The presumptive Republican candidate in the US presidential election, Donald Trump, in new remarks to further alienate the American Muslim population, suggested that the country should consider using profiling for Muslims to combat terrorism in the country. In the wake of last week’s shooting at an Orlando gay club, Trump has made several unsavoury remarks to intensify his rhetoric against the Muslims in America. And he is not alone either. Robert Fico, the Slovakian Prime Minister, and the next EU President when Slovakia replaces the Netherlands at the presidency of the European Union, next month, has stated similar opinions over the past two years.

For the presidential candidate of a global superpower and the incumbent president of the world’s most well-integrated union to advocate racial profiling practices at a policy level is a cause of extreme unease. Not only is profiling a racially insensitive practice, but rather a destructive and ultimately ineffective law enforcement technique. Discriminatory racial profiling is outlawed in the European Union, and is adopted by Israel, a country well known for its atrocities against innocent Palestinians and its blatant disregard for the protection of human rights.

David A. Harris, Professor of Law and Values at the University of Toledo College of Law, a leading authority on racial discriminatory profiling in the US challenges the effectiveness of profiling as an effective crime-fighting tool. He maintains that, “.. even though more blacks than whites were stopped and frisked for concealed weapons, the arrest rate of whites for violations was actually higher, while composite profiles of convicted criminals are skewed because 54.3% of violent crimes are never reported to the police.” Trump envisions an America where American Muslims, African Americans and all other immigrants live under fear and oppression. It is up to the American people to decide whether they want a leader who believes in alienating his people on the basis of their religion or their colour.