Terrorism and Racism final

The following news article is titled "You Can't Fight Terrorism With Racism" by Colbert I. King. The article talks about three op-ed pieces that were written describing how we should use ethnic, racial, national origin and religion to determine who is a potential terrorist. The author feels this infringes on rights of individuals in a free society. First he focuses on a op-ed written in the Washington Post by Charles Krauthammer. Krauthammer criticized the random bag checks program adopted in the New York subway. He says they should target "young Muslim men of North African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian origin. The thing of it is Krauthammer doesn't say how authorities should go about doing this. Another op-ed piece he criticizes is an article by Paul Sperry. Sperry says people should be on the look out for "people praying to Allah and who smell of flower water". Also it might be suspicious if men have just recently shaved you have to be on the look out for them. Then King points out that throughout history it hasn't been just the Arab looking man that has committed senseless acts of terrorism. For example, Timothy McVeigh killing 168 people in the Oklahoma City bombings and he was a white man. The bombing of a church in Mississippi, which killed black children were done by white men.
So you cannot simple go out and racially profile a certain group or race based on the fact that a horrific act was done by a group in the past. You must have hard evidence and use tactics that are not discriminatory towards people. In a nation that prides itself on civil liberties we cannot revert to what we did when we imprisoned Japanese Americans during World War II. The majority of muslims are hardworking decent people who want to live the American Dream just as much as a white individual. By using these racial tactics we alienate them from coming to our country and promotes a bad image of the United States around the world.
In todays society we have a dilemma that we face. Should we care more about national security or should we care more about civil liberties? That is a tough question. We know King sides with civil liberties but I tend to favor national security a little more. We need to use whatever methods legally to protect our way of life. Its unfortunate that we might have to suspect and look closer at people who are Arabs, but what is at stake is our lives and safety. The fact is most terrorist come from the Middle East area as Krauthammer points out. What the United States did during World War II was wrong in imprisoning Japanese Americans and it is not what we are currently doing to Arabs. They are still able to live freely and practice their religion. We need to be concerned about civil liberties and when it becomes excessive we need to stand up for those rights. But when it comes to national security we need to be aware of what happened on 9/11 and never forget because if we do then our way of life will be under attack once again by terrorists who have vowed to destroy us.
I found this article at wwwe.washingtonpost.com