Muslim Bloc Vote Percentage Highest in the Nation
By Tahir Ali
Massachusetts


Some of the consequences of the second Muslim bloc vote - organized and mobilized by the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT), an umbrella of ten largest Muslim organizations - are already in evidence.

In terms of internal cohesion – a product of consensus and discipline - the Muslim bloc vote was the most effective bloc vote in 2004. This obviously does not mean that Muslims voters were the most numerous; it means that the percentage of Muslim who voted for Sen. Kerry was highest in comparison with all other groups casting bloc votes. Here are the hard facts.

The following figures indicate the percentage of vote by a particular community to its designated candidate. For example the designated candidate for Muslim bloc vote was Sen. Kerry, the designated candidate for the Evangelical and Catholic bloc vote was President Bush.

Muslim bloc vote 93%
Black bloc vote 89%
Evangelical bloc vote 78%
Jewish bloc vote 78%
Veterans bloc vote 57%
Hispanic bloc vote 55%
Catholic bloc vote 52%


Note: The above data for all groups except Muslims is taken from the National Election Pool created by six news organizations to provide exit poll surveys for the 2004 presidential election. The data for Muslim vote was collected by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the American Muslim Alliance (AMA).

While the American Muslim community suffers from many inadequacies, it deserves full credit for its capacity for building internal consensus, demonstrating unity of purpose and exercising discipline of coordinated action.
Full credit must be given to the AMT for its leadership in organizing and mobilizing the Muslim vote and connecting it with the demand for restoration of civil liberties and human rights. But full credit must also be given to the Muslim media, in particular to: Pakistan Link, Muslims, Mirror, Urdu Times, Pakistan Post and Muslim Journal for informing and educating the Muslim community.

One must also acknowledge the services of Muslim activists working with the Kerry Campaign as well as those active in the Democratic Party at the state and city levels.

Similar appreciation must also be expressed for Muslims, who are member of the Republican, Green or Libertarian Parties or supporters of Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo, and who willingly gave up their personal affiliations and preferences to make the Muslim bloc vote the number one in the nation.

One might ask but what is the significance of this bloc vote? What is it going to ‘buy’ us in the political market? Did or will the Muslim vote even count and if so for what?

The efficacy of a bloc vote is judged by five factors: 1) policies, 2) appointments, 3) resource allocation, 4) value generalization, and 5) future possibilities.
The bloc vote has enabled Muslims to team up with Democrats and put pressure on the Bush Administration during the nomination hearing for various new cabinet members.

In an editorial suitably titled “Recircling the Democratic Wagons’, The New York Times has perceptively advised the Democratic Party to “exercise some form of political relevance in the second Bush administration, by using its minority power selectively to filibuster objectionable legislation and unacceptable presidential nominees…”

On the question of objectionable presidential nominees our interests converge with the Democratic Party and other civil libertarian forces. Our ‘highest-intensity’ bloc vote gives us the credentials and credibility to team up with the Democratic leadership in the house and the senate and to work for policy change.

Since most Muslims are in sympathy with family values as well as values of social justice and human freedom, we are in an exceptional position to have a meaningful say in both debates. We can actually play a role beyond our numbers in influencing the value generalization by the state and the civil society. We can do so by supporting separation of “church” and state and opposing separation of “church” and society.

Those who been watching national news know that the lineup for 2008 presidential election has already started. Comparative data on ‘who did what and at which level of achievement’ will not be lost on the presidential, gubernatorial or senatorial hopefuls and their demographers and strategists.

The Muslim bloc vote in 2000 had induced two Democratic hopefuls, Dennis Kucinich and Carol Mosley Bruan to show up uninvited at ISNA convention in 2003. A politician does not knock at your door to ask who you voted last time; he or she wants to know will you vote for ME this time.

Politicians respect those communities that vote in high numbers. The 2004 bloc vote is already beginning to have an impact in cities and states getting ready for off-year local elections in 2005. Candidates have started local and national Muslim organizations.

President Kennedy had once said, “People see things as they are and ask why; I see things as they could be and ask why not”. That is an important piece of advice to remember.

The job of the analyst is to see things as they are; the job of the strategist to see things as they could be: The second Muslim bloc vote, with the highest percentage of internal mobilization, is a new reference point that will serve us for years to come.

When I asked Dr. Agha Saeed, the chief architect of both the first (2000) and second (2004) Muslim bloc votes to comment on the above findings he responded by saying, “We have not only outperformed all other groups in terms of the level of internal mobilization, we have also improved over the 2000 Muslim bloc vote in which 72% of the Muslims had voted for the designated candidate”.

Achievements are like seeds. They take a while to grow into plants and trees, but once they do the community is richly rewarded.
A tree is known by its fruit; an action by its consequences.


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Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
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