Response to Nick Zettel's Viewpoint Editorial

I agree with Mr. Zettel that racial profiling is absurd. Moussaoui, for example, was black and while Islam is the rising religion among blacks (this is ironic of course since Islam regards black or dark skin as a curse set down by God or Allah and condemns such people to eternal damnation), especially Africans, it is more commonly associated with people from the Middle East.

What I disagree with however is what he said later on in his editorial, specifically “not [all] Muslim males who commit acts of terrorism involving airports any more than it is white males who commit acts of terrorism involving federal buildings”. And while that may be true the vast majority of people who have plotted to enact terrorist attacks on airliners have been (prepare for this one) Muslims.

Yes, Mr. Zettel, I do not mean to indict “an entire religion for being guilty of practicing that religion” but when a majority of terrorist attacks, not just on airliners, are committed by people of a certain religion then we have to take religious affiliation into strong consideration in our efforts to make air travel safe again.

Oh, and Mr. Zettel, I do not appreciate people putting words into my mouth. When I meant religious profiling I specifically and deliberately meant religious profiling, not racial profiling. Mr. Zettel asks the rhetorical question, “If I told Kastner, here an airport guard, that I, a white American male, were a Muslim, would he keep me in the line?” to which I would respond, yes. Remember Richard Reid, the would-be shoe bomber? His father was English and his mother was Jamaican but he was Muslim. And let’s not forget Moussaoui, shall we?