Zogby: They are ready! “Muslim blue wave” going to
the voting booth for Muslim candidates, by Ann Corcoran on 4/17/18
But, what exactly are their values, that is the question?
This article at Financial Review reminded
me of the story I first wrote in 2007 about a Frederick, MD Imam
going to Saudi Arabia and reporting to the Saudis that they were ready then to
elect 30 Muslim mayors by 2015. It didn’t happen of course.
This
is what Imam Yahya Hendi said, as reported in a front page storyat the Washington Times, in
August 2007:
“There
are serious efforts being made among the second and third generation to become
part of the political establishment. The challenge we face is in the media and
from some Christian extremists who don’t want an Islamic presence in America.”
Mr. Hendi said U.S. Muslims were working on “nationalizing” Islam as
part of the fabric of U.S. society, including cutting funding links to Muslim
countries.
“Last year, we elected the first Muslim to Congress, and I expect that
by 2015, there will be three or four, as well as at least 30 mayors,” he said, adding that the number of
Muslim lawyers in the United States has multiplied since September 11.
I
wrapped up that post (the story and post got virtually NO attention at the
time) with this: Can you imagine if some Catholic or Jewish
leader was telling a foreign nation that they were working toward 30 (any
number) Jewish mayors, or 30 Catholic mayors, all hell would break loose
in the mainstream media!
The Financial Review doesn’t stop to consider that thought
from a decade ago either. It is all go, go, go for the Muslim blue wave! And,
they say it is Donald Trump who is the great motivator. Numbers, numbers, numbers!
The reality is that the demographic change (the Hijra!) is happening,
and, as we admit more and more immigrants from Muslim countries, the push for
“their values” will only get stronger.
American Muslims launch political campaigns in protest
against Donald Trump.
Fayaz
Nawabi has never met President Donald Trump. But he credits the president with
convincing him to run for office.
Nawabi, a 31-year-old candidate for San Diego City Council, supports
almost everything that Trump opposes: he is pro-affordable housing,
pro-environment, pro-immigrant and pro-refugee. That makes him part of the
blue wave of new liberal candidates spurred to run by Trump’s election and
policies. But
Nawabi is also part of a notable subset: the Muslim blue wave.
More than 90 American Muslims, nearly all of them Democrats, are
running for public office across the country this year. Many are
young and politically inexperienced, and most are long shots. But they
represent a collective gamble: that voters are so disgusted by America’s least
popular president on record that they’re willing to elect members of America’s
least popular religious minority group.
Although
their number seems small, the candidacies mark an unprecedented rise for the
nation’s diverse Muslim community that typically has been under-represented in
American politics.
There
are more than 3.3 million Muslims living in the United States, but Muslim
Americans hold just two of the 535 seats in Congress. And the Muslim
community’s voter participation pales in comparison to the general public’s. Growth in Muslim immigrant population that votes for Democrats….
The Financial Review continues….The rise of Muslim candidates coincides with
the growth of the predominantly immigrant population and a partisan shift that
has played out over a generation.
In
a 2001 Zogby poll of American Muslims, 42 per cent said they voted for
Republican George W. Bush in the previous year’s presidential election, while
31 per cent said they voted for Democrat Al Gore. By last year, just 8 per cent of voting American Muslims in
a Pew poll said they voted for Trump, while 78 per cent said they voted for
Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Now,
Muslim candidates are running for a wide range of offices across the country,
from local school boards to the US Senate. Some are making their Muslim identity central to their campaigns.
“When
you put someone in a corner and they’re in survival mode, they have a tendency
to come out and speak more prominently about their beliefs,” said Nawabi, who
considers himself an “unapologetic Muslim” who can quote the Koran from memory
and moonlights as a “freelance imam”.
In
Michigan, where 13 Muslim candidates are running for office, physician Abdul El-Sayed is hoping voters will elect him
to be the first Muslim governor in the US and has used his religion in campaign
ads against Republican front-runner Bill Schuette, whom Trump has endorsed.
This (above) made me laugh: El-Sayed is using his religion in his ads as if
that is hunky-dory.
Egregious
double standard! Can you imagine the media storm if a gubernatorial candidate
proudly used his Christian or Jewish religion in his ads! All hell would break
loose!
A small number of Muslim and Arab advocacy groups, such as the Council
on American-Islamic Relations, Emgage (formerly called Emerge USA), and the
Arab American Institute have spent years training young political activists,
tracking rising politicians and running get-out-the-vote
campaigns, particularly in immigrant communities after
the 9/11 terrorist attacks set off an anti-Muslim and anti-Arab backlash.
“They’re
ready,” said James
Zogby, a long-time Democratic operative and president of the Arab American
Institute, who has provided funding and mentorship to several
candidates. “Both communities separately have reached a level of maturation.”
Some candidates and political activists say that even if no Muslim
candidate wins a seat this year, the blue Muslim wave still will have
accomplished something. The American public will grow more accustomed to seeing
Muslim candidates, they say, and Muslim youth will see candidates who look
like them or share their values.
And,
can you imagine any mainstream publication publishing the line below with a
straight face, as the Financial
Review has done with the above line: Christian youth will see candidates who look
like them or share their values.
Heads
explode!
You
can read the whole story here (worth it to learn about the candidates
and where they are).
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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