Defining Security for All Citizens

Re “Use Profiling Judiciously,” Commentary, Jan. 4: In one fell swoop, Jonathan Turley has convicted every American who happens to be Muslim and/or Arab with a crime. Apparently, Turley justifies ethnic profiling because there is one “single defined crime” that any person of Muslim or Arab descent could have been involved in. I distinctly remember another “single defined crime” in which Anglo Americans were never profiled. Timothy McVeigh certainly did not represent all Anglo Americans. As such, civil liberties violations and the ensuing humiliation and outright harassment now being experienced by members of the American Muslim and Arab community were never visited upon our Anglo American brethren.

I don’t suggest that we not be alert and vigilant in preventing any future terrorist attacks. However, using “intelligent” profiling, in which there is reason to take someone off a plane, for example, will serve America the best.

Sabiha Khan

Garden Grove