Democratic
Decision-Making
By G. Mujtaba
Canada
The last US elections have
been one of the hard fought in the history of
the US. These elections have generated too much
interest among the common voters who got polarized
on different questions ranging from waging a relentless
‘war on terrorism’ to the issues of
preserving family values and bolstering the performance
of economy.
Each participating community was inspired by a
relatively different set of issues. Outraged at
the drastic steps taken against many of its members
without due process of law, the Muslim community
came out as the most united in pursuit of the
restoration of its civil rights. The post-election
statistics indicate that 93% of Muslim voters
polled for Kerry and 6% for Nader while only 1%
stood behind Bush.
It would be instructive to trace the process that
led to this unprecedented unity of thought and
action.
Though doing a good job of assisting their members
in different ways, most of the local level Muslim
organizations were not at all involved in the
mainstream political activities that could bring
the voice of the whole community in unison to
the notice of the administration and lawmakers.
Muslims were in urgent need of a national face
and a national voice. This need was fulfilled
with the establishment of the American Muslim
Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT),
a roof organization representing ten largest Muslims
groups.
The genius of its founders is evident from the
overall design of this organization. Even its
supporters have failed to notice three key factors:
First, the AMT had mobilized the Muslim socio-cultural-religious
network including Islamic Circle of North America
(ICNA) and Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)
almost a year before the Republican strategist
Karl Rove demonstrated to the rest of the county
that churches could be a major channel of communication
and mobilization. It was, of course, done in the
context of the legal right of these organizations
to provide civic education to the community.
Second, the AMT is an organization of organizations
and its members include the Muslim Students Association-National
(MSA-N), the largest Muslim youth organization
in the United States. The MSA-N is an equal partner
in decision-making and implementation. With its
130 chapters nationwide, the MSA-N provides a
tremendous resource for getting American-born
and American-educated young adults involved in
the political process. An entire generation is
thus being engaged in leadership training and
community development. MSA-N leaders Hadia Mubarak
and Jordon Robinson have played a prominent role
in the Election 2004.
Third, by building a partnership with organizations
like Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA) and
Project Islamic Hope (PIH) and by involving individual
leaders like Mehdi Bray, Eric Vickers and Habibullah
Saleem, the AMT has enabled immigrant Muslims
to benefit from the prodigious historical knowledge
and skill of indigenous Muslims.
Throughout 2004 great effort was made to motivate
the American Muslim community to make use of their
power of franchise, i.e., their right to vote,
as a source of self-empowerment.
The decision of the American Muslim Taskforce
(AMT) announced on October 21st was a landmark
in the history of the American Muslim community.
It demonstrated that the bloc vote in 2000 was
not a fluke. It also demonstrated that the Muslim
bloc vote was unmistakably linked to a set of
clearly defined goals.
But this repeated act of unified action was a
result of a four-step process that spanned over
ten months: 1) development of the initial draft
by the ten largest Muslim American organizations,
2) input from leaders of all major Muslim ethnic
groups, 3) input from Muslim activists from all
over the United States, and finally 4) input from
scholars, thinkers and experts.
The AMT has rectified many of its errors and omissions
between 2000 and 2004. It has taken a giant step
toward democratic decision-making which can be
summarized in three categorical steps: 1) agenda-setting
by qualified groups and organizations, 2) organized
input from community member, activists, and thinkers,
and 3) a criteria-driven decision by a broad coalition
of national and local organizations.
The implementation, on the other hand, is being
made more efficient by division of labor among
national organizations, as well as, among national
and local organizations.
It is quite impressive that the AMT was able to
create and implement a democratic decision-making
process in 2004. Obviously this needs to be expanded
and deepened but a stable machinery has been put
in place. It needs to further increase participation
by women, also by Latino, Southeast Asian, and
Central Asian Muslims.
The era of individual decision-makers had ended
in 1996. Today, no one organization, whether local
or national, let alone an individual, no matter
who he or she is, can claim or attempt to make
a decision on behalf of the Muslim community.
AMT’s biggest contribution is the creation
of a multi-organizational, democratic, decision-making
system. It can, should and most likely will be
improved but it contains all the essentials of
a workable democratic model: an open process with
equal access for all Muslim ethnic groups and
all social classes.
During the 2004 community outreach, the AMT has
also availed itself of a substantial list of thousands
of activists. It must continue to use these resources
to keep the Muslim community informed and involved.
Organized political activities help in raising
the status of American Muslim as a dynamic force
among various other communities.
The AMT effectively conveyed its expectations
to the election teams of major candidates and
succeeded in highlighting and recording their
concerns with their managers. The nature of exchanges
was at a high level but its content was not enough
to extend an unqualified endorsement to one of
the candidates.
Although the candidate the American Muslim community
endorsed with certain conditions and qualifications
did not succeed yet the community not only has
enriched itself with a valuable experience of
organizing itself but also of gaining confidence
in articulating and communicating its concerns
and providing solace to the community feeling
dejected at the unfair treatment by the Justice
Department. This is certainly going to give further
impetus to its struggle for a just cause in build
up to the 2006 elections.
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