How Not to Win a War

The New York Times is trying to turn the difficulties that Muslims have with security checks while travelling in the United States into a civil rights issue. The point is hammered home with all the subtlety of a wrecking ball with (unconfirmed) incidents like this one:

Mr. Ahmed was handcuffed in the Las Vegas airport in November 2004, and, he said, a young black police officer leaned over and said, "Yo man, now you know what it was like to be a black man in the 60's."

Got it? It's nothing but bigotry and Jim Crow all over again with a new cast.

This sort of twaddle is bad enough in peacetime, but when we're at war it merely goes to show how far the New York Times has slid. Yes, increased security is inconvenient and often humiliating for those who travel, but not only Muslims suffer under the Department of Homeland Security's daft rules that can't tell the difference between a 22-year old Jordanian man smelling of rose-water with a bulge under his jacket and a wheel-chair bound 99-year old Scandinavian grandmother from Minnesota. I look about as Muslim as the Pope and still have to kick off my shoes whenever I fly and I once had to drop my trousers in full public view because I failed the metal detector test. However, I put up with this with great reluctance and no little resentment because I realise, unlike some American Muslims, that the surest way to end this is not by complaining, but by winning this war.

I have stated repeatedly that victory against the Jihadists depends in part on moderate Muslims playing their role. Instead of letting the New York Times, CAIR and the ACLU speak for them, they must stand up to declare their loyalty to civilisation and actively, literally, and visibly help to fight the Islamofascists who threaten them as well as the rest of us. Remember that during the Second World War Japanese-Americans were also looked upon with deep fear and suspicion and it wasn't by whining that this changed, but by joining the US Army and proving where their loyalties lay through courage and sacrifice in helping to liberate Europe.

As for the NYT, will someone please remind them that there is a war on?

Update: Tim Blair caught this money quote that I'd overlooked:

The problem has become such a part of being a Muslim American that some comedians have built routines around it.

Comedy routines: the ultimate touchstone of justice.