Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash Racial Profiling of the Muslim Community
Mariam, Undergraduate Student (UM-Dearborn) Racial profiling undermines the citizenry's civil liberties and does not accord minorities with equality before the law, which is a constitutional guarantee. What indeed must be critiqued is whether profiling based on race undermines the constitutionally protected principles of equality and liberty. These principles are embodied in the United States Constitution: the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. The FBI's Shared Responsibility Committees program consists of committees that include social workers, religious leaders, counselors, and community members tasked with surveilling the Muslim American community. The goal of the program is to intervene with people whom the FBI considers to be at greater risk of radicalization in a bid to halt any expected radicalization. Yet, this encourages increased racial profiling where communities, such as Muslims, are treated as security threats by virtue of their identities to justify constant surveillance. It has been argued that the Shared Responsibility Committees program is ineffective and stigmatizes Muslim-Americans that works to erode goodwill from Muslim Americans, which can be a valuable asset for law enforcement agencies struggling to curb terror activities. In short, under this program Muslim communities are subjected to wholesale racial profiling that is inappropriately interpreted as a security measure. The major problem with entrenching stereotypes is that it alienates a class of people and, in this case, solely based on their religious affiliations. Alienation of minority groups such as Muslims in the fight against terrorism in the United States deprives the minority groups their rights and privileges as United States citizens. This alienation may also drive them into terror activities, especially if the law enforcement agencies wear the hat of prosecutors rather than protectors. Racial profiling can lead to civil liberties violations. Racialized state surveillance involves repressing Muslims' freedom of opinion, movement, and association. Many argue that simply because Muslim and other Islamic converts have been targeted for radicalization by terror groups does not mean that their civil liberties should be suspended. Opponents of the program have also raised ethical concerns about enlisting medical and counseling professionals in the "fight against terrorism." The Shared Responsibility Committees program's ineffectiveness is succinctly expressed by Sahar Aziz. In "Racial profiling by law enforcement is poisoning Muslim Americans’ trust," Aziz ponders whether one can reasonably hope for Muslim Americans who are themselves collectively subjected to surveillance and suspicion to believe in the very institutions spying on them. In "The FBI needs to stop spying on Muslim-Americans," Arjun Sethi stresses that the resources and energy devoted to programs meant to counter violent extremism are disproportionate to the threat posed by Muslim Violent Extremisms. He therefore urges for targeting based on evidence of wrongdoing rather than religious affiliations. Alternatively, instead of spying on and handling Muslim-Americans based on mistrust and suspicion, law enforcement agencies might benefit from working together with the people they unjustly surveillance. This teaches the feeling of belonging as opposed to alienation. This way, they will readily avail information of impending terrorist activities they might be aware of. Also, this will go a long way to demystify the stereotype that all Muslims are terrorists. Ultimately, it is evident that Shared Responsibility Committees program only works to stigmatize Muslim-Americans. Unless this continued alienation trend is arrested, it might be impossible to get help from Muslims in the fight to counter violent extremism. Racial profiling should not be reason enough to allow violation of civil liberties. Cooperation with Muslims to counter-terrorism will bear more fruits rather than handling them with mistrust. References: 1. Aziz, Sahar. 2012. “Racial profiling by law enforcement is poisoning Muslim Americans’ trust.” The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/feb/21/racial- profiling-law-enforcement-muslim-americans accessed on 24/3/2021). 2. Bah, Abu B. “Racial profiling and the war on terror: Changing trends and perspectives.” Ethnic Studies Review 29: 76-100. 3. Sethi, Arjun Singh. 2016. “The FBI needs to stop spying on Muslim-Americans” Politico (https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/03/muslim-american-surveillance-fbi-spying-213773/). 4. Speckhard Anne.2016. “Alarms Raised over Safeguarding Professional Ethics in FBI proposed ‘Shared Responsibility Committees’ addressing potentially radicalized Individuals.” (https://www.icsve.org/alarms-raised-over-safeguarding-professional-ethics-in-fbi-proposed-shared-responsibility-committees-addressing-potentially-radicalized-individuals/) 5. Wilson, Sabrina Alimahomed. 2018. “When the FBI knocks: Racialized state surveillance of Muslims” Critical Sociology 1-26.
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