SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 4: Leaders of the seven-million American Muslims have urged the community to deliver a bloc vote against President George W. Bush in next year’s presidential elections. The American Muslim Political Coordination Council (AMPCC) made the announcement at the 40th annual convention of Islamic Society of North America in Chicago.

The AMPCC, that includes four major groups, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the American Muslim Council, the American Muslim Alliance, and the Muslim Public Affairs Council, was instrumental in delivering a bloc Muslim vote in favour of President Bush in 2000 elections.

The message is to reflect widespread “dissatisfaction” in the Muslim American community with the Bush administration’s treatment of Arab and Muslim Americans since the September 11 attacks, said Nihad Awad, CAIR Executive Director who represented his organization at the AMPCC meeting.

Among the policies that have alienated Muslims are those allowing racial profiling of Arab and Muslim men and the detention and deportation of many Arab and Muslim nationals without the right to legal representation.

Further to their outrage, Bush appointed in August Daniel Pipes, an outspoken anti-Muslim scholar, to the board of the government-funded US Institute of Peace.

The AMPCC member organizations have begun voter registration drives at mosques and Islamic centres across the US to ensure a strong turnout in the 2004 presidential elections. AMPCC hopes to send one million Muslims to say “No” to Bush’s 2004 re-election bid.