Sunday, August 20, 2006

Racism or Justification?

Over the past couple of weeks security in our airports has been tight, further to alleged terror attacks being planned on flights between UK and the USA. Now as security is relaxed, airport security are being told to "look out for" possible terror suspects.

The problem is that the Muslim Community are raising the issue that this amounts to racist discrimination. Just because someone is part of an ethnic minority, where some members have previously been blamed/guilty for terrorist activities, does it give the Government/Police the right to judge each member of this minority as a possible terrorist?

This is just one of the recent examples where it has been argued that passengers have been targeted just based on the colour of their skin.

The above article states that
"People should keep an eye out for suspicious behaviour but nervousness is not enough."

It may be argued that suspicion is increased by the ethnicity of the individual/group. The police may justify this by stating that they must identify any possible connections to terrorist activity including race/background/location and flight details. These ethnic groups have allegedly been involved in previous terrorist scares/attacks isn't it right that they take special care to fully check passengers of this race?

Should security not be vigilant of everyone no matter of race/religion?

It has been argued that Asian/Middle Eastern passengers are being discriminated against, that it is being assumed that they are all related to terrorism in some way.

Does this link to racism? The same argument is raised across the UK that black people are not treated equally with Caucasians where the police are involved (arrests/stop and search etc.)?