In 1997, Demi Moore played a rough and tough female soldier in the movie G.I Jane. Well, it’s time for G.I. Jane to make way for the real life terrorist Jihad Jane, a blonde, blue-eyed American woman from Pennsylvania. You just can’t make such stuff up.

Colleen LaRose was arrested in October 2009 in connection with a plot to kill Swedish artist Lars Vilk. LaRose, popularly known as Jihad Jane, is the third woman to have been charged in the US with terror violations in recent years. However, her plans to “scare the nonbelievers into submission” by waging violent jihad in South Asia and Europe never came to fruition.

LaRose is said to have been radicalised once she began to mingle with extremist elements around the world through the internet. She was involved with terrorist networks, soliciting funds, forging travel documents, and recruiting American and European women for extremist organisations.

The guys at Al Qaeda would probably have been patting themselves on the back after having successfully recruited a US-born woman who could easily “blend in.” With her solid American credentials, Jihad Jane was the ultimate terror weapon. Under the stealth of her Caucasian cloak, she could plot, plan, and execute the most devious of schemes without ever being detected. She was untraceable, practically immune to the racial profiling used to screen out suspected terrorists.

That was until she decided that a MySpace page would be the best way to further her cause. The blonde stereotype stands, and yet again saves the day!

LaRose caught the attention of internet sleuths as early as June 2008 after posting comments online that were perpetuating the cause of terrorism under the user name JihadJane on YouTube and MySpace. “She was a fun-loving woman. Pennsburg is a small town, a quaint Pennsylvania town; maybe she was looking for a little excitement online,” a reporter who interviewed Jihad Jane's ex-boyfriend told CNN. It wouldn’t come as a surprise now if the Al Qaeda manual for terrorists has been revised to include a special section on internet discretion.

One wonders about the state of affairs when people begin to embrace terrorism and openly come out with their views on public forums. It seems as if American trepidation about all things terror-related seems to have mutated into a fascination. At the rate things are going, it won’t be too long before we see children dressed up as Super Suicide Man or Captain Jihad on Halloween.

Video game merchants would pick up on the trends as well. I can see it now, Jihad Jane and the Hidden Caves of Afghanistan followed by the much anticipated sequel, Jihad Jane and the Tora Bora Mystery.

Chances are in a year or so we may even get a heart-wrenching movie on Jihad Jane, perhaps starring Charlize Theron. A true story of a woman who juggles a career while raising three children in suburban Pennsylvania until finally overcoming insurmountable circumstances to blow herself up in a crowded Walmart. Oscar glory awaits.

But here’s the real clincher. Jihad Jane had posted the following on YouTube: “I am desperate to do something somehow to help suffering Muslims.” She unwittingly might have succeeded in doing so.

The LaRose situation has cast serious doubts over recent US surveillance trends. Racial profiling at international airports and accounts of harassment, abusive treatment, and unjustified arrests of countless citizens of Middle Eastern and South Asian descent have caused a global ruckus. The governments of many Muslim countries have complained that terror screening is discriminatory and offensive to the majority of Muslims who have no links to terrorist organisations.

The emergence of Jihad Jane will drive home the fact that there are no easy ‘tells’ that can help intelligence officials identify those with extremist leanings. As one US Justice Department official put it: “Colleen LaRose’s case shatters any thought that we can spot a terrorist based on appearance.” Indeed, Jihad Jane completely defeats the concept of an ‘identifiable terrorist.’

Perhaps now, the US security set-up will be willing to revisit its policy of racial profiling. In the context of serious human rights violations under the guise of terror screening, Jihad Jane’s case should validate the call for expanding the profiling process.

A change of attitude in this regard could help mainstream Muslims feel less targeted and persecuted when living or traveling in the West. Such a shift could help improve relations between Muslim and western communities, which would, in turn, reorient the ‘war against terrorism’ as a security problem, rather than a religio-cultural attack. Ironically, then, it seems as if Jihad Jane has succeeded in her goal of helping “suffering Muslims.”

Zeresh John is a multimedia content producer for Dawn.com.

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