I keep a distance to my former friends (because I consider them "impure")

True, I recently moved to a different country, so that might be it. Except, you don't know why I left everyone behind...

I reject Family Members

I haven't talked to some of them in months. Sure, I would say I feel bad about that. But would you believe someone who so obviously doesn't give a jihadist shit about his family?

I brutally changed my eating habits

Okay, I may or may not have changed from "cook your own meals to take to work" to "eat in the canteen, then live off ramen at home." But some of my friends are also very suspicious: One of them recently stopped eating meat and eggs and cheese and milk and really anything non-vegan! Someone who keeps this kind of company... I mean, that's kind of extreme to live in France and not eat Coq-au-Vin, cheese, baguette and more wine every evening, isn't it?

I don't watch television and don't go to the movies anymore (because they show images I consider forbidden)

Wait, I say, it's just that 99% of TV is bullshit or just plain shit. Not worth spending a single second on. And I stay at work too late to go to the movies. And my French is not good enough anyway... Ha, you say, what pitiful pretexts to avoid sinful imagery! And right you are!

I stopped doing Sports (because it is mixed-gender)

Or because I am a classic Computer Science nerd who's idea of a good evening can involve lengthy research on a topic remotely relevant to nothing, really, followed by a rant on some remote social network most people have not even heard of.

All in all, I score 6 out of 9 on this list, and "started wearing clothes that cover the whole body" doesn't really count when Grenoble is just having the first real snow. Also I am not a women! (you can note this as "has medieval understanding of gender equality") So I guess I am pretty dangerous.

But wait, there is more!

• I spend a lot of time alone, thinking, reading, writing.
• I definitely have a problem with authority. I am outraged by the pointless demonstration of... of what, really?... at the entry door at work.
• I live in a students accommodation, but I hardly meet my neighbors.

Of course, I could try and explain all of these points away, but let's face it:

This list is BULLSHIT because it assumes you to know the motivation behind someone's actions. If you don't, it conveniently delivers the "correct" interpretation with the observations. Sure, the disclaimer at the bottom of the page notes that every case has to be treated individually.

But overall, this kind of list makes any "unnormal" behaviour suspicious in and of itself. The mindset this list promotes runs counter to the idea of individualism that I love so much about our western values or what they are supposed to be.

This list only serves to spread Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. But then, that's what a sleeper terrorist would say, wouldn't he?

By the way, that's also what a communist would say around 1920 or during the McCarthy era. Or a witch a few hundred years before that... Recommended reading of the day: The Crucible by Arthur Miller.

Update: To the people shouting "Daan, don't be paranoid, nobody is going to say you're a terrorist":

The point here was to demonstrate that this list can be applied to nearly anyone. And when it comes to terrorists, a perceived intention seems to be good enough nowadays to treat you like one. That means that this kind of criteria can easily be applied to people sho don't fit the social norm, or to anyone else, to make them "disappear" from public opinion. In Germany they now want to take away passports of people they think might want to leave to fight for IS/SIS/ISIL. These people would then get a "replacement" passport which is basically saying "we think this person might be a terrorist." Good luck getting a job with one o these. How would you feel if the country you lived in took away your passport and branded you a dengerous person? Chances are, you would be angry, aren't they?

So, making people snitch on others for not fitting social norms based on a perceived intention is dangerous because it will marginalize these people and may very well create the very aggression against society it is supposed to stifle. But then again, that's the essence of the War on Terror™: you fight it with extreme means, so that you can be sure to prove yourself right in saying there are lots of enemies.