Muslim support
for Bush plummets

Though exit polls showed Muslims supported George W. Bush in large numbers in the 2000 election, this year just 1-in-10 are likely to cast a vote for the president.

A survey of over 500 Arab-Americans by the Arab American Institute and Zogby International revealed the bad news for the Bush camp. The poll was taken in four battleground states – Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida – the East Brunswick, N.J., Home News Tribune reported.

A separate report on Detroit-area Muslims found similar numbers. Just 11 percent approved of Bush's performance, while 85 percent disapproved.

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"I think President Bush is going to have a hard time making his case to the American Muslim community," Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the controversial Council on American-Islamic Relations, is quoted as saying. "It's not good from what we're hearing."

The East Brunswick paper reported Yaser Elmenshawy, chairman of the Islamic Council of New Jersey, is not sure who he will be voting for in November, but he says he knows it will not be President Bush.

"Unfortunately, I think the two major candidates are both still playing politics with foreign policy to some degree," Elmenshawy told the paper. "Although, clearly, I think President Bush is much more on the wrong track, the question for me in November is whether (John) Kerry is on enough of the right track."

While many Muslims will shun the president this year – for reasons ranging from the war in Iraq to economic issues – others are organizing support for his re-election.

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"I am as proud of this country and the flag of this country as any American-born American is or could be," Pakistan-born Kausar Iqbal Bajwa told the paper. The president "has done the best he could under the circumstances," most recently in his handling of the prisoner-abuse scandal. Bajwa is a member of Muslims for Bush.

Imam Raouf Zaman of Piscataway, N.J., says he is encouraging his flock to register to vote and get informed, but he wouldn't discuss his own political leanings.

"We are asking them to analyze things," he told the News Tribune. "We are discussing the various pros and cons. But we're not telling them specifically who to vote for."

Atiya Aftab, a South Brunswick attorney who is on the board of overseers for the Islamic Society of Central Jersey, says she will look at civil-liberty issues when deciding whom to support for president.

"Right now, due to a backlash from Sept. 11 to the Muslim and Arab community, civil liberties is one of the hot-button issues to vote on and the idea that civil liberties are eroding," said Aftab.

Indeed, as WND reported, the Virginia-based Muslim American Society last year organized an effort to introduce Muslims to American politics, centering on issues of civil rights and immigration. The group also hoped to increase campaign donations for politicians who have represented Muslim interests.

Hooper's CAIR, which has alleged ties to terrorist organizations, also has been involved in increasing Muslim participation in the electoral process, including voter-registration drives.

While data from 2000 suggest a strong showing by Bush among the Muslim community overall, a Detroit News exit poll showed 66 percent of Muslims in Michigan voted for Al Gore.

"Many Muslims … voted for the Republican Party (in 2000) because they felt more comfortable with the party's family-oriented, conservative values and with their stand on issues like gay marriages. Like the Republicans, many Muslims have a very conservative approach to these issues," Naushaba Ali, a Virginia resident and activist who voted against Bush in 2000, told the Washington Times.

"What they do not understand is that a conservative person has a conservative approach to all issues. Most people opposed to gay rights or abortion also are not very welcoming to immigrants."

Estimates of the number of Muslims registered to vote in the U.S. range from 1.8 million to 3.2 million.

Related stories:

Muslims groom candidates for 2004

American Islamic lobby gets out the vote