Support NeoGAF

[ElTorro]

This article is worth sharing.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/12/07/why-isis-just-loves-profiling.html

Ethnic and religious profiling of suspects does not prevent terrorism. It makes it easier. If this terrible measure is adopted, more lives will be lost. As I have been explaining for years in TV debates everything we know about terrorism so far points us to this conclusion.

By announcing what we are looking for in advance, we give jihadists a head start in knowing what not to look like, and a better understanding what not to be distracted by could literally save lives.

Islam is not a race. Like Christianity, it is a global religion. Religions attract people of all ethnicities, and all skin colors. If we were to start profiling people of “Middle-Eastern” or “brown” appearance, jihadists will simply recruit white Muslims from the Caucasus, like the Tsarnaev brothers who struck at the Boston Marathon.

In an attempt to avoid that, if we are to start screening anyone who originates from Muslim-majority countries, jihadists will recruit from among the Uighur Muslims from Xinjiang in China, or from Russia and India: non-Muslim majority countries that have more Muslims than many Arab states combined.

Fearing this, if we were to take the wholly unrealistic option of closing our borders and shutting down immigration completely, jihadists would simply recruit homegrown terrorists from among us, and those from visa-waiver countries, who pose a far greater threat than the refugees at Europe’s door, as demonstrated by the devastating Paris attacks last month.

If it is any adult of fighting age that we screen for, jihadists have turned to grandmother suicide bombers and even animals laden with explosives. Astoundingly, male jihadists have even cross-dressed in burkas to avoid capture. There is no prototype.

By telling terrorists what we are looking for, they will know what to avoid. We will make their job easier. Away from ethnic profiles, looking for outward signs of “religious devotion” or “piety” can also be incredibly misleading. Some of the 9/11 attackers frequented strip clubs and casinos. The recent Paris attackers loved gay bars, alcohol, and drugs. And while Tashfeen Malik and Rizwan Farook were outwardly religiously conservative, pictures of the Parisian female jihadist wearing a skimpy bikini on a beach have emerged.

So what should Tashfeen Malik’s neighbors have reported?

She and her husband Rizwan Farook were indeed arousing suspicion. They should have been reported, but not for their ethnicity, or overt displays of piety—his beard and her face veil—or lack thereof. They should have been reported simply because, according to those same neighbors, they were behaving suspiciously. Psychological and behavioral patterns are always a more reliable indicator that something is afoot, over religious or ethnic markers. And to report strange behavior, is not racist or anti-Muslim. Overt signs of nervousness, regular deliveries of obscure items at strange hours, or adopting an extremely dogmatic mindset, are more suspicious than mere appearance.

Islamist radicalization is a process. It begins when a person, whether originally of Muslim origin or not, starts to become convinced that a certain version of Islam must be enforced over society, and that it is incumbent on them to work to resurrect a theocratic “Islamic Caliphate” in order to achieve this. Usually, this is accompanied by the false notion that the entire West is at war with all of Islam.