The problem with Alex Sperry, who in a
new NY Times Op-Ed endorses the exclusive profiling of "young Muslims", which can only be accomplished on sight by identifying the dark skin of select races, not by possessing some sort of muslidar, is that he thinks of terrorism as a static organism, which it is the exact opposite of. Sperry says you have to play the percentages and target the race with the highest statistical probability of terrorism while letting the "lower risk" groups have a free pass. That way, we'll catch more terrorists and leave the good people alone; why, even elderly Muslim women can join the fun without submitting to humiliating public searches! But certainly not those young muslim men, oh no. Some of them are terrorists, so it's best to treat all of them as terrorists.
It's the compassion deficit, I guess. Sperry fails to even attempt empathy with young muslims, and not necessarily from an inherent lack of the feeling, rather from a deliberate mental degradation of the group to non-human level. He makes no attempt to hide this opinion whatsover:
"Elderly Muslim women don't fit the terrorist profile. Young Muslim men of Arab or South Asian origin do. But rather than acknowledge this obvious fact, the New York Police Department has advised subway riders to be alert for "people" in bulky clothes who sweat or fiddle nervously with bags." -Sperry
Sperry apparently objects to the description of brown-skinned Muslims as people. Too bad, since by failing to see the obvious, he fails to put himself in the shoes of a man turned suddenly into a pariah because of his cultural and ethnic roots. He thinks of a terrorist as a born madman, or perhaps a monster of pure malevolence, instead of person who thinks, tries, believes in justice in a twisted form, changes, and recruits. It's that last part that's most important. A recent Doonesbury highlighted the realm of warfare where the Iraqi insurgents were most clearly winning: the battle for new recruits. They are seen anecdotally adding three new members for every dead one, while we can't even keep up with our own kills, injuries, and desertions.
Disgraceful ideas like Mr. Sperry's become talking points for terrorist recruitment memos. A jihadi has little trouble convincing a young Muslim that America is his enemy if America singles him out as its enemy by default. I believe this same feeling of hopelessness indefinitely prolongs the scabby, infectious war between Israel and the Palestinians. If Sperry could think about what a terrorist is before the explosion, he might consider the consequences of treating an at-risk group like a subspecies.
The saddest part about Sperry's intended flytrap is that it would have missed the fourth London bomber, a Jamaican by birth.
Excuse me if this post is just snarky and masturbatory. It's my first diary, and perhaps a letter to the editor.
