When the son of a wealthy Nigerian banking official tried to blow up a Detroit-bound aircraft, there was much that was new or unique about him – other than the explosive underwear he wore. This was an updated version of the shoe-bomb method employed by Richard Reid in 2001. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab seems to have been driven by the same religious and political demons that have propelled virtually every terrorist from Ramzi Yousef to Osama bin Laden.
Abdumutallab’s socially advantaged status was not unique – the vast majority of international terrorists have not been poor, ignorant or disadvantaged. All of the nineteen 9/11 terrorist were educated and came from the ranks of the middle-class and the well-to-do. A review of the education levels and income status of many terrorists quickly destroys the long-held belief that poverty and political neglect, like weeds, grow terrorists.
His skin color wasn’t noteworthy either. Africans from various nations have played major roles in international terrorism. If there is any doubt, a brief scan of the images from the prison at Guantanamo Bay will confirm this fact.
But try telling that to Yvonne Davis whose recent posting at the ” title=”speech”>speech he cited a surey which revealed that 66 percent of whites supported the ethnic profiling of people of Middle-Eastern descent. More interesting perhaps is that
77 percent of blacks also suppored this sort of profiling
. It doesn’t sound as if blacks are “cringing” in the face of terrorist threats. Like other Americans, blacks want to employ every measure possible to help insure our safety.
No matter the loss of privacy or potential for misuse, most Americans understand that we live in difficult times and that we are at war with forces that would willfully slit every Americans throat given half a chance. “Profiling” is but one weapon at our disposal in this war with ideologically-driven killers like Khalid Sheik Muhammad, last seen on video demonically decapitating an innocent journalist whose crime was being American and Jewish – Daniel Pearl.
There is no “new” face of terrorism. It’s the same old face that assumes many forms – all wanting to destroy this country and its people.
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