moldybluecheesecurds 2

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Racial profiling by name

Is there really anything more we can do to alienate otherwise friendly Arabs? We already have few enough friends in the Arab world. And even though there may only be 200,000 Arabs living in the United States, each one serves as an ambassador of American ideas to their relatives back home.

So it probably doesn't do us any favors to have Western Union, citing Treasury Department policy, prohibiting money transfers to people with Arab-sounding names. Here's just a few reasons why this is dumb:
  • We punish innocent people with Arab names
  • As a result, we further erode Arab opinion of the United States
  • We don't actually prevent terrorist money transfers, because there are alternative money-transfer services.

I'm just glad there weren't any Irish terrorists involved in 9/11.

4 comments:

Subalternate said...

What if your first name is Timothy or Ariel or George or Dick or Tony or Ehud or Terry or Winston or Carl or Scooter or Jack? Shouldnt your money be blocked or rather "reviewed" if you have one of the these names. Some people that happen to have these first names have caused more death and terror than anyone named Muhammad ever has, im just saying

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Another example of stupid policy...the security at the airport. See, yesterday, I was meeting two friends at the airport, 90 minutes apart. What would one do with this time? Go to the bar...behind security. So, I printed myself a boarding pass with a modified flight number, location, date and name....and went through security to meet my friends. No problems. The best part is this is a recognized issue that has been talked about in The Senate (http://www.senate.gov/~schumer/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/press_releases/2005/PR4123.aviationsecurity021305.html)
Oh, and it isn't against the law to do it either: (http://www.senate.gov/~schumer/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/press_releases/2006/PR121.Joe%20Terror.040906.html)

Subalternate said...

I tell you, these policies are crazy. And you know what is the wierdest thing? most criminals that transfer money are financial criminals and the like...