Posted on Fri, Mar. 12, 2004
Muslim Americans rallying to get out vote in November
BY ANN PEPPER
The Orange County Register
SANTA ANA, Calif. - (KRT) - Sama Wareh registered to vote for the first time last year. But not for real. Just for extra credit in political science.
This time it's different, said the Anaheim Hills, Calif., college student as she marked "independent" on a fresh registration form.
For Wareh and thousands of other Arab- and Muslim-Americans, the 2004 election is taking on the aura of a defining moment.
"We're waking up," said Wareh, 20, a film and zoology student at California State University, Fullerton. "We know we've got to become more involved in the society we live in."
Some of her community's concerns mirror everybody's - the cost of housing, education, health care. But in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, American Muslims say their faith has been maligned, their loyalty unfairly questioned. Islamophobia, they believe, is on the rise.
Muslims take responsibility for some of that. They are coming to realize, Wareh said, that the only way to be recognized as full-status Americans is full participation in civic life. And that means more than just voting.
American Arabs and Muslims always vote in large numbers. An estimated 79 percent are registered and 85 percent of those say they vote, according to a 2001 poll taken on behalf of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Political activists believe the power of their community's block vote helped put George Bush in the White House four years ago. Bush won their votes overwhelmingly in Florida, where he claimed the presidency with less than a 600-vote margin.
The community cast those ballots on the advice of trusted voices such as the Council on American Islamic Relations and the Muslim Public Affairs Council. Word spread to voters over the Internet, at Islamic centers and through popular, ethnic newspapers such as Al-Watan and Arab World in Anaheim, Calif., and An-Nahar in Whittier, Calif.
"It was what he said, particularly opposing the use of secret evidence, plus, frankly, Gore ignored us," said Omar Zaki, who oversees politics for CAIR in Anaheim.
This time, their votes won't be won as easily, rank-and-file Muslim voters say. They are grasping for a better understanding of issues and candidates and a stronger say in who they will support.
"We want to create a model community with 100 percent voter registration," said Aslam Abdullah, a political adviser and founder of the newly minted Muslim Electorate Council of America. "That's what we are aiming for. We are doing the extensive work needed to bring in as many voters as possible."
It's been months now since Orange County, Calif., Muslims could go to a community event or even some private parties without running into someone with a voter registration form in hand.
Registration tables pop up outside Little Gaza restaurants along Brookhurst Street. Community members are volunteering as poll workers. Imams preach on voting.
Last month, about 300 Arab and Muslim voters, including Wareh and Nuru Nuru, a Garden Grove, Calif., cab driver, packed a political forum in Buena Park, Calif., where they cheered any candidate who took a strong stand on civil rights or spoke in favor of a just solution for Palestine.
"As an American and as a Muslim we have to worry about what is going on," said Nuru, 45, who brought his son, Nader, 15, to the forum. "America is a free country, but our freedom is taken by Sept. 11 and we have to protest for all Americans."
Around the edges of the room that night, community volunteers - some in hijabs - bent over voting machines, demonstrating how to use them. Candidates handed out campaign leaflets and Green Party members offered to register voters. Ralph Nader even phoned in a speech announcing his hours-old candidacy for president.
"This is a critical election for us, the first high-profile national election since 9/11," said Zaki, 38, formerly a sales executive for a global industrial gas company. "We raise our children here. We want a secure environment for them too. Just because we go to a mosque and you go to a temple or a church, there is no difference. And our work now, all this is for the long haul."
Bush's popularity with everyday Arab Americans has plummeted from a high of around 83 percent in Oct. 2001 to 38 percent, according to a January poll by Zogby International. The trend is the same among Muslim Americans.
Still, the president has a loyal following among wealthy Arab Americans and some foreign-born Muslims. Some, particularly those who support the war in Iraq, have joined the ranks of the "Pioneers" and "Rangers," Bush loyalists who have raised $100,000 or more for his re-election campaign.
And Muslim and Arab-American leaders, anxious to parlay support for their issues, warn candidates that no one should take their community's votes for granted.
Rima Nashashibi, vice chair of the Democratic Party Central Committee in Orange County, Calif., couldn't be happier with what appears to be a strong trend.
"I am seeing a lot of people registering and re-registering as Democrats, but a large group is registering as independent too," said Nashashibi, a Laguna Hills insurance company marketing manager.
"And, since the block vote in 2000, a lot of candidates have been coming to the community asking for support."
Nashashibi said her entire family registers Democrat, except for her brother, Tareef Nashishibi, who she claims was dropped on his head as a baby.
For his part, Tareef Nashashibi, chair of the Arab American Committee of the Orange County Republican Party, insists he's countering the trend in his family by rearing two young Republicans in Aliso Viejo, Calif., where he is a project manager for a general contractor.
"Being a Republican I am going to try and sway the vote to my party, but basically it is going to be a community decision," Nashishibi said. "The issue is who is going to make it a better country for our children."
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© 2004, The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, Calif.).
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