Senator James Inhofe Under Fire

The radical Muslim group, CAIR, is calling on Senator Inhofe(R-OK) to explain why he is in favor of racial or ethnic profiling as a security measure when screening passengers at the airport. Inhofe proclaimed his support for racial profiling at a Senate hearing on Thursday investigating the Fort Hood shootings.



CAIR Executive Director Razi Hashmi, stated  in response to Inhofe's comments "It is disturbing to hear a member of the United States Senate suggest that entire religious and ethnic groups should automatically be considered terror suspects."

CAIR is an illegitimate organization which has been identified by the Justice Department as a terrorist conspirator. They should have absolutely no say in determining security procedures at army bases, U.S. airports, or anywhere else for that matter.

Nevertheless, the issue of racial profiling is a legitimate conversation. Ideally, we should not have to implement racial profiling. However, we are living in very dangerous times. Constitutionally, the U.S. government can take drastic measures if it has a compelling governmental interest which seems to exist by all objective accounts. Unless we racially profile, the current security procedures will be ineffective in stopping future terrorist attacks which will undoubtedly occur. If airport security had screened the Christmas Day underwear bomber as he is now called, he would not have made it on that Northwest Airlines flight. And, if airport security had racially profiled on Thursday, they would not have been concerned by the man who wore phylacteries when praying on his US Air flight.

The fact is that primarily all of the terrorists who implement attacks on flights are of Middle Eastern descent. As Inhofe stated, "you hear that not all Middle Easterners or Muslims between the age of 20 and 35 are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims or Middle Easterners between the age of 20 and 35, that's by and large true." 

No one can escape those statistics.

On the other hand, proper racial profiling would not automatically assume that every Muslim flying is a terrorist. Certainly, most Muslims who fly in the U.S. do not have ties to Al Qaeda.

With proper racial profiling, every person flying whether they are Muslim or not  would be scrutinized prior to checking in bags at the ticket counter and perhaps prior to boarding. However, people who are of Middle Eastern descent (mostly men within the age bracket) have to  be subjected to more extensive questioning because of the current trend to determine if they are a threat. Once the trained security guard determines that they are not a threat, they would be able to board with unfettered access. If they fit the characteristic of a terrorist (i.e. boarding an international flight with no bags after paying for the flight with cash), they would not be allowed to board the flight.

Its not rocket science and  its the only way to prevent terrorist attacks.

Safety must supersede all other constitutional interests.

Body scanners will not stop terrorist attacks on flights all together as the terrorists will always find other creative measures to carry out their attacks.

However, if we are on guard for suspicious behavior through the use of racial profiling, we have a much better chance of preventing another 9/11 or an event of similar proportions.

We fail to accept the use of racial profiling to our own detriment.

Senator James Inhofe Under Fire