DEAR MR. O’LEARY: A LETTER FROM AN EXASPERATED PROPONENT OF NON-RACIAL PROFILING

DEAR MR. O’LEARY: A LETTER FROM AN EXASPERATED PROPONENT OF NON-RACIAL PROFILING

This podcast focuses on a letter, published in the Transport Security International Magazine, is an open letter to Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, criticizing his suggestion to focus airport security measures on young Muslim men as being more likely to be terrorists. In it the author, Philip Baum, argues that O’Leary’s approach is dangerous and ignorant, as it promotes racial profiling and ignores the complex reality of terrorism. Baum emphasizes the importance of behavioural analysis, but stresses that it should be based on individual assessment rather than discriminatory assumptions. He points out that the vast majority of attacks are not perpetrated by Muslim individuals, and highlights the failures of racial profiling in the past. Baum concludes by suggesting that O’Leary’s comments, while controversial, could be used to spark positive change within the aviation industry by moving away from the current tick-box approach to security towards a more sophisticated system that considers individual behaviour and potential threats.