Racial Profiling Against Muslims Goes Full Circle

In a report that won't be news to most Muslims, Amnesty International released a report this month outlining the dramatic increase in racial profiling since the September 11th terrorist attacks. The year-long study documented the numerous contexts (while driving, while shopping) and pointed out (correctly) the lack of progress or efficacy in stemming or preventing any more terrorism than before (hello Johnny, Richard and Jose), while clogging the system with records of innocent people routinely requestioned at airports. But the connection that dare not speak its name is still there - namely the high profile association global terrorism has to Islam (despite the infinitesimal proportion of Muslims involved). And after last week's horror in Beslan, some journalists and intellectuals in the Muslim and Arab worlds have had enough. “It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims,” said Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, general manager of Al-Arabiyya television. Despite such observations being lauded by the more histrionic of commentators, many acts of terror have scraped so far down the bottom of the barrel that a soul-searching  is starting to take place. "Recent editorials in major newspapers and commentaries by prominent leaders have criticized the morality and political efficacy of the continuing wanton violence in Iraq, Palestine, and even Chechnya," notes the Arab American Institute's James Zogby. "Critics on both sides of the divide can and should recognize each other’s efforts and work to reinforce one another." [more]