There are 1.8 million registered Muslim voters in the United
States, and that number is predicted to increase with a new
generation of young Muslim Americans coming of voting age.
And politicians are slowly starting to take notice.
A Democratic forum in Michigan organized by the Arab American
Institute last October was attended by all of the Democratic
candidates, and Michigan will print its first Arabic language
ballots for the upcoming February primary.
A Labor Day convention organized by the Islamic Society of North
America included three of the presidential candidates, who showed
up uninvited to talk in front of a crowd of more than 30,000.
On the university level, Muslim students are gaining attention
as Monday marks the start of Islamic Awareness Week at UCLA.
Agha Saeed, national chairman at the American Muslim Alliance,
said that the increased political importance of Muslim Americans
should be expected.
“There are 7 million Muslim Americans in the United
States, and in every close race, politicians realize that they can
ignore large populations of potential voters only (at) their own
expense,” Saeed said.
The importance of Muslim American voters first became clear to
political experts during the close election of 2000.
During that presidential race, the American Muslim Public
Council, a nonprofit organization, invited both the presidential
candidates to discuss issues important to its members.
“The Bush campaign responded, while Gore kept postponing
the meeting. The AMPC counseled their members to vote for Bush, and
it did make a significant difference in the election,” said
Delinda Hanley, news editor for the Washington Report on Middle
Eastern Issues. The Washington Report is a magazine focused on
providing information about U.S. policy in the region.
Another important aspect of the Muslim American voting block is
its youth, with one-third of all Muslim votes coming from
18-year-olds to 25-year-olds and much of the political momentum
coming from American-born Muslims.
“The immigrant generation is ambivalent and hesitant. They
are not sure how to participate in the political process,”
Saeed said. “The American-born generation is free of those
illusions and concerns, very much ready to participate in every
aspect of the political life.”
However, experts say even with a higher voter participation,
Muslim Americans still face several hurdles before their voting
block can truly begin to influence American politics.
The primary hindrance is the sheer diversity of the Muslim
population in the United States. With the majority of Muslim
Americans hailing from many different countries, making a joint
consensus is difficult.
“Whether Muslim voters will influence American politics
will all depend on whether the Muslim community will vote as a
block,” said Jonathan Friedlander, assistant director of the
UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies.
Sherifah Rafiq, national outreach coordinator at the Muslim
American Freedom Society, a nonprofit organization that lists
Muslim unity as one of its goals, also said the various Muslim
American factions need to find common ground.
“Muslims in general would need to collaborate on things
that just don’t concern foreign policy. Palestine or Iraq
cannot just be our only cry,” Rafiq said.
Laila Al-Qatami, a spokeswoman for the American-Arab
Anti-Discrimination Committee, a grassroots organization which
responds to cases of anti-Muslim discrimination, also emphasized
the importance of presenting a unified front in order to educate
the non-Muslim community.
“People need to know what it means to be a Muslim; they
need to have information on what Islam, the fastest growing
religion in the U.S., means,” Al-Qatami said.
This path to understanding was severely hampered by the
terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Experts say the passing of the USA PATRIOT Act, which some
activists say unfairly targets Americans of Muslim descent, may
provide a new political rallying point for Muslim Americans.
“We suspect Muslim American organizations will try to get
all their members involved in this upcoming presidential election,
not only because of international issues, but civil rights issues
as well, such as unfair profiling and the Patriot Act,”
Hanley said.
All the experts, however, agree on one point: Muslim Americans
should start playing a bigger role in American politics.
“We need to be heard to affect policy. Then, policy makers
will take note,” Al-Qatami said.