tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29566846.post8870286335888308391..comments2023-11-05T01:45:58.784-07:00Comments on The Hesperado: Racial Islamic Profiling: Photo GalleryHesperadohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394374828751466705noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29566846.post-6747585009612189002013-06-02T13:50:21.530-07:002013-06-02T13:50:21.530-07:00There would be a significant downside to your raci...There would be a significant downside to your racial profiling approach. It would create among non-Muslim non-lily white people, not to mention many white people, tremendous hostility to the anti-Islam movement. These new and newly energized opponents would band together with Muslims and organize politically to oppose racial profiling and would also often oppose anything else associated with the anti-Islam movement. The problem with your approach is that it will tremendously increase the number of enemies to the anti-Islam movement, turning the latter into a racial polarization movement. Not only that, but other religions besides Islam that have mostly non-lily-white peoples will become less friendly and more hostile to the anti-Islam movement as well. <br /><br />From that point of view, Spencer is right -- race should be kept out of it, since the problem is not additional melanin, it's the choice of an ideology. Traehhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09997009621742454158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29566846.post-47319972965640161552013-06-02T11:42:12.659-07:002013-06-02T11:42:12.659-07:00I only noticed this comment by Mr. X long after I ...I only noticed this comment by Mr. X long after I had posted my essay. I believe it became the nucleus of a three-part analysis with "Mr. X" in the title, which I will insert now as an Update in my essay above.<br /><br />For now, I will only note that Mr. X's retort ignores two huge factors: 1) the imperfection of any profiling methodology (he seems to think that any methodology that is not perfect is therefore unfit to be applied; I hope he doesn't practice this in his daily life); and 2) he continues to ignore the paradox he himself generated, in his previous insistence that he is able to tell the exceedingly fine, granular distinction between a Cypriot and a Greek on Cyprus -- coupled with his insistence that we cannot have any profiling based on our ability to make distinctions certainly less fine than that one.<br /><br />This intelligent irrationality manifested by people like Mr. X is one reason why the West continues to be myopic to the problem of Islam.<br />Hesperadohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10394374828751466705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29566846.post-30601783846816544732009-03-17T03:15:00.000-07:002009-03-17T03:15:00.000-07:00I see you're using our debate as an example of you...I see you're using our debate as an example of your "victory" over a critic. Too bad the only way you can do that is by misrepresenting my position and contradicting your own.<BR/><BR/>Both Muslims and non-Muslims come in shades ranging from pale white to pitch black, and they belong to all three of the major races of mankind and every possible mixture thereof. That renders any system of profiling based on color and/or race unreliable at best and totally useless at worst. Dividing the world as you have into Muslim "Browns" and non-Muslim "Whites" (whom you seem to think are best represented by orange-haired outliers like Carrot Top) is simplistic beyond belief and not at all conducive to teaching people how to make "fine distinctions" between different ethnic groups. It's a child's way of looking at the world.<BR/><BR/>You're also naive in thinking that the only "collateral damage" would be an occasional European mistaken for Middle Eastern. No one in your Photo Gallery looks like any kind of European except the actual Europeans from Bosnia (either train that damn eye of yours or poke it out). The reality is that vaguely "brown" people in the United States are most likely to be Latin American. Middle Eastern and South Asian come in a distant second. And even then, they're just as likely to be Christian, Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist as they are to be Muslim. So what good is a profiling system whose collateral damage far exceeds its positive identifications? It's just as inefficient as the "color-blind" screening process.<BR/><BR/>The poor understanding you have of these issues is emblematic of the general ignorance you displayed in our discussion. You proved to lack knowledge about the science of race and pigmentation, about the histories of Greece and Cyprus, about the ancestry of Cat Stevens, and even about his appearance -- before his "transformation" he could've been one of the Beatles:<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://www.bbc.co.uk/herefordandworcester/content/images/2007/10/03/cat_stevens_358x450.jpg" REL="nofollow">http://www.bbc.co.uk/herefordandworcester/content/images/2007/10/03/cat_stevens_358x450.jpg</A><BR/><A HREF="http://www.fannins-collectables.com/images/c_listing/cat_stevens/mathew_and_son/dm435_fc-fs.jpg" REL="nofollow">http://www.fannins-collectables.com/images/c_listing/cat_stevens/mathew_and_son/dm435_fc-fs.jpg</A><BR/><A HREF="http://www.thewaxfactor.com/images/Cat-Stevens-New-Masters---Tes-326072.jpg" REL="nofollow">http://www.thewaxfactor.com/images/Cat-Stevens-New-Masters---Tes-326072.jpg</A><BR/><BR/>Yet you purport to speak with authority about all of these things, when in fact you invariably have no idea what you're talking about.Vincenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08663869722105662445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29566846.post-44734049940967939772009-01-06T15:25:00.000-08:002009-01-06T15:25:00.000-08:00Thanks, Nobody -- Happy New Year to you too!Your c...Thanks, Nobody -- Happy New Year to you too!<BR/><BR/>Your comment, though tongue in cheek, reminds me of another facet of the issue which I didn't make explicit (though I alluded to it by speaking of targeting Moroccans because Morocco is a Muslim country). Certain regions or countries, like Kosovo or Albania, should be considered suspect such that any and all individuals who hail from them should be under higher suspicion (and therefore profiled) than others, like say, Slovakia or Sweden. Thus, if it is possible to tell a white Albanian apart from a white Slovakian, then the white Albanian should be automatically considered to be in a more suspicious category; etc. To the degree that we cannot make these fine distinctions, however, (and it is safe to say that most of the thousands -- if not hundreds of thousands -- of security personnel we need throughout the West will not be able to make such fine distinctions), we are forced to fall back on a profiling that will be even sloppier with regard to collateral damage -- but not so sloppy that we search 80-year-old blue-haired nuns, of course: only "sloppy" with regard to being prejudicially sweeping about people we deem to "look Muslim".Hesperadohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10394374828751466705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29566846.post-5340731199582812002009-01-06T15:24:00.000-08:002009-01-06T15:24:00.000-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.Hesperadohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10394374828751466705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29566846.post-18487068455030799652009-01-06T01:06:00.000-08:002009-01-06T01:06:00.000-08:00BTW, Happy New Year!BTW, Happy New Year!Nobodyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15936731686633423188noreply@blogger.com