As the well attended political conventions of the Democratic and Republican parties concluded after a long Primary election process in America, and as a general election approaches in November this year, it is painful to observe that the American Muslims are not only invisible in the electoral arena, they are also not openly welcome by political parties and politicians.
Even though seven long years have elapsed since the horrible 2001 Al Qaeda terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, the political atmosphere in America continues to be against the nation’s five million strong Muslim citizens and voters. This year most of the candidates for the offices of President, Senators, Congressmen., Governors throughout the fifty states in US have not allowed any of the many active and serious American Muslim political activists a significant role in their campaigns.
In the decade before 2001 many American Muslims had shied away from the Republican Party, afraid that it is a party predominantly of the White folks. At the same time they were also attracted to it because of the party’s emphasis on observing religious faith, the discipline of family values and a conservative lifestyle in the free-wheeling American society.
However, the number of Muslim activists in the Republican Party was small and shrunk further after the 2001 terrorist attacks. In the 2004 election very few Muslim activists worked for the Republican Party, perhaps angered by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan under the watch of Republican US President George Bush. Today Muslims do not receive much visibility in the GOP party, and some anti-Muslim politicians regularly make corrosive remarks about Muslims.
In comparison to the Republicans, Muslim activists flocked in significant numbers to the Democratic Party to which many racial minorities in US have turned to in recent decades. The presence of other colored folks in the Democratic Party gave them a sense of comfort. But since 2001 in the Democratic Party too Muslims are not receiving a warm welcome.
Despite the American Muslim community showing much enthusiasm for Democrats and especially for the party’s Presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama, the senior managers in the party are not letting Muslim Democrats receive significant roles. In the public election rallies, Muslims wearing obvious Muslim attire e.g. Hijab clad women, are not allowed to be seated in locations where the television cameras can spot them, as was reported in one of Senator Obama’s campaign rallies in Detroit in June this year.
Even two Black Muslim Congressmen who are lifelong Democratic Party loyalists, Keith Ellison (MN) and Andre Carson (IN), have been politely told by Senator Obama’s campaign to stay away from campaigning for him. A few liberal Muslims who got an opportunity to be a part of some Democratic party election campaign committees, e.g. the very liberal Muslim stockbroker in Chicago, have been politely asked to step down on one excuse or the other.
What is strange is that if you do not identify yourselves as a Muslim, you may receive some welcome, as the sizeable number of Indian-Americans do. But if you identify yourself as being associated with any Muslim platform, your proclamations of loyalty to the party, your desire to be in the American mainstream, or even your being an ultra-liberal Muslim, cut no dice. A pretext is found and you are sidelined regardless of your financial contribution or grassroots campaign work.
Quite a few American Muslims are trying to participate in fundraising efforts for the Democratic party’s political candidates this year, and a few for the Republican party, as they did four years ago, with hopes of recognition. But neither the Republican nor the Democratic parties are encouraging any roles for Muslim donors beyond accepting their financial contributions. A couple of very active Muslim political activists and fundraisers in the Democratic Party in the state of Maryland have told me that the party managers’ clear message to Muslims is: Your financial contribution and vote is welcome; but we can not afford to make you very visible as a campaigner and we can not pledge any significant recognition from the Party for your help.
In fact many disgruntled Muslim political activists in US have abandoned Muslim political groups and have joined Asian-American political groups in order to continue their political activism.
This is not to say that a few Muslims have not received political appointments to some junior level management positions in county, state or federal management positions or government Commissions, as a result of their help in the campaigns. But most such people have received that recognition by working through an Asian-American platform, and not by identifying association with any American-Muslim group. And they are vulnerable to even false complaint against them by anyone.
That makes one wonder if the political parties in America are angry at the nation’s Muslims. Since 2001 a large number of American Muslim organizations and Islamic Centers have categorically condemned the 2001 Al Qaeda terrorist attack on US and on US interests abroad. Yet their alienation from the American political parties is not showing any sign of diminishing.
No matter how one looks at it, it is obvious that the five million strong American Muslim community, with sizeable vote power and sizeable fundraising power, is not getting a voice in the US political process. A survey and analysis of the situation indicates that one factor for the alienation of Muslims from the political parties in US is their continuing complaint against the US foreign policy in Middle East since 2001, and their lack of attention to the Administration’s domestic policies in US. Also the race based elements of electoral politics in this year’s Presidential election appears to have aggravated the alienation of American Muslims from the majority White Americans.
In the Democratic party Presidential Primary election the flocking towards Senator Obama of a disproportionately large number of Muslim Americans compared to Senator Hillary Clinton , in spite of the fact that Senator Obama stretched absolutely no olive branch to them, and their aversion towards Republican candidates reinforces the feeling that the alienation of Muslims from White Americans has increased in this election year. Thus today American Muslims are not only alienated from the Republican Party where most people are Whites; they also appear to be alienated from a large segment of the Democratic Party that is populated by Whites.
To compound the political problems of America’s Muslims, their major national organizations like Islamic Society of North America, Islamic Circle of North America, Council on American Islamic Relations, Muslim Public Affairs Council, American Muslim Alliance etc have stopped taking initiatives in the political arena since 2001, and are now mostly involved in social, interfaith, religious and government-liaison work. The enthusiasm towards the Presidential, Congressional and Statehouse elections that American Muslims demonstrated in 2000 has evaporated, leaving a deafening silence and eerie vacuum in the community’s political activism landscape. The American Muslim community that was becoming politically vibrant only eight years ago is without any political agenda or goal or leadership in today’s America.
Surely the community can not afford to remain in this limbo and must find a way out of the suffocating impasse. American Muslims must recognize that building bridges with all Americans, especially the majority White people, and overcoming their anger against Muslims due to the 2001 Al Qaeda terrorist attacks on US, should be a priority for them. Taking far more interest in the domestic US issues rather than foreign policy issues is a must for the community to redeem itself.
In today’s America Muslims should pay serious attention and respect to women candidates. In elections for important national positions the community folks should support a variety of candidates from various shades and both political parties; not just minority ethnic or religious candidates. The American Muslim minority should understand that to receive fairness from America’s majority community they should also give fairness to the majority.
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Kaleem:
I read an article by Shahed Amanullah on a similar theme and it gives us some insight into the campaign rhetoric:
I partially agree with the sentiments mentioned in your article. I will try to write a detailed comment explaining my position.
Herebelow I am posting a comment from a US born citizen on my column who sent it to me on my personal e-mail address.
“Maybe if there weren’t so many muslims in the US who support known terrorist groups such as hamas or hezbollah, political parties and candidates would want to be seen with muslims. If you think I’m just making this up, try to get a representative from either cair, mas, or any other muslim organization to go on the record saying these groups are terrorist groups. Once you realize they won’t, then you’ll have your answer. If you think the majority of US muslims differ in their opinion of groups such as cair and mas, well then the muslim community needs to ensure these groups are marginalized. As it is now, they speak for you and they are saying these groups are not terrorist groups which is why nobody wants to be seen with a muslim.
Michael Towne “
Both Elison and Carson are to be congraulated for not insultiong their Motherland by keeping their ORIGINAL American names. This is very unlike almost all of so called indian Muslims who not only adopt Arabian names but also take pride in imagining Arabian, Persian ancestory. Then Sirs and Madams, why do you expect any respect?
Muslamans must understand this simple fact, its not them who are alienated. Muslims are never connected with their own lands or the country they live in . World have just becopme aware of this phenomenon and want to keep distance from the followers of Islam.
Comment Edited
Kaleem Saab,
I appreciate your broad spirit to post this counterpoint to your blog. I also tend to agree with Michael’s viewpoint. I have been researching the problem of why there is a strong difference on the perception of ISLAM with muslims and non-muslims.
Based on my interests and time spent, I do have to agree that CAIR is highly tainted for having relations with HAMAS, a organization declared terrorist by US Government.
When the organization that speaks on ur behalf is tainted, how do you expect others to have an untainted view of you? Just a thought.
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Kaleem,
As much as I like to know the reason for a poor or an almost non-existent representation of American muslims in their mainstream politics or political parties, I am, for once, not quite convinced of the relevance of this topic for Indian muslims.
Why should indian muslims have to worry about muslim representation in US polictics? Wouldn’t/Shouldn’t they be more interested in their representation in Indian politics, instead?
Or is this just a point you wanted to share? If so, you could have included it as a comment on a topic closely related to Indian politics, instead of a seperate article.
@Sridhar
“…Why should indian muslims have to worry about muslim representation in US polictics? ….”
Sridhar – On the surface of it, it might not appear to be relevant to Indian Muslims. However, the alienation of Muslims in US from participation in political activism by either major political party & the ensuing frustration/exasperation of this group – has to be sympathized and understood.
In India – which is one of the most plural society in the world, and where Muslims have been part of the society from historical times ( > 1000 yrs), the representation of Muslims in political arena & public life does not commensurate with population/history/contribution.
We can try to understand the different frames of mind of the majority constituents with respect to Muslims in US & other countries – to see, how we can learn (or unlearn) to create a better platform/acceptance for Mulsims in India. Learn from unhealthy dynamics to avoid or mitigate similar settings back at home.
Question is – What does the lesson of forced disenfranchisement of Tamilians in SriLanka hold of India? Obviously nothing to do with Indian Muslims , at first blush – but everything to do with avoiding strife & civil war.
Interesting that an Indian Muslims site is also covering American Elections.
I am an american, Irish. I converted to Islam and later left the same to again come back and again leave the same. During my journeys I realised why Some of the imams stress much focus on scientific interpretations of Quran and not the hadiths in the initial days of teaching Islam. However I believe its good enough that one has a basic understanding of all religions and therefore do not look back or regret.
Anyways for the purpose of the article US stresses on cultural identities more rather than religious ones for instance we have Indian American, Arab American or even South Asian American politicians. US does not want an experiment like India probably or UK where religious identities are brought to the fore. So you dont hear of Jews, Christians, Hindus or Muslims as part of American elections allthough there may be lobbies.
One of the primary reasons of attacks was realised to be the transnational identity which many Muslims harbour which kinds of make Islam a nationality rather than a religion. The spiritual aspect vanishes and what remains is a kind of political identity. I believe the experiment in India is kind of a good learning example. And these identities are best not encouraged.
I think it’s totally fine for IM blog to write about an issue like this – as long as situations and experiences from other countries can help us understand the situation in India better, or may offer some solutions to the problems we’re facing, or there is something new to learn. One must be open to ideas from other places and other people.
I think people will be hard pressed to make a case that there is nothing at all to learn from the situation in the US.
There are several parallels and several dissimilarities between the situation of the Muslim community in America and the Muslim community in India. Rightly or wrongly in both countries many Muslims have a pervasive feeling of alienation and injustice from the mainstream.
1. In US the Muslim population is about 5 million out of the nation’s population of 250 million. Their proportion is ~2-3%; compared to 14% in India.
2. In US the history of Muslims is about 60 years old, with the advent of Black Muslims in late 1940s. In India the history of Muslims is about 800 years old, the first 600 years as the ruling class.
3. In US about 5-10% of Muslims suffer from low level literacy. In India about 50% Muslims suffer from low level literacy.
4. Muslims’ representation in the power structure in US, eg legislatures, executive branch of the govt, judiciary, political establishment, mainstream media, faculties in universities etc is miniscule, perhaps less than 0.01%. In India this figure for Muslims is about 3-4%. Most Muslims in US work in technical and professional jobs or are self-employed.
5. The roots, confidence and contribution of the religious establishment of Muslims in US is very surfacial, with very new and very shallow roots. In India the Muslim religious establishment/institutions have very strong roots, a long history and tradition, lots of excellent confidence, and lots of contribution to the global Muslim presence.
6. In India Islam is an Indian religion and Muslims are indigenous Indians and think of themselves as nothing but Indian. In US Islam is a recently arrived foreign religion and only a minority of American Muslims (the indigenous Black Muslims – about 20% of the Muslim community) consider themselves Americans.
7. In both India and US Muslims do not have the fair share of political infranchisement and true integration in the major political parties.
8. In India Muslims are still suffering from the backlash of the 1947 partition of India and the creation of Pakistan. In US Muslims are suffering from the backlash of the 2001 Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on US.
I agree with James. Emphasizing religious identities is not a healthy practice. It very often leads to friction and a lack of harmony, for sure.
The American way of stressing national rather than religious identities seems to be a rather sensible one.
As far as the Muslim cause is concerned, one thing that would enormously help is if Muslims LIVE Islam rather than only LOVE Islam.
I agree with james. It is this identity of Islam worn on by muslims that does not augur well with rest of population and which leads to friction between communities. Instead, they should have a regional identity if at all they do not want to be known as Americans only
Totally agree with James Hall on India’s experiment with it’s strange version of secularism.
Herebelow I am posting excerpt from a feedback that I received directly on this column of mine. This person is a White American Muslim.
“The Muslim community is waking up by being alarmed at how the rest of the U.S. feels about Muslims. I recall during early Eid celebrations, the holiday marking the completion of fasting during the month of Ramadan, that it was intended to be a private affair, just for the Muslims. This was the usual practice. When anybody brought an “American” guest, he was looked upon with suspicion such as “what is he doing here?” It was so “Islamic” that even a “white” American Muslim was kept in the background. Often the “Khutbas” were spoken in Arabic or Urdu language with no translation to English. That, as far as the visitor was concerned, was a sure indication that Muslims are a bunch of foreigners.
Nowadays, quite late, we are trying to correct this by having an “open house” during Ramadan in many Islamic Centers, hoping to attract local non-muslims to look favorably upon a Muslim. The effort is perilously accomplished by having a Muslim Scholar dressed in an Imam’s garb, give a speech about Islam and how it is good for all people. This is followed by an Indian or Arab dinner, assuming that most of the guests would like to have an exotic meal. The guests from the local churches and Jewish communities can then say yes, that man from India or Arabia gives a nice speech and the Asian food was good. But Islam is therefore still looked upon as a foreign religion trying to impose itself upon America.
No matter how much a scholar explains about China, it is still China. No matter how much a Buddhist talks about Buddism, it is still a mystical faith of Eastern Asia. If we keep Islam bottled up to be put on display it will continue to be a strange Eastern religion with suspicious motives. The Muslim problems that are confronting our own government and the people in America has been brought on by the Muslims themselves by identifying ourselves as different, as more peace loving despite evidence to the contrary and not being heard when we complain about the injustices we experience due to people not understanding who we really are. It’s a catch 22 situation that we don’t know how to escape from.
Another date, to neutralize 9/11, needs to occur in which Islam comes once more as a religion to strive for.
Mertze Dahlin
Yes, it comes out very clear that there is an issue as far as integration is concerned. However, this is not really to do with the Occident versus the Orient, or Americans versus the Asians.
It has to do with Muslims carrying their religion on their sleeve, and looking down on Non Muslims as Non believers. Unless Muslims give up this habit, they will find it very difficult to gain acceptance.
I wish more Americans would learn more about Islam and get a copy of the Qu’ran and read it, and then quit listening to people like Rod Parsley who obviously does not know what he is shouting about. It is amazing that both political parties keep American Muslims in the back corner not to be seen. Bad rumors on the web would tell us that Obama is a Muslim. From what I read from the comments so far, it is obvious to me he is not. But, it is a shame too many Americans think ill of Muslims, when the Muslims of this country definitely comdemn the attacks on 9.11.01. What a wonderful month Ramadan is. More education about this sacred month needs to be sent out. Too many non-Muslims think Muslims completely don’t eat or drink anything for 30 days. No, it is the daylight hours they don’t eat or drink. Anyway, I thought I put my two cents worth.
@Tim,
For more and more people to want to learn about the Quran, Muslims also need to conduct themselves in the exemplary fashion instructed in the Quran.
Illiteracy and fundamentalism has to be extirpated root and branch from Muslim society for it to flourish. All educated Muslims have to join their hands together for it to happen.
I am an American Christian, very interested in politics here. In my personal life- I am engaged to marry an American Muslim, so I have been trying to expand my knowledge of Islam for the past few years that I’ve known my fiance.
What I find really fascinating about your article is your observation that some Muslims at one time supported the Republican party “because of the party’s emphasis on observing religious faith, the discipline of family values and a conservative lifestyle in the free-wheeling American society.” And I suppose that makes some sense. The problem with the Republican party’s efforts to inject religion and morality into political discourse is twofold: (1) Give the role of policing morality to the government generally does not happen in any kind of democracy when there are so many different religions and ideas present in the society, and (2) the only moral viewpoint it puts forth as acceptable is a very conservative “fundamentalist” for of Christianity.
I sympathize with the rejection many Muslims in America must feel in the political sphere by not being allowed a visible role in campaigning. So much of the Republican voting base is composed of white, evangelical (“fundamentalist”) Christians that any association with Islam (or Judaism or blacks or Asians or even more liberal Christian ideologies) would be met with resistance- I am not surprised there.
But there is a more complex issue the Democratic Party is faced with- even among some Democratic voters, many non-Muslim Americans are still very sensitive to the propaganda we’ve been fed associating the 9/11 attacks with Islam as an entire religion. The vast majority of our voting base in the US does not make terribly educated decisions, after all, and my feeling is that those undecided voters who need to be won might still be turned off by what we as a country have been conditioned to fear so much. While the liberal ideology would benefit religious and ethnic minorites, the party still needs to be elected in order to enact change.
So a part of me understands why the woman wearing a hijab was purposefully not highlighted on camera. However, it does not make it fair, and I wonder how long it will take before we can look past mere demographics in our political discourse. I do see change slowwwwly happening, but unfortunately I fear part of the solution will be for the stodgier generations with a bit more bigotry to fall out of public life.
What we must ensure in the meantime is that our younger generations in America- who have grown up largely surrounded by other races and religions either in daily life or in the media, and who have seen much less social clashing between the groups- will continue to grow older without falling into the prejudices (be they overt or subtle) of their parents and grandparents.
@Kate,
Democrats have always been more friendly to India than republicans have, historically.
That apart, what I can see is that Republicans have always been more hawkish. Consequently, they adopt a more hardline approach towards others than Democrats.
Yes, there may still be ignorance in America about Muslims, but then Muslims will surely have to play a proactive role in dispelling this ignorance. However, I do see that 9/11 notwithstanding, there are many people who want to try to be friendly to the Muslims. That is a very positive sign.