: Your Neighbor Might Have Some TIPS For You

People don’t know whether to panic over it or ignore it. It is a program announced this week by the Justice Department known by its acronym TIPS (Terrorism Information and Prevention System). Sounds benign enough until you read the fine print: millions of informers would be recruited among ordinary citizens to serve as “extra eyes and ears for law enforcement.” Not surprisingly, many citizens (Arabs and Muslims especially) are horrified by the implicit prospect of being snooped on by the folks expected to be recruited (delivery workers, postal employees, bus drivers). However, that recruitment may be harder than expected as the US Postal Service has indicated it won’t participate in the program. Not only has the ACLU lodged its expected opposition, but so has Congress. “Majority Leader Armey has taken a courageous step in insisting that we protect our privacy in the fight against terror,” said Rachel King, an ACLU Legislative Counsel. “There is no place in America for either an internal passport or for utility workers and cable technicians to become government-sanctioned peeping toms.” To further illustrate the possibilities, a famous Indian film actress was detained following a military jet escort of her flight to New York after a passenger pointed her out as suspicious (Osama’s in Bollywood?). She was released quietly after five hours.

Zahed Amanullah is associate editor of altmuslim.com.  He is based in London, England.