UPDATE: A number of commentators talk about how this involves a violation of NPR policy and not what he said. That is both disingenuous and irrelevant. I am not talking about what NPR, I am talking about the condemnation that Williams has received. Plus, if this was only about corporate policy violation, I doubt we would be discussing it at all.
I saw a large, young white guy yesterday, a real bruiser with a shaved head. He was with a bunch of his friends, and they were being pretty aggressive as they walked down the street. And I was worried.
The man had done nothing to me, my concern was based solely on the way he looked. As we passed, he was perfectly fine.
I had stereotyped. I had profiled.
In the past decade, 16 commercial airplanes have been hijacked. Ten of those were hijacked by Islamic fundamentalists. Of those ten, six resulted in deaths (9/11 is four of those flights). Only the hijackings by Islamic fundamentalists resulted in deaths. In addition, there were two attempts that I know of to blow up a plane -- the shoe bomber and the underwear bomber -- both Islamic fundamentalists. Then there is the EgyptAir flight about ten years ago, where the pilot drove the plane into the sea, fighting off the co-pilot while he said "God is great" repeatedly. (So, maybe, maybe not.)
Adding to this -- through the decrees issued by Bin Laden and Zawahiri (they are often referred to as fatwas...they are not), Islamic fundamentalists are the only large group of technically proficient people in the world who have proclaimed it is a duty to kill Americans, and that any American who pays taxes is a support of the military, and therefore a legitimate target.
These are facts. Whether it is reasonable or not, emotions can be generated from those facts -- particularly given that the hijackings and attempted hijackings that have received virtually all of public attention involve Islamic fundamentalists, since they have resulted in deaths or attempts at mass murder. All other hijackers were for typical things like seeking asylum -- the plane was a means of travel, not a target for destruction.
So, Juan Williams expresses that he has a fear when he sees a Muslim on a plane. He doesn't say Muslims shouldnt be allowed to fly, or should receive special inspection, or anything. He says that he is fearful.
Probabilities, you might argue, are ridiculously low, and therefore indefensible. However, the probabilities of being killed in an airliner crash are even lower (probabilities based on total numbers over total deaths), and yet we don't see it as absurd that people would be afraid of flying. Fear is like that.
Not all white, redneck southerners are racist Klansmen, but if a black man is walking down the street with his white wife, and sees a bunch of redneck southerners standing in his path, is it reasonable for him to be concerned?
I am NOT comparing Muslims to anyone. I am comparing terrorists -- Islamic fundamentalists -- to terrorists -- redneck, racist SOutherners.
Yes, there is a whole issue of logic here -- terrorists wouldnt dress as Muslims, etc. But Williams wasn't speaking of logic -- he is speaking of the spectral head of fear, which, by its very nature, is often unreasonable. By firing him for that, NPR is merely proclaiming that, fi you have such a fear, you can't talk about it, which just allows the fear to fester unabated.
I should mention one thing. When my wife sees a young Arab man flying alone or with other young Arab men on a plane, she always glances at their arms, to see if they have body hair. Islamic terrorists shave their bodies before a suicide attack. It comes from a twisted reading of the Koran.
How does my wife know this? She is Syrian, and a practicing Muslim. And she attends a mosque where, over and over, they preach how fundamentlist terrorists have twisted the religion. And she knows -- that is true. Which is why she can't control herself from checking -- she is not looking for Muslims. She is looking for fundamentalist extremists.
And please, let's not comment on this by calling my wife a self-hating Muslim or me a racist. The discussion here is one that has to be addressed if you are going to support the firing of Williams. Because this is simply the other side of the argument.