate by pretending the problem does not exist.
'scuse me gobear?
where in the fuck do you get that?
To fucking spell it out for you (again, seems to me we did this exact same fucking thread before) the term “fundementalist muslim male between these ages” does **not ** allow you to physically profile people effectively.
It does, however, allow you to single out males of the appropriate age, and focus on men with dark hair and dark eyes.
I’ll wait here while you describe for me physical traits which allow some one to correctly ascertain some one’s religion.
ok?