CAIR-LA’s Communications Coordinator Yasmin Nouh responds to Jane Harman’s op-ed in the LA Times.
(Jan 09, 2014 – Anaheim, CA)
The following letter was written in response to an opinion editorial written by former Congressional member Jane Harman.
Terrorism is not limited to any one ethnicity, political ideology or religion, and neither should be the means taken to combat it. When we focus on one group, we make it easier for others to carry out attacks.
Last January, the U.S. Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center reported that since the 9/11 attacks, individuals associated with or inspired by Al Qaeda or similar groups have committed 37 murders in the U.S. out of the roughly 180,000 total.
The disparity between actual terrorist attacks committed by Muslim extremists and the number of Muslims monitored and arrested speaks to blatant discrimination and misguided policy.
Common counter-terrorism measures, such as blanket surveillance and religious and racial profiling, are costly, ineffective and foster mistrust between local law enforcement and the Muslim community. If we are serious about boosting our national security, we must employ counter-terrorism measures that profile people based on criminality, not religion.
The LA Times also published other commentary on the op-ed. You can read them here and here.
