Posted by
JDComments on Sunday, December 10, 2006 12:52:24 PM
The Left has taken the Six Imams incident and turned it into it’s latest crusade against racial profiling [see post ], but as is so often true , in reality they are using misleading labels to create a false impression and distort reality for their political gain.
What is racial profiling? Simply put, it is the singling out of people because of their race or genetic makeup, something over which they have no control, and which neither represents nor indicate their actions or thoughts. It is choosing somebody based on who their parents were, not on what they themselves have decided to do. Examples are the police stopping a man because he is black, or Nazis sending a woman to the gas chamber because her mother was Jewish. Racial profiling is morally wrong because it is factually wrong, drawing conclusions based on traits that do not warrant them. It is therefore a heinous, horrible mistake, and should not be tolerated.
Now let us consider the Imams case, where those Muslims chose to verbalize and act out their beliefs in what some consider an aggressive, maybe even antagonistic manner. Were they picked out and harassed because of racial profiling? I do not believe anyone has claimed it was their skin color [which I am not even sure of] that was the problem, nor was it their ethnic or national origins which seem to be the contentious issue.
The problem, plain and simple, is the faith which they have chosen to follow, and in this case, flaunt. and the inflammatory language they used regarding the United States. In other words, they were singled out for further investigation because of things they had voluntary and knowingly chosen to do which in our society have come to be associated with dangerous actions. In fact, they were ideologically profiled, something that has nothing to do with racial profiling, and those who have suffered from the latter should be offended by the association.
Ideological profiling is what we do when we assess the words of someone and decide they are wrong or harmful. It is what most of us do in regards to the Ku Klux Klan, and in fact Trent Lott’s ignominious downfall was actually a case of ideological profiling, since he did nothing wrong but indicate he might hold offensive views. Funny, I don’t remember anyone accusing the Democrats of racial profiling when they castigated him.
Ideological profiling justifies the surveillance of mobsters in pursuit of proving their guilt. The police know their ideology [ a criminal, outlaw mindset] and so act on this to try and gather the proof that they are committing crimes. No one seems to find fault with this logic either.
The point is that once a person chooses to act or think in a given way people are perfectly valid in drawing their conclusions about what this means, and in the case of the Imams, because Islam has become so clearly identified with Terrorism it would be hard for someone not to become nervous as a result of their actions, and the airline would have been remiss not to investigate further. As this case clearly shows, ideological profiling is people judging you based on what you say and think, and acting on what that implies or indicates. It is holding you responsible for your choices.
Some would then say this is a violation of the First Amendment and freedom of speech, but that is not correct either. The Imams were not forbidden from praying, nor speaking, but like someone who yells “fire” in a crowded theatre, once their expression was felt to be a danger action was taken [and all things considered, all that was done was that they were delayed, hardly what I would consider a major constitutional infringement].
Why the Liberals have chosen to inflame the affair by incorrectly labeling it racial profiling, with all the historical baggage that word implies for Americans, is something we can only wonder about. But based on my ideological profile of them, it was not an innocent mistake, but a conscious decision to use an historical weapon in their arsenal to undermine national security, a weapon with absolutely no pertinence to this case.