MPAC Calls New Airport Screening Guidelines 'Counterproductive Religious & Ethnic Profiling'
January 04, 2010
The Muslim Public Affairs Council today called the decision by the Transportation Security Administration to target passengers from 14 "terrorism prone nations" for additional screening "another name for counterproductive racial and ethnic profiling."
SEE: "Stepped-Up Screening Targets Fliers from 'Terror-Prone' Lands" (Washington Post)
Under the new guidelines, security screeners will conduct full pat-down body checks and carry-on luggage checks for passengers traveling from countries which the U.S. considers to be a security risk. Those countries are Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Passengers traveling from any other foreign country may also be checked at random.
"The new TSA guidelines deliver a propaganda victory to Al-Qaeda and other violent extremist groups, since they rob targeted groups of people from their civil liberties based on their ethnicity and country of origin," said Government Liaison Alejandro Beutel. "Call it whatever you want, but this is religious and ethnic profiling at its worst."
MPAC, like Muslim Americans across the country, is deeply concerned for the safety and security of our nation, however, the use of ethnic and religious profiling will not achieve greater airline security. In fact, by targeting only certain passengers for additional screening, "blind spots" can be identified and exploited by violent extremists. Furthermore, the new policy deeply undermines the Obama administration's stated commitment to civil rights, equality before the law, and a much-needed effort to rebuild U.S.-Muslim world relations.
The TSA's new guidelines' reactionary and extreme approach recall the "special registration" program enacted by Bush administration following the 9/11 terror attacks. Called the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), the program resulted in the "preventative detention" of about 5,000 men on the basis of their birthplace and later sought a further 19,000 "voluntary interviews". Over the next year, more than 170,000 men from 24 predominantly Muslim countries and North Korea were fingerprinted and interviewed. There are still 83,000 individuals registered and contained within the NSEERS database. None of these produced a single terrorism conviction.
