Racial Profiling for Terrorists: Good or Bad?

[rotorgun]

To Papewaio and Banquo's Ghost I would like to say thank you for your honesty in expressing your thoughts about my latest response. After looking at it closer I realised just how it must have made me appear as a racist. I should like to revise my statement to be a more accurate representation of my thoughts and feelings about this subject.

When talking about "rapists" and "theives" I was speaking rhetorically about those who are using the call of radical Islamic doctrine to influence those Muslims who might otherwise be of a more moderate view. I am speaking of those who hide among the peaceful Muslim populations of the world and strike without warning the innocent people of the countries that they despise. I liken them to wolves, but on reflection perhaps they are more like rats. It is they who I "do not trust" and therefore I must take care in how I trust other people who hail from the region they come from. I would like to withdraw any statement that has caused offense.

As for the 80% figure I spoke of concerning the number of Muslims who hate the United States and the United Kingdom, I admit that I arrived at it from pure feeling. I had recently watched a news broadcast which showed two competely different mosques in the UK. I don't remember exactly where these were located, somewhere with a significant Muslim population, such as Birmingham or some place like that. I do remember an interview with an older Muslim cleric who said that many of the younger members of his mosque had stopped coming to his mosque, but now attended the one just next door. In this mosque, a much more radical sermon was being preached, with emphasis made on how deserving America was to have been attacked on 9/11. Every time that 9/11 was mentioned, or something about the "evil" United States, a round of "Allah Aqbar!" went up from the congregation.

In the interview with the youths, it was claimed that this was how the majority of the young felt about the United States, and that they hoped to someday see the restoration of the Caliphate. Many of them expressed a desire to fight along side Osama Bin Laden, Hamas, or Hezbollah. These were the actual words of those interviewed, not something I made up from thin air. I do admit that how I arrived at a figure of 80% is rather incredulous, but I guess I just felt that 80% represented a good figure for a majority. I realise that I was intellectually, morally, and spiritually wrong to express such a figure now.
Please accept my humble apologies for this obvious error.

As to my ability to even discuss this subject logically I must decline for the present. My feelings are just to strong about it. As you and others have mentioned, the terrorists have sought to spread fear and divide their enemies. In this they have admirably succeded. I hope that they are proud of themselves for what they have accomplished. I hope that Allah will be as proud of them as well, especially for all of the murders and atrocities that they have committed. In a way, I feel that I must pray for them that God may forgive them for their sins. For why they have wasted such a gift, as life is, by hating others so much that they must kill them and throw the world into fear and turmoil is beyond me. There are so many better ways to spend one's time on earth. I shall not pray to Allah to kill them, but to Jesus that he may teach me to forgive them.

I shall now retire from this discussion, or any others like it, until the second coming. You may now all say "Amen" if it should float your boat.

For the record, we do not ever speak of sovereign nations such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, or any other Islamic country with anything but respect in my church. I have never heard one "hateful" sermon about any of them in all my years as a Christian. As a matter of fact we have often prayed on our knees for the peace of these countries, and for a resolution to the woes in all of the middle east. To that we have often shouted "Amen!"