Profiling in the law-enforcement sense means singling out people with certain characteristics for extra scrutiny. After saying we need to think about doing this to Muslims, Trump immediately went into an anecdote about one of his rallies.
“People that obviously had no guns, had no weapons, had no anything, and they were being — they were going through screening. And they were going through the same — the same scrutiny, the absolute same scrutiny as somebody else that looked like it could have been a possible person. So, we really have to look at profiling.”
By “possible person,” Trump clearly meant “possible troublemaker.” But who were those attendees who so obviously meant no harm? We know from polls that Trump’s base is overwhelmingly white and largely male. Trump was suggesting that those who fit that profile could have been waved through while special attention was paid to young people, women and minorities who might have come to the rally to protest.
This helps us understand his toxic ideas about profiling Muslims. Despicable acts of terrorism have been committed by groups and individuals who believe in a warped view of Islam rejected by the majority of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims, including the more than 3 million who live in the United States. In Trump’s eyes, however, all Muslims are suspect.
Shame on GOP officials
Following the San Bernardino killings last year, committed by an apparently self-radicalized married couple, Trump called for a ban on admitting Muslims to the country. He continues to blame “people in the Muslim community” for not reporting those killers’ plans, even though there is no evidence, I repeat no evidence, that anybody, Muslim or otherwise, knew of their rampage in advance.
Trump wants to put Islamic houses of worship under special surveillance. In his interview with Dickerson, he spoke admiringly of authorities in France who, by his account, are “closing down mosques.”
By criticizing “Muslim communities” for not reporting the jihadists in their midst — which is a lie, by the way — Trump puts all Muslims under suspicion. What are the implications of this worldview? Do you have separate security lines at airports for Muslims, the way Southern gas stations used to have separate bathrooms for “colored” patrons? Do you reassign the nearly 6,000 Muslims serving in the U.S. armed forces to segregated units, or do you so doubt their loyalty that you just kick them out? Do you put all Muslims on a no-buy list for guns and ammunition?
The Republican Party is about to nominate for president a man who manifestly does not believe in freedom of religion. Shame on the GOP officials who meekly fall in line.