Are We
Ready for a Muslim American Parliament?
By Kaleem Kawaja
Washington, DC
In browsing some websites recently
I came across some strange postings that implied
that some people do not consider the following
organizations as credible or representative of
the Muslim American community.
1. CAIR: Council on American Islamic Relations;
ISNA: Islamic Society of North America; ICNA:
Islamic Circle of North America; MSA: Muslim Students
Association; AMA: American Muslim Alliance; MAS:
Muslim American Society and MPAC: Muslim Public
Affairs Council.
At least the first five organizations listed above
have chapters in many cities across US, coast
to coast. At least the first five organizations
have been organizing annual, semi-annual and in
some instances quarterly conventions/conferences
throughout the US.
Additionally, their chapters in various cities
hold good size meetings about once a month. For
many years these annual conventions have been
attended by from 10,000 to 40,000 Muslims. Most
attendees in these conventions pay registration
fees. When these groups organize fundraisers,
usually they are full house.
The magazines published by these organizations
are subscribed by large numbers of Muslim Americans.
AMA, MPAC are public advocacy bodies with chapters
throughout the US, and they also hold conferences
attended by a large number of Muslims, although
not as large as the first five in the above list.
MAS is a large and popular organization in Eastern
US, that has grown in the last 5 years.
All of these organizations have Boards whose members
are chosen in a pluralistic method of indirect
election/selection. Office bearers, members, followers
of these organizations represent Muslims of all
ethnicities: African-American, SouthAsian-American,
Arab-American etc. These groups are organized
in a manner somewhat similar to other major denominational
organizations, e.g. Baptists, Methodists, Christian-Scientists,
Quakers, Catholics etc.
Thus it is obvious that the above organizations
are very credible and very representative of the
Muslims who live in the US.
About a year ago the above groups, and four other
Muslim groups, namely United Muslims of America
(UMA), Muslim Ummah of North America (MUNA), Muslim
Alliance of North America (MANA), and Project
Islamic Hope (PIH), joined hands with the above
seven groups to form a national umbrella Political
Action Committee with the name American Muslim
Taskforce (AMT).
In the short period of 10 months, AMT working
closely with its member and affiliate organizations
galvanized the 5 million Muslim Americans, who
were previously reluctant to get active in the
political arena, into unified action. Thus this
year a record number of Muslim citizens in many
cities throughout US organized fundraisers, worked
actively in the campaigns of their favorite candidates,
and about 90 percent of them voted on November
2. A feedback from the community indicates that
about 81 percent of Muslim voters followed the
guidance of AMT for a qualified vote for John
Kerry, the Democratic candidate for President.
In some other Western countries, e.g. UK, France,
Muslims have organized their “parliaments”
that hold elections every few years, where people
who are members of various groups run for election.
These “Muslim Parliaments” advise
the governments in their respective countries
on affairs of the Muslim community. The net result
is greater empowerment of the Muslim community.
The success of the AMT umbrella and its dozen
constituents who have much ethnic, ideological
and political diversities among them, in reaching
consensus and acting on it in the recent election
indicates that the five million strong Muslim
community in the US is ready to form an “Muslim
American Parliament”.
This “Muslim Parliament” will be of
great value in developing minimum common agenda
for the community, and in negotiating and influencing
favorable responses from the governments, at the
federal, state and county levels in the US. More
than anything it will provide real empowerment
to the Muslim community in the US in the current
very unfavorable situation of the community.
Let us hope that the leadership of all major Muslim
organizations will now take the initiative to
develop this much-needed common community platform
for the welfare of us all.
(The writer is a community leader in Washington,
DC)
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