The American Muslim
Voter: Participate or Pout?
American Muslims
remain politically pre-pubescent. They
tried to come of age in the 2000 presidential
election with the first-ever Muslim bloc
vote but 9/11 effectively demoted them
besides serving to asphyxiate their civil
rights. Muslims are essentially America’s
lepers, despite the semblance of normalcy
that people try hard to maintain.
With the presidential
election looming ahead what should the
suspected, the shunned, the frisked and
the frowned-on do?
In 2000 American
Muslim leaders dreamt of two million Muslim
voters flexing their political muscle
and it was the Bush campaign that understood
their potential power. Or was it just
serendipity? Gore had presided on the
committee that had passed the Law of Secret
Evidence and Bush vowed to do away with
it in a presidential debate. The Muslim
bloc vote materialized and the rest is
history.
The paradigm
has not just shifted since then; it has
been rocked into oblivion. The Patriot
Act makes all other legislation look like
play and now that Patriot Act II is on
the horizon, Americans are really in a
state of disorientation for it is easy
to see past the thin veneer of democracy
and confront an absolutist government.
Kerry creamed
his competition in the first presidential
debate and him and Edwards have been able
to effectively convey that the Bush government
engaged in the wrong war at the wrong
time with the wrong enemy.
It is fallacious
to think that foreign policy is the only
concern of the American Muslim voter.
Education, health care, taxes, jobs and
their outsourcing concern all Americans,
and actually affect the American Muslim
in perhaps a more fundamental manner than
the war in Iraq. 9/11 served as the great
equalizer and now Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran,
Israel and Palestine have all moved into
the average American’s consciousness.
Many sound
bytes were spent in the first presidential
debate on the eradication of terrorism.
Though presidential and articulate most
of the time, Kerry insulted the viewer
by his simplistic “I will hunt down
and kill the terrorists” statement.
One immediately envisions Kerry in a coonskin
hat and a gun darting around in the woods.
Perhaps the less mentally endowed voter
needs those basic statements to comprehend
and connect. In the Iraq exit strategy
it made sense to reach out to the Muslim
world, create a larger coalition and isolate
the extremists. And yet he still skirted
the central issue as did Bush.
In the vice-presidential
debate when asked about the Israel-Palestine
issue, Edwards’ indignation appeared
boundless. Israel, he said, did not just
have a right but a duty to defend itself
and it was so tragic that Israeli children
were dying and that if the unilateral
attempt of Israel to withdraw from the
Gaza strip were resisted, the use of any
means was justifiable. And though the
question was about Israel and Palestine,
he self-righteously went on about bringing
Saudi Arabia and Iran to task. This segment
was as violently anti-Muslim as it could
possibly have been.
John Edwards
has lost his sense of justice or developed
pre-Alzheimer’s dementia. The displacement
of the Palestinian people, the wanton
killing in Sabra and Shatila, the razing
of homes with people still in them with
tanks financed by the American taxpayer,
the Apache helicopter gunship attacks
on a defenseless people is beyond unconscionable.
And to think that they would not defend
themselves with suicide bombing is inane.
And like I
said Muslims are certainly current day
lepers. After all Palestinian children
killed by high-tech weaponry are not to
be mourned and only Israeli deaths are
to be avenged. Their lives are invaluable,
lepers are not whole to start with, and
how does it matter if all of them die?
Just a couple
of days prior to the vice-presidential
debate I had gotten a yard sign that said
“Kerry/Edwards: for a stronger America”
At this point in the debate I almost ran
out to pull out the sign, but was stopped
in time by my daughter, wiser than her
tender 17 years. “Muslims must learn
to play the political system,” she
said.
And just as
they acted cohesively, incidentally a
very atypical behavior for Muslims, 9/11
happened and the monstrous Patriot Act
shattered lives in every corner of the
nation.
As far as
the Muslim voter is concerned, Bush’s
policies have done the damage. The two
presidential debates just sealed his fate.
The American political system is flawed
not only in that it has the Electoral
College system and not one-man one-vote
but also that the two-party system is
so entrenched that voting for a third
like Ralph Nader is like giving one’s
vote to the conservatives.
Muslims were
not wooed in the 2000 election Bush happened
to give them audience. In the 2004 election
just the word Muslim is cause for adrenaline
release. Neither campaign wants the tarnish,
for the race is tight as it is and even
though there is a large representation
of Muslims in key so-called battleground
states such as Ohio and Florida, neither
campaign has made tangible moves to win
Muslim votes.
Neither presidential
candidate appeared at ISNA, the Islamic
Society of North America Convention in
September this year where 25,000 Muslims
had congregated, nor did either show at
APPNA, the Association of Pakistani Physicians
of North America Convention held in Washington
DC in July, even though the Kerry campaign
had been promised a tidy sum in fund raising
at APPNA. Underscores the political hot
potatoes that Muslims have become.
In contrast
the Jewish lobby molds the winner. In
election after election the Jewish vote
has proven itself to be organized, unified
and monied. AIPAC, the American Israeli
Public Affairs Committee, is second only
to the National Rifle Association in terms
of power on the Hill. Not surprising then
to see Edwards’ apoplexy in responding
to a question about Israel and Palestine.
The sole truism
that Musharraf has uttered has been in
regard to determining the root cause of
terrorism; perhaps he got his cue from
Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohammed. Kerry
should shelve his coonskin hat and gun
and Bush need not give more teeth to the
Patriot Act. The central issue is the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict; until the
day that America is able to be the unbiased
arbiter, arming both sides, vetoing UN
resolutions on merit and not favorites,
creating the Palestinian state now rather
than dependent on various and sundry contingencies,
terrorism will continue unabated worldwide.
The tragedy
is the absence of altruism in the politics
of the United States. Having to say what
voters want to hear rather than the unabashed
truth. Muslim voters have not been wooed
and they should not pursue a bloc vote.
Participate they must. If Bush is given
a second term, there shall not just be
more of the same, there shall be the enactment
of Patriot Act II, worsening terrorism
worldwide, civil war in Iraq, sagging
of the economy and emboldened neo-conservatives
which in and of itself can spell disaster.
Sairah is
right; Muslims must play the political
system. With exit polls documenting their
vote the best strategy would be to influence
the winner to address the Israeli-Palestinian
issue, which has the world in a tailspin.
Pouting and passivity are as bad collectively
as they are for individuals.
(Mahjabeen
Islam is a physician practicing in Toledo
Ohio. Her email is mahjabeenislam@hotmail.com)
