Do Muslim Americans Support Racial Profiling at Airports?

Abstract

Muslim Americans have been treated with prejudice, discrimination and bias in multiple incidents after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 (9/11). While all of the 9/11 terrorists were identified as Muslims, collateral damage in the aftermath resulted in innocent and wholly blameless Muslim Americans being swept up in the prejudicial discriminatory profiling incidents at airports. Muslim Americans have been collectively accused of the 9/11 attacks that were orchestrated by individuals who were fanatical Muslims; very few of whom would be considered in that category. Since 9/11, as the nation has mourned the loss of so many Americans in the attack, they have been joined by the thoughts and prayers from the vast majority of Muslim Americans who have suffered equally, if not more so. There were Muslims who lost their lives in the attack on the Twin Towers, yet the Muslim American community has been collectively blamed as a co-conspirator for the terrorist attack. Our research examines the city of Houston's Muslim American community's opinions regarding the support for racial profiling at airports after 9/11. Data were gathered through surveys administered at local mosques in the city. Surprisingly, there was robust support for racial profiling at airports by most Muslim Americans we surveyed.

Old Epistemic Vices and Islamophobia in Martha Nussbaum's The New Religious Intolerance

“…Racial profiling in the US has been heavily criticized for being unconstitutional because it threatens the civil liberties of minorities-and although this has been recognized at least going back to United States v. Brignoni-Ponce (1975), the issue persists (Bah 2006, 79). This discriminatory treatment of traditional minorities-that is, Black people, followed by Hispanic people-has since 9/11, included Arabs, and Muslims (Bah 2006, 79;Abualnaja and Nayer 2019). This has been "eloquently expressed in common phrases such as driving while Black, driving while Brown, flying while Arab, and flying while Muslim, respectively" (Bah 2006, 78).…”