LOS ANGELES, Aug 30: Two years ago, 700 Muslim Americans across the United States ran for office in local, state and national elections.

This year the number has dwindled to just 70, according to the American Muslim Alliance, a group that has tracked the political influence of Muslims since 1996.

“9/11 (sept 11 attacks) put us back 10 years,” said Samina Faheem, the alliance’s national coordinator. “But it has made us work harder than ever to educate the public.”

Faheem was commenting after a press conference on Tuesday called by Republican Congressional candidate Syed Mahmood, a Pakistani- American from Karachi, in response to threats received by his campaign headquarters last week.

Police are investigating it as a hate crime.

Mahmood said he felt sorry for the culprit, who shouted in one of four phone messages: “We don’t want any ‘Turbanheads’ (a pejorative term for Muslims) running for government in this country.” The man also said there would be a “civil war in this country”.

“In every society there are people like this,” Mahmood said. “And the seriousness of this has increased since Sept 11. But we are not discouraged.”

Fear of racial attacks is one of the reasons fewer Muslim Americans are willing to run for office, Faheem and others say.

“Just from looking at and reading the newspaper, it seems every single person is thinking that (Muslims) may be (targeted) at any day,” said Hafiz Siddiqi, an Islamic studies professor at Ohlone College. “Everybody should be given equal rights and equal justice. Right now, there is no equal justice.”

Mahmood is one of a handful of Muslim candidates running for office in the Fremont-Newark-Union-City area. Representation from these groups is crucial, many argue, because they account for nearly 40 percent of the population.

Surveys show the number of Muslims in the United States has doubled in the past decade to about three million.

Although most agree a majority of the Americans are tolerant of other cultures, the few who are not have not been shy.

Shyam Chetal, one of nine candidates vying for two seats on the Fremont City Council, said one man tore up his business card and threw it in his face because he is Indo-American.

“You just have to ignore it,” Chetal said. “It’s not the way most people feel. It’s not going to discourage me from seeking office.”

Efforts by the Muslim alliance and other groups to increase political pull have netted only modest results, according a 2001 report by the Middle East Forum, a Philadelphia-based think tank.

In the last presidential elections, Arab and Muslim political action committees, for example, managed to raise just only 218 million dollars for George W. Bush, even though 16 percent said they planned to vote Republican, the report showed.

Mahmood knows that he will not raise as much as his opponent — 30-year incumbent Pete Stark, D-Fremont — in the race for the a congressional district, which includes Fremont, Union City and Newark.

“We want to prove that we don’t need half a million (dollars) to run a campaign,” Mahmood said.

Even though Muslim groups do not have a lot of money or candidates, they still are hoping to make a difference.

A poll by Muslims in American Public Square, a Washington- based research organization, showed 79 percent of Muslims are registered to vote and 85 percent of those registered plan to exercise that right on election day.

Gaining real ground politically, however, will depend on the passion of tomorrow’s politicians, says Faheem, the alliance’s coordinator.

Last spring, the Newark chapter of the alliance began the first Youth Think Tank, a group of more than 40 teenagers who have conducted research on legislative issues and started a national newsletter.