Pitts: ‘Jihad Jane’ shatters terror stereotype

By Leonard Pitts

Evil is not a color.

It has no particular religion nor creed, nor style of dress, nor gender nor geographic home. Evil is an equal opportunity employer.

One hopes we learn at least that much from the adventures of Jihad Jane.

That, according to federal prosecutors, is the name Colleen LaRose used when she went online to say how “desperate” she was to do something to help Muslims. That desperation allegedly led her deep into the shadowy world of fundamentalist extremism.

LaRose, prosecutors say, used the Internet to recruit would-be terrorists. She allegedly sought to kill a Swedish artist who had angered Muslims by depicting the Prophet Muhammad with a dog's body. LaRose is also said to have agreed to marry one of her conspirators. According to the indictment, she wrote that it would be “an honor & great pleasure to die or kill” for her intended.

Seven alleged members of the would-be terror cell have been apprehended in Ireland. That's in addition to LaRose, who was arrested in Philadelphia in October and indicted earlier this month.

Which ought to serve as a rebuke to the guy standing in the airport security line grumbling at how the TSA agent is running his wand over some dewy-eyed grandmother who obviously isn't a threat.

Even more, it should rebuke pundits such as Cal Thomas, Ann Coulter and Kathleen Parker, who, in the wake of Sept. 11, argued for ethnic profiling in airport security. Pat down swarthy, bearded young men with Middle Eastern accents and exotic head gear, they said, and leave the rest of us alone.

Jihad Jane is the reason that's a dumb idea. She is, according to published reports and photos, 4-foot-11 tall, 105 pounds and 46 years of age, with pale skin, blond hair and blue eyes. She is, literally, a citizen of Main Street, USA, having made her home on that thoroughfare in the Philadelphia suburb of Pennsburg, where she was a caretaker for her boyfriend's father. Until, that is, she disappeared, along with her boyfriend's passport, which she allegedly intended to give to her terrorist fiance.

There are several good arguments against profiling. It's morally wrong. It's an abridgment of civil liberties.

But the most compelling of them is embodied by Jihad Jane. Pragmatism will tell you that to concentrate solely on swarthy Middle Eastern men is to turn a blind eye to everyone else. But as demonstrated by LaRose, by convicted terrorists Richard Reid, Jose Padilla and John Walker Lindh, and any number of others here and abroad, terror comes in both genders and all cultures and shades.

So we should be thankful for the vigilance of federal authorities who nabbed Jihad Jane.

n Comments: lpitts@miamiherald.com.