SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 1: An intensive voter registration and get-out-the-vote drive is under way in the seven-million strong American Muslim community before the Nov 7 mid-term election. At least two million Muslims are registered voters with a substantial Muslim voter turnout expected on election day.
The Muslim groups are targeting 12 states with a high concentration of Muslim population: California, Illinois, New York, Texas, New Jersey, Michigan, Florida, Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota.
The Muslim American Society, which has set up voter registration booths in mosques across the country, has added 30,000 new voters to the rolls in recent weeks.
In Illinois, another state with a heavy concentration of Muslims, the Council of Islamic Organisations of Greater Chicago has been working to register more of the area's approximately 400,000 Muslims to vote.
In California which hosts 20 per cent of the American Muslim population, American Muslim Voice (AMV) and American Muslim Alliance (AMA) are also encouraging Muslims to register as voters and participate in the national political process. The AMA has issued an election advisory suggesting its preference for the candidates who supported the Muslims on the issue of civil rights which remains the top Muslim concern in elections since 2000.
Keith Ellison, who is poised to become the first Muslim in the U.S. House of Representatives, last week visited California. He told a gathering of Muslims in San Francisco that the fact that he is Muslim has become the main point of discussion for some and turned into a blessing. Ellison has been victim of a number of negative campaign attacks from his Republican opponent Alan Fine, who has labelled Ellison a terrorist sympathiser. Ellison said he had chosen not to respond with a negative campaign. He said a smear campaign would go against his belief of bringing together people of all races and religions.
Meanwhile, two recent polls suggested that a majority of American Muslims are poised to support the Democratic Party in the mid-term election in which several polls suggest that President Bush’s Republican Party is likely to lose control of the Congress.
According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations survey of Muslim voters, 42 percent consider themselves members of the Democratic Party while only 17 per cent are Republican. Another 28 percent do not belong to any party.
Strong majorities of Arab-American voters in four key states — Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida — intend to vote for the Democratic candidates for senator, according to another poll by the Arab American Institute (AAI). It may be pointed out that about 40 percent of the 3.5 million-strong American Arab community is Muslim and the rest is Christian. However, Arab Christians have also been complaining of discrimination in the post-9/11 era.
The American Muslim and Arab voters are leaning towards the Democratic Party because of the Bush administration policies that substantially curtailed their civil liberties in the aftermath of 9/11. It may be recalled that in November 2000 presidential election American Muslims voted en bloc for the Republican presidential candidate George Bush, who was governor of Texas at that time.
There is a widespread dissatisfaction in these communities with the Bush administration's treatment of Arab and Muslim Americans since the Sept 11 attacks. Among the policies that have alienated Muslims are those allowing racial profiling of Muslim men, the use of secret evidence in cases said to touch on national security, and the detention and deportation of many Arab and Muslim nationals without the right to legal representation.
At the same time, the government has launched a campaign against Muslim charitable organisations for allegedly providing financial or other material assistance to groups the government designates as `terrorist’. Several Muslim charities have been shut down, although none has been found so far having links with `terrorist’ organisations.
