Bush Losing Muslim Vote:
CAIR Survey
Washington,
DC: American-Muslim voters have ditched Republican President
George W Bush in favor of the Democrats, a poll showed on
Tuesday.
According to a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)-conducted
survey, published two weeks before crucial congressional
elections, American-Muslims are also becoming increasingly
doubtful that the Iraq war was worthwhile and oppose the
use of force to spread democracy.
“It shows the Muslim community votes should not be
taken for granted,” said Nihad Awad, CAIR executive
director.
Forty-two percent of the snapshot of 1,000 voters among
a database of 400,000 American-Muslims identified themselves
as Democrats contrasted with 17 percent identifying themselves
as Republican. Twenty-eight percent described themselves
as non-affiliated.
In 2000, Muslim Americans backed Bush over former vice president
Al Gore, a Democrat, after the then-Texas governor campaigned
against the use of secret evidence in deportation hearings.
“Muslims were more ready in the past to vote Republican,
a majority of Muslims voted for Bush in 2000,” said
Mohamed Nimer, CAIR research director. Perceptions that
Bush failed to honor promises, the war in Iraq, global anti-terror
campaign and US policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
eroded Bush’s advantage, the survey suggests.
Fifty-five percent of respondents were afraid that the war
on terror had become a war on Islam, with 88 percent believing
the Iraq invasion was not worth it, and 90 percent opposing
the spread of democracy by force. Sixty-nine percent of
those surveyed also believed the United States would improve
its standing in the Muslim world by supporting a “just
resolution” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Sixty-six percent also supported the normalizing of relations
with US “axis of evil” foe Iran.
The poll was published as Minnesota attorney Keith Ellison
appeared poised to become the first Muslim elected to the
US Congress, on a platform including calls for a US withdrawal
from Iraq.
Ellison, all but certain to grab a seat in the US House
of Representatives in the November 7 polls, billed himself
as a moderate Muslim who courted all races and religions.
CAIR is mounting non-partisan get-out-the-vote efforts across
the US in the run-up to the elections and will also be active
Ellison’s district, where recent Muslim immigrants
from Somalia are expected to cast ballots.
Nearly three percent of American-Muslims are from Minnesota.
Twenty percent of the community lives in California. New
York and Illinois have nine percent each while Texas, New
Jersey, Michigan, Florida and Virginia host more than six
percent of US-Muslims each.
The CAIR survey showed that many of those polled celebrated
American traditions along with their non-Muslim neighbors.
Eight-six percent celebrate the Fourth of July Independence
Day holiday. Eighty-two percent of those polled said terror
that attacks harm American-Muslims.
Estimates of the number
of American-Muslims range from three to seven million, and
include Arabs, African Americans, Iranians, and South Asians.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
