Arab Americans and Political Activism

After their disappointment with President Bush (whom they massive voted for in
2000), American Arab and Muslim leaders seemed decided to react to the clouds of
suspicion hanging over them. But they needed first to voice their concerns through
the mainstream political organizations, if they wanted to gain national visibility
and recognition.

Part of a major shift in strategy and purpose, but also because they realized that they
had little influence on White House policies, they decided to invest in building
grassroots political structures to get a fair hearing and secure their future the United
States.

Because they were convinced that the candidate Bush was not likely to change his
Middle Eastern policy, and that in fact since the days of Truman, Washington’s
support for Israel had been ‘one-sided and unbalanced’, Arab American and
Msulim advocates started realizing they better departed from their original focus on
the foreign affairs issue (namely Palestine) and drew more community members into
their political efforts by emphasizing civil rights and acceptance in the
mainstream.

The shift in strategy was particularly evident among non-Middle Eastern Muslims
who comprise about three-fourths of the estimated 3-7 million Muslims in the United
States, and who asserted that, given the new context, they were no longer willing, nor
was it prudent to allow Arab Americans to keep the community’s primary public
focus on the Middle East.

‘Our leadership has been so busy defending Palestine and Iraq’, said Indian-born
Muktedar Khan, a political science professor at Michigan’s Adrian College and a
visiting scholar at Washington’s Brookings Institution. ‘But what about civil rights
here and the image of Islam here? I want to be safe for my children above everything.
Frankly, I worry more about my son getting into Harvard than about Jerusalem’.
The same attitude was expressed by Zahid Bukhari, public affairs director of the
Islamic Circle of North America, a largely South Asian immigrant organization,
headquartered in New York. ‘We need to concentrate on domestic issues’, he
advocated, ‘civil rights will be our big issue in the next presidential election [2004],
and on that we can make common cause with liberal Jews’.

Stressing the need for the shift in leadership from elite to grassroots organizations,
Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations,
echoed this sentiment declaring that ‘civil rights issues have become a major
common denominator among Muslim and Arab-American organizations’.

Actually, despite President Bush’s declaration that ‘Islam is not the enemy’, when he
spoke at the Islamic Center in Washington, DC shortly after the terror attacks, ‘Ninety
percent of the community is now dead set against the Republican Party, not to
mention Bush’, said Salam Al-Marayati, the Iraqi-born executive director of the
Muslim Public Affairs Council, a Los Angeles-based group.

All in all, although according to certain American Jewish leaders, American Arabs
and Muslims would not gain political traction unless and until they forcefully
distance themselves from terrorism and anti-American sentiments in their countries
of origin, Arab and Muslim activists are convinced that if they vote as a bloc, they
could make the difference in key electoral swing states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Michigan, New Mexico, Wisconsin, and Florida.

Undoubtedly, despite the fact that groups representing Arab and Muslim Americans
(namely AAI - Arab American Institute, ADC - American-Arab Anti-Discrimination
Committee, and CAIR - Council on American-Islamic Relations) remain a small
presence in Washington, DC, their growing power and enfranchisement provide
further optimism, with more than 60 percent of US Muslims who are registered
voters and 70 percent who ‘strongly agree’ that they should participate in US
institutions and the political process. Also, not only American Muslims are
approaching their Jewish counterparts in terms of group size, but they are also
making strides in education, economic well-being, and political savvy. (Socializing
with the system)

Muslim and Arab activists already claim their support for Bush made the difference
in Florida in 2000 (which the Republican candidate ended up winning by slightly
more than 500 votes in the final recount), when 90 percent of the state’s 40,000
Muslim voters who cast ballots did so for the president.Now, with the 2004 elections
ahead, they expected that their concentrated communities in key battleground states
could tip the election. Moreover, with the White House officials telling supporters
that they anticipated future presidential contests to be as close as that of 2000, every
swing constituency counted.

Finally, while by no means they deny the differences they have with the Democratic
Party, notably the support it draws from pro-Israel Jews (and also its liberal stance on
sensitive issues such as abortion, gay rights, etc.), some Muslim and Arab activists
still look more favorably upon Democrats and seem ready to collaborate with them in
future federal and local elections.As clearly expressed by Muktedar Khan who stated
again: ‘It upsets Muslims when I put it this way, but I say we have to get into bed with
Jews and gays because liberal Democrats are the most accepting of Muslims in this
country, and most critical of Bush’s policies. Our community must vote more
progressive for our own well-being’.

**Coalition building

Facts with regard to Arab American political activism

**Two very important dates (turning points) in Arab American political activism:
Six-Day War (1967) and the 9/11 attacks (2001).

**Arab Americans are disproportionately represented along the political spectrum

compared to their French counterparts.

**Most of Arab American officials have risen to their positions (Senator,

Representative, Governor, etc.) as individual candidates representing their
constituents rather than their Arab co-ethnics (e.g. to defend an Arab American
agenda).

**The question of identity is very crucial for the degree of political involvement
and activism (common political agenda, top priorities, etc.).

**Arab Americans: volatile group (but recently, AAI called to vote for Biden)

**Role of Political Action Committees (PACs): mediating role, fund-raising,

dealing with candidates, Files / Ratings

**2000: Arab American PACs donated $114,00 (pro-Israel PACs: $1.9 million).

**Arab money has, on occasion, been returned under the pressure of pro-Israel
lobbies, namely AIPAC (‘dirty money’ used to support terrorism) - Mondale 1984,
Dukakis 1988, recently Hillary Clinton).