Just Your Average, Ordinary ... Terrorist?
I worry that life may have just gotten a whole lot harder for any immigrant Muslim male in America between the ages of, oh, 15 and 35, especially if they have steady, unremarkable jobs, don't smoke or drink, grow facial hair and like the Internet. Because the New York Police Department advises looking more closely at them as potential terrorists.
At least, that's the impression I got when I read the department's report, Radicalism in the West: A Homegrown Threat. (It's 90 pages, so be ready for a long read.) The report says, as The New York Times puts it, that the key for law enforcement officials in the United States and abroad to prevent terrorism is "understanding how seemingly ordinary people become radicalized and hatch homegrown terror plots."
The report, which looked at several recent examples of "homegrown" terrorism, lists several reasons why these ordinary people can become radicalized, including "Personal crises -- such as losing a job or suffering from racism." And it says this radicalism happens not necessarily in mosques, but in "cafes, cab driver hangouts, flop houses, prisons, student associations, non-governmental organizations, hookah bars, butcher shops and bookstores." The Internet also plays an important role.
The report calls for more "intelligence gathering," which is, of course, another way of saying "spying."
The NYPD says that these potential terrorists "look, act, talk and walk like everyone around them." So if ordinary, everyday behavior means that anyone could be a suspect, how does one behave? And if everyone is a treated like a suspect, then might that create stronger feelings of discrimination, leading right back to radicalization? It could be a great big neat circle.
The report's analysis of how people become radicalized can be a useful tool for law enforcement if used in the right way. But if it is used as an excuse to be suspicious of every young Muslim, it could backfire.
1:52 PM ET | 08-16-2007 | permalink
