Why You Can’t Profile A Muslim Terrorist
WANT to know why you can’t profile a Muslim terrorist?
They may not be kids. They may not be Pakistani, they might not even be brown or black. The 72 virgins theory is a no-go, and neither is the ‘deprived neighbourhood’ idea. In other words, there are no easy answers. The other point about this report should be obvious: profiling doesn’t work, and could be counter-productive.
It can be. But what picture of a Muslim terrorist do you hold in your mind’s eye, and what is that image based upon?
In the meantime, the lack of simple answers inevitably makes simpletons turn around and say: ‘well, the unifying factor among all these terrorists is that they’re Muslim, so undoubtedly the problem must be Islam itself‘. There’s various problems with this theory too.
Indeed.
For a start, as the MI5 reports points out and as has been said before, these people don’t actually know much about their professed religion. So when some Muslim groups say ‘we need more Islamic education, not less, to tackle extremism’, they may have a point.
But they kill in the name of Islam.
Secondly, if Islam was the unifying factor, then these terrorists would spend less time killing other Muslims. But most attacks by Al-Qaeda and their anger is directed at other ‘moderate’ Muslims, who they see as heretical or standing in the way of their power grab.
They kill lesser Muslims.
Thirdly, religion is no indicator of suicidal terrorism since the Sri Lankan Tamils (Hindus) have the biggest numbers of dead people in a conflict under their belt. Similarly, some of the suicidal terrorists against Israel’s occupation of Lebanon were Christian and even atheists.
Indeed. It’s just that only Muslims have committed acts of terror in the War On Terror…
No?
Posted: 22nd, August 2008 | In: Reviews Comments (9) | TrackBack | Permalink
