WASHINGTON: The American Muslim community, which was influential in President George W. Bush’s electoral victory in 2000, is threatening to desert him next year, says a report published in the Strait Times on Friday.

The report, based on a survey conducted by the newspaper’s Washington bureau, says that the issue which most riles Muslims and Arab-Americans is a registration programme that was introduced after the Sept 11 attacks and seen as discriminatory.

The programme requires immigrants from 25 countries to register with the authorities. All the countries involved, with the exception of North Korea, are Muslim.

“The programme just targets Muslim countries,” said American Muslim Council communications director Faiz Rehman.

The official rationale for the programme is to correct visa irregularities but it is seen as stereotyping Arab and Muslim immigrants as potential terrorists.

“It is causing anxiety because we believe it is a selective prosecution of the law,” said Mr Nihad Awad, executive director of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. “It defies the American tradition of treating people equally before the law.”

To make matters worse, immigrants who came forward voluntarily to register under the programme thought it was a formality.

A staggering 82,000 trooped in, many of them proud to cooperate in the battle against terrorism. But 13,000 were shocked when told they faced deportation because of visa irregularities.

“They thought that because they were abiding by the law, they would be treated leniently. Now they feel they were duped,” said Mr Faiz.

Mr Nihad added: “Muslims and Arabs feel they are being singled out. It’s not healthy.”

The US authorities contend that the crackdown is necessary because illegal immigrants pose a high security risk, pointing out that several of the September 11 terrorists were in America illegally at the time of the attacks.

But US Muslims are not appeased by such logic and that could be dangerous for Mr Bush in next year’s presidential elections.