THE EDITOR, Sir:
COLUMNIST STEPHEN Vasciannie has written a very good article in the August 8 edition about the issue of 'Terror and Profiling'. He struggles with this difficult and complex issue and concludes, seemingly reluctantly, that he would "prefer to be searched as a Jamaican, than to be blown up on a train because police authorities wished to be politically correct".
I, however, take a different perspective on the matter. The political correctness that is being required here is not only for cosmetic purposes. Racial profiling is a counter-productive strategy in matters like these. Terrorists are not likely to give Young Muslim men (or Jamaican-born ones for that matter) bombs to carry into trains if they are the ones likely to be searched at the station entrance. They are instead going to use some other persons or some other means. What then?
What racial profiling will certainly do is to further alienate and embitter persons from that group and make it more likely that some of them will become easier targets for the terrorists' recruiters. In the final analysis, this could be a foolish and backward step.
NOWHERE NEAR VICTORY
The 'War on Terror' has been going on for a few years now and the London bombings show that we are nowhere near victory. In fact, the leadership in the West seems to be walking into a skilfully woven trap. On the one hand, there is seemingly little effort being made to deal with the fundamental issues that underpin the Arab/Muslim disaffection with Western society. These include the situation in Palestine and the support for unpopular, undemocratic regimes. Faced with terrorist atrocities, the leaders of the West seem to be saying that to address these issues now in a meaningful way would be to appear to be giving in to the terrorists. On the other hand, their responses to the threat, the invasions of Afghanistan - possibly justified - and of Iraq - possibly not, the Patriot Act and Guantanamo in the United States and now Mr. Blair's threat - among other things - to relieve some naturalised Britons of their citizenship not only run the danger of alienating more of the Muslim/Arab population, but they could presage the collapse of our own liberal values system and begin a process in which Western societies turn on themselves and become themselves undemocratic.
Racial profiling is but a small step in this process. The death of the young Brazilian electrician on the train a couple of weeks ago, must indicate to us what could happen to anyone who is a little darker, who has hair that is a little curlier and who may appear to be a little nervous in a conversation with the police.
As much as I don't want to be blown up on a train, I have to weigh that risk against possibility that my children and their children and their children after that could be detained or otherwise deprived of their rights and their human dignity by a frightened society because of the colour of their skin, the place of their birth, the language they speak or the faith they choose to follow. And I think it is a risk that - if I had the choice - I would have to take.
I am, etc.,
ANTON THOMPSON
email: anteron@gmail.com
