Muslim Profiling is Not Racism but a Moral Necessity

If neo-Nazis engaged in a series of assaults against Jews and blacks in New York City, would the NYPD be justified in patrolling neighborhoods known to be heavily populated by neo-Nazis in order to solve the crimes and prevent future attacks? Of course it would. Would the profiling implicit in this practice be an instance of racism? Of course not.

Likewise, if communists engaged in a wave of vandalism against businesses in Los Angeles, would the LAPD be warranted in patrolling neighborhoods known to be heavily populated by communists in order to identify and apprehend the vandals? Of course it would. Would the LAPD’s focus on communists be an act of racism? The question is silly.

The same holds true when Muslims engage in ideologically motivated assaults against Americans in U.S. cities: The FBI, local police departments, and other security agencies are justified in patrolling neighborhoods known to be heavily populated by Muslims in order to identify and apprehend those involved in or linked to the attacks. Security agencies are justified in recognizing and acting on the fact that Muslims are more likely than non-Muslims to be involved in the assaults. And such profiling is not racism. It is commonsense defense of the rights of Americans.

Contrary to the evasions of leftists, Islam is not a race. It’s a religion. It’s a chosen set of ideas—just as Nazism and communism are chosen sets of ideas. One key difference is that, unlike those ideologies, Islam is the ideology of our current military enemy. . . .

About Craig Biddle

Craig is cofounder and editor of The Objective Standard, cofounder and director of education at Objective Standard Institute, and executive director of Prometheus Foundation. He is the author of Loving Life: The Morality of Self-Interest and the Facts that Support It; Rational Egoism: The Morality for Human Flourishing; and the forthcoming Moral Truths Your Parents, Preachers, and Teachers Don’t Want You to Know. He is currently working on his fourth book, “Thinking in Principles.”

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