PROFILING AND TERROR
There has got to be a middle ground between the absurdity of pulling Grandma Johnson out of line at the airport to check her shoes, and the horror of a wholescale dragnet of any young man named Muhammed or Ahmed. We can't simply ignore the fact that the 9/11 terrorists all fit a particular profile - Arab, Islamist and alien. How do we maintain maximum vigilance against Islamic terrorists while at the same time preserving the civil liberties of the vast majority of honest, decent Muslims and Arabs in America? First, and foremost by focusing on citizenship. Under no circumstances can we allow the civil liberties of Muslim and Arab-Americans to be degraded below those of other Americans. On the other hand, we have every right to construct our immigration policy in a way that makes it hard for rabid anti-Americans to gain such citizenship. There is nothing wrong with an ideological requirement for citizenship. Millions of Muslims would love to become Americans - why should one liberal or moderate Muslim who believes in the ideals of America be denied a chance to raise their children here just because a militant Muslim arrived in the country earlier. Similarly, there is nothing wrong with profiling applicants for tourist and student visas. If you went to a radical madrassa, you get in only under special circumstances. Its not prejudice to trust Mohammed from Cleveland more than Mohammed from Cairo - its common sense.