Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Targeting a group

The arguments in the article "Targeting a community for ethnic scrutiny" (Open Page, Sept 10) are one-sided. Terrorism has claimed and continues to claim thousands of lives. The state is responsible for securing the lives of its citizens and thwarting the design of terrorists. The security agencies are under immense pressure. `Suspect everyone and everything' is increasingly becoming the mantra for them. Let us submit ourselves to checking and frisking without complaining so that there is no compromise on security.

R. Muralidharan,
Chennai

Isolating a community or racial profiling will further divide Hindus and Muslims. Such ethnic scrutiny, even while the perpetrators of the acts of terror are yet to be brought to justice, adds insult to the injury of the Muslim community. Reducing an individual to a "choiceless singularity," (the term used by Amartya Sen in Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny) will only result in more violence. To associate terrorism with a religion is unjustified and unfair.

P. Maria Christopher,
Coimbatore

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