Profiling in time of terrorism.

The recent detention of 12 Indians (who happen to be Muslims) on a Mumbai bound North West flight has resulted in levelling of the charge of racism by a section of English media against west.

Frankly speaking one is little puzzled by this charge. Was the decision of crew to alert security agency for the behaviour of the passengers was excessive? It might have been, in the good old days, when terrorist was your neighbourhood anarchist,or our favourite communist or some disgruntled ethnic group from backwaters feeling shortchanged.

Unfortunately these are not the good old days, west is facing the menace of Islamic terrorism, and it is bewildered by it, partly because the religious zealotry exhibited by those groups was last experienced by west around more than 600 years ago and it has no memory of Crusades or for that matter Charles the Hammer.

But the most important reason is that under the influence of 20th century liberal movements, west has assumed that the liberal values it espouses are universal accepted which of course is divorced from reality. This assumption ,however results in setting up of a false moral equivalency.

To cut a long story short this puzzlement ("why do they hate us!") leads to state of fear. Faced with a enemy who has no accomplishment (and hence nothing to lose), and whose values are framed by dogmas of bygone age and feeling of revenge and hatred by indoctrination of selective historical injustices (How many times you have heard Christians lamenting loss of Constantinople or Jerusalem), west is apprehensive (to put it mildly).

So to put it bluntly if the crew was alarmed by the obnoxious behaviour of few Indians, it was perfectly justified in taking the actions it did.To accept west to behave as if everything is normal when it is not, is disingenuous to say the least.
This doesn't mean that knee jerk reaction is the right way, overhauling of intelligence apparatus and society can only ensure the safety of citizens.

PS It is not that only brown skinned and/or bearded people are at risk. Even "absent minded geeks who play nerdy games" are not spared. One wonders who they will target next ? Age Of Empires ! Deva, Deva [link via confused]