Profiling is ineffective at increasing security:

Terrorists simply do not conform to a neat profile. Many suspects linked to past terrorist attacks that have been apprehended or identified  come from within the United States and European Union countries. Profiling does not help against individuals with names and ethnic backgrounds like Richard Reid, Jose Padilla, David Headley and Michael Finton.[1] Many terrorists have been European, Asian, African, Hispanic, and Middle Eastern, male and female, young and old. A significant number of domestic and aspiring terrorists have been found to be “clean skins” – individuals with no prior link to known fundamentalists, who have radicalised themselves by seeking out terror related materials on the internet. Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab was Nigerian. Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, was British with a Jamaican father. Germaine Lindsay, one of the 7/7 London bombers, was Afro-Caribbean. Dirty bomb suspect Jose Padilla was Hispanic-American. The 2002 Bali terrorists were Indonesian. Timothy McVeigh was a white American, as was the Unabomber. The Chechen terrorists who blew up two Russian planes in 2004 were female. Palestinian terrorists routinely recruit 'clean' suicide bombers, and have used unsuspecting Westerners as bomb carriers.[2] Racial profiling is a shortcut based on bias rather than evidence. Unfortunately there is no such thing as a “terrorist profile.” There was in 2005a Belgian woman who became a suicide bomber in Iraq, would profiling have picked her up?[3] It is sometimes suggested to target Muslims, reasoning that some are bound to be “radicalized.” But Islam is a global religion. Which characteristics should the security services look at to determine whether someone is a Muslim? Name? Appearance? In 2000 63% of Arab Americans were Christian and only just under a quarter were Muslim.[4] Inevitably only certain groups will be profiled, this then leaves open the possibility that terrorist organisations will simply recruit from other ones, as Michael German (a former FBI agent) argues: “Racial profiling is also unworkable. Once aware of national profiling, terrorists will simply use people from “non-profiled” countries or origins, like FBI most-wanted Qaeda suspect Adam Gadahn, an American. What will we do? Keep adding more countries to the list of 14 until we’ve covered the whole globe?"[5] Terrorists can easily out manoeuvre profiling systems.  Profiling creates two paths through airport security: one with less scrutiny and one with more. Terrorists will then want to take the path with less scrutiny. Once a terrorist group works out the profile they will be able to get through airport security with the minimum level of screening every time.[6] Massoud Shadjareh (the chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission,) argues:  " What's to stop them dressing up as orthodox Jews in order to evade profiling-based searches?"[7] Moreover, the model of security practices, including profiling, in Israel is not applicable to other Western nations, such as the United States.  Terrorists that threaten Israel are from well organised local groups, and from a particular group. America on the other hand faces groups from around the world.[8] This makes profiling far more efficacious in Israel and much less so in the United States, for example. [1] Al-Marayati, Salam. "Get the Intelligence Right". New York Times Room for Debate. 4 January 2010. http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/will-profiling-make-a-... [2] Schneier, Bruce. "Profiling Makes Us Less Safe". New York Times, Room for Debate. 4 January 2010. http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/will-profiling-make-a-... [3] German, Michael. "Wrong and Unworkable". New York Times Room for Debate. 4 January 2010. http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/will-profiling-make-a-... [4] World Directory of Minorities, ‘Arab and other Middle Eastern Americans’, http://www.minorityrights.org/?lid=2614&tmpl=printpage [5] German, Michael. "Wrong and Unworkable". New York Times Room for Debate. 4 January 2010. http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/will-profiling-make-a-... [6] Schneier, Bruce. "Profiling Makes Us Less Safe". New York Times, Room for Debate. 4 January 2010. http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/will-profiling-make-a-... [7] Sawer, Patrick. “Muslim MP: security profiling at airports is ‘price we have to pay’”. The Telegraph. 2 January 2010.  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/6924417/Musli... [8] Thompson, Mark. "Profiling, Political Correctness, and Airport Security." The League of Ordinary Gentleman. 29 November 2010. http://ordinary-gentlemen.com/blog/2010/11/29/profiling-political-correc...