NOT A FEW Muslim leaders are raising a howl over a recent memorandum of the Philippine National Police seeking an updated list of Muslim students in high schools, colleges and universities in Metro Manila supposedly in a bid to counter violent extremism and terrorism. They describe the order as a “blatant profiling of Muslims” and “act of discrimination in its highest form.”
Indeed, the move is very wrong. Profiling has no place in a nation that respects and draws strength from the diverse beliefs of its people. Guilt by association is wrong, and sometimes fatal. Baseless stereotyping can end in lethal results. What is sad is that this is an official directive, and aimed at children at that.
Typecasting Muslims as possible terrorists and listing down all their names for a possible watch list is one of the dumbest moves of police intelligence. Deputy Speaker Mujiv Hataman from the Lone District of Basilan and former governor of the now-defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao couldn’t have said it better: “Kung ikaw ay isang law-abiding Muslim masakit po ang ganitong paratang. Parang tinokhang ang reputasyon ng mga Pilipinong Muslim. Suportado at mahal namin ang ating kapulisan na kahit sa dami ng nasasangkot sa kanila sa krimen ay ni minsan ay hindi namin sinabi na lahat ng pulis ay masama.”
Indeed, such unfortunate generalization should not be applied to our Muslim brethren. Muslim children are being bullied and those who ought to serve and protect them should not join in their abuse. These are practically children who struggle with the ills of discrimination in their own schools. And now we have this kind of ethnic/religious profiling? We don’t want our children growing up in an environment of fear and mistrust, and we don’t want them to live in a culture of discrimination and hate. This is what we hope to prevent, not encourage.
Profiling Muslims is the kind of act that makes extremists, not prevent them. You teach people to hate the heavy hand of the State and you make them susceptible to skewed and misguided political and religious beliefs.
The police should fight, not fuel, discrimination.
