By  Dr. Ghulam M. Haniff
St. Cloud, Minnesota

 

November 26 , 2010

Elections 2010: Up at the Grassroots

 

Yet another national election is over though Muslims were not overly successful in this exercise. The two standard-bearing Muslim incumbents were re-elected to the US House of Representatives and three or four incumbents to the state legislatures. No new faces emerged at the national level in any other position.

Perhaps thanks to the cudgel of Islamophobia Muslims were more active in the elections this go-around than in previous years. They organized and attended fundraisers in several states and actively campaigned for candidates as well. Unlike in the past they donated funds and closely assisted those running for political offices.

It seems that Muslims are beginning to understand the political system though they still have some distance to travel. For the most part they kept away from making such foolish statements as “2010 candidates for the year 2010” without really understanding what such declarations mean. On the whole Muslims are on the road to maturity.

Muslims have also finally gotten the message that their political home really is in the Democratic camp. One of the reasons for this is the relentless Republican assault on Islam and their incessant peddling of Islamophobia. The Tea Party has been particularly active in denigrating Islam through their organized efforts to derail mosque projects in Tennessee, Long Island, Wisconsin and, of course, New York where the plans for the Ground Zero Mosque (which is neither) has been placed temporarily on the shelf.

Several Islam-hating representatives, Sue Meyrick of North Carolina for example, have been elected to the Congress to say nothing of high-profiled Michele Bachman from Sixth District of Minnesota.

Despite its relatively small Muslim population several followers of Islam in Minnesota contested the elections and two were able to make it. One of them was Keith Ellison who received the highest margin of votes of all those running for the US Congress and the other, Hussein Samatar, a Somali immigrant, who ran for the Minneapolis Public School Board for the first time and won.

At least three running for various offices were eliminated in the primaries. Two first timers, Tanveer Janjua and Ikram-ul-Haq, ran for City Council positions but were not successful though they received respectable number of votes. One person, a Muslim woman named Farheen Hakeem, who habitually wears a hijab, ran for the Governorship under the Green Party label, but was not successful.

Fortunately for Hussein Samatar, running for the school board, there were no opponents. He

evidently had studied the political process well and realized that one of the ways to be successful in elections was to run unopposed.

The well-known Keith Ellison, from the Minnesota Fifth Congressional District, was successful in obtaining 68 percent of the votes in his district. He had come under continuous attacks for being Muslim and for supporting the Palestinians. One of the founders of the Tea Party factions had loudly claimed on the national media that Keith Ellison was disqualified to run for a political office because he was a Muslim.

Keith also had studied the system well, understood it, and acquired sufficient political experience from the time he served in the Minnesota state legislature. He also reached out to the people in his district and visited just about every neighborhood in his constituency.

Unfortunately, many Muslims who stand for political offices neither understand the system well nor have the skills to reach-out to the voters. They hardly have much sensitivity to the nature of the constituency which they wish to represent. On top of that they want to become a candidate under some obscure or ideological party label or a party-counter to the voters’ preference in district.

Nevertheless, Muslims have come a long way from the time when the community was just starting out fifty years ago. In a few years they should be able to travel a few more steps forward.

 

PREVIOUSLY

O My Lord! Advance Me in Knowledge

America Discovers Islam

A Revolution Long Overdue

The Rhetoric of War

Defeat and Dishonor

Pakistan at a Turning Point

American Islam at a Turning Point

WTC Tragedy: A Major Setback for Islam

ISNA Convention: A Lesson in Diversity

In Pursuit of Information Technology

From Dream to Mainstream

American Muslims Step-up to Become Visible

Bush and Cheney Disappoint

Bush and Muslims

Can Pakistan’s Economic Collapse be Averted?

Making Pakistan’s Economy Work

Pakistan's Political Parties: Cult Followings or Grassroots Groups

Which Democracy to Restore?

A Disturbing Scenario

Saddam's Days Are Numbered

Getting the Political Act Together

No Muslims - No Terrorism

Will Pakistan Make It?

Regime Change Needed in the Muslim World

On the path to Political Activism

Half a Century of Nationhood

Pakistanis Want New Faces and Good Governance

No Quick-Fix for Pakistan

Democracy is a Plaything of the Feudal Elite

Standing up for Muslim Rights

Creating Jobs to Serve Pakistan

Honor Killings in the US

Mr. Ten Percent Takes the Reign of Power

A New Dawn for America

The Power of Education

Absent from the World of Image-Making

Who Cries for Palestine?

Obama’s Message to the Muslim World

Lashing out against the West

No Hopeful Sign on the Horizon

Imagining Pakistan

Pakistan a Nation, Barely a State

Is Pakistan a Failed-State?

Dictators and Tyrants: Leaders of the Muslim World

The Musharraf Interview

When Innovation Is Forbidden

On the Path to Innovative Future

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Terrorism: Is it a Curse on Pakistan?

Gaza Freedom Flotilla

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Pakistan , Still a Failed State

The Problems Continue to Haunt

Amidst Disaster Zardari Visits His Chateau

Human Sufferings Intensify as Donations Decline

Islamophobia: Boundless Hatred

Making it to the Top

Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
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