The
presidential election in USA and the Role of Muslim Voters
… By Abida Rahmani
After every four
years it is
election time to select a President and vice president in United States
of America. America being the greatest democracy of the world choose a
president only for two consecutive terms. Which is a total of eight
years. It is regardless of the fact how talented and capable a
president is? He only can stay for two consecutive terms and if he lost
that is the end.
In this election respectively the representatives to Congress and
Senators to Senate are elected for both Parties.
Therefore it is election fervor and election fever in the
United States. The ages old symbols are Elephant for
Republicans and Donkey for Democrats. Their colors are
respectively Red and Blue. Republicans is generally called GOP (Grand
ole party). Governor Mitt Romney is Nominee for Republican
Party while Barack Hussein Obama is the incumbent President
of Democrats. Both of the parties and nominees are working
their best to win these elections. For Obama and Democrats it is a
matter of great honor and prestige to re win these elections and stay
as president for his second term. They have gone through
three crucial debates. The first one won by Romney and in the second
one Obama settled the scores. The third and final one was almost a
drawn one on foreign policy. On relations towards Pakistan and the
drone attacks both of the candidates are unanimous. It is must for a US
commander- in - chief to prioritize the US interest. These
debates in general show the trend and mindset of the Candidates and
their chances to win the elections.These debates generally set the
future course for the victory of a President and impact the polls a lot.
The greatest problems to be discussed and taken care of are the
sluggish economy, increasing unemployment rates , falling Housing
prices ,foreclosures and downward trend of Wall Street and banks.
Barack Obama did a lot of concrete steps to safeguard his second term.
He brought back the forces from Iraq.
Killed Osama bin Laden at Abbottabad Pakistan. A great achievement in
his tenure,for which President Bush struggled a lot but unsuccessful.
Arab spring in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya got a successful turn over in a
short period with less sacrifices with the help of United States. In
Syria it is getting tougher every day with a non ending bloodshed and
atrocities. USA is feeling helpless to handle the situation.
He has promised to bring back forces from Afghanistan by 2014.
The drone attacks by his order killed hundreds of non combatant people
in North Waziristan Pakistan.But the claim is about
eliminating most of the Al-Qaida activists through drone attacks. Anwar
Al Awlaki was killed in Yemen and his young son too through drone
attacks. They were US citizens and this killing is considered as an
extra judicial killing even by Amnesty International.
A big blow for the recent Government came with the killing of US
ambassador and three other on September 11 in Benghazi When a mob
attacked the US embassy. The right wing media , Republicans
and Romney are putting the whole blame on the Obama administration for
their insufficient security at Embassy.
At home he introduced some health care initiatives called Obama care
.Tax cuts for the middle class and poor. The worsening situation is
with Health care( Medicare, Medicaid ) and social security, where many
are misusing the funds while a lot many needy, deserving and elderly
people are denied with facilities and benefits. He took some concrete
steps to salvage the Auto industry.
The
Muslim role and involvement in this Elections:
According to a rough estimate the Muslim population In the United
states is about 7 million. It is quite a significant voters bank which
each candidate would like to utilize. The Muslims in USA are facing
significant problems after 9/11. They are watched, racially profiled,
wire tapped , their mosques bugged in and sermons recorded. So many of
FBI Muslim informers are infiltrated and highly paid to keep an eye on
them. In general it is a tough time for a practicing Muslim, who is not
involved in any sort of terrorism but only look like Muslim. There are
stereotyping and Islamic phobic remarks and almost once in a month a
Muslim man or a group is nabbed with charges of terrorism after the
imposition of patriotic act. It is a brazen fact that if 9/11 was done
by Muslims ,nothing significant whatsoever is done by a Muslim except
that Fort hood shooting by Major Hassan in which 13 Army men got
killed. Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann claimed there are
stealth efforts to impose sharia law on the US. In July - after she
dropped out of the primary - she accused Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton's
deputy chief of staff, of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
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Still the Muslims living here consider it a safe home and environment
for themselves, their families and kids. Muslims are affected with
downturn economy and unemployment, like other communities. In Muslims
there is a big group of black Muslims , mostly converted to Islam. They
have a soft corner for President Obama being a black and some how with
Muslim roots. "If we watch the general meetings of both
candidates, Obama's meetings are mostly attended by colored people,
black , Latinos, Asians and so on. While Romney's meetings are largely
attended by white people , white supremacists and Caucasians. In
today's polls Obama had more women votes than Romney. Muslims make up a
large portion of the population in crucial swing states like Virginia
and Florida. They are considered to be the fastest growing community in
US.
Muslims
for Romney or Obama?
But there are some Muslims who, repelled by the Democrats' positions on
social issues, are voting Romney.
Umar Ahmad Ghumman is a Pennsylvania voter and dual citizen who served
as a minister of investment in Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's
government.
He's always voted Democrat, but this election cycle Ghuman was inspired
to launch an organization called Muslims for Romney after he discovered
the public school his eighth-grade son attended had given a writing
assignment on a lesbian couple who had spoken there.
Muslims for Romney, he says, aims to show both Republicans and Muslims
"how similar our values are", and to encourage Muslim voters "to wake
up and fight against abortion and gay rights". Decrying what he
describes as the "unholy, unnatural alliance" between Muslim voters and
Democrats, he urges Muslims to pay more attention to social issues
within the US. Muslims for Romney, he says, aims to show both
Republicans and Muslims "how similar our values are", and to encourage
Muslim voters "to wake up and fight against abortion and gay rights".
Decrying what he describes as the "unholy, unnatural alliance" between
Muslim voters and Democrats, he urges Muslims to pay more attention to
social issues within the US.
At a presidential debate viewing party in Arlington, Virginia hosted by
the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) - a group promoting the civil
rights of American Muslims - many of the roughly 50 people there were
critical of some Obama policies. But no one said they planned on voting
for Romney.
One factor driving Republicans' low support among Muslim voters? The
party's primary process, during which several candidates made
incendiary comments about Muslims.
In remarks made at a private fundraiser that was secretly videotaped,
Romney declared Palestinians have "no interest whatsoever in
establishing peace". And on a trip to Israel this summer, Romney
explained Israel's economic success vis-a-vis Palestine by saying
culture makes all the difference".
Shameem Ahsan, a New York native who is voting for Obama, said at the
debate viewing party that Romney "could have just not said anything.
But he tried to, I thought, score points with people and take advantage
of anti-Muslim sentiment in this country."Yasmin Hussein, MPAC's Young
Leaders Coordinator, said the group conducted an informal survey after
a viewing party for the first presidential debate.
"The majority of the people were actually undecided," she told Al
Jazeera. She believes that was partly due to Obama's poor performance
in the debate - but also because "a lot of Muslims are really coming
out strongly against" the Obama administration's increased use of drone
attacks in Pakistan and the failure to close the Guantanamo Bay
detention camp.
Congressman Keith Ellison, a Democrat from Minnesota who is the first
Muslim to be elected to Congress, said, "I think the Muslim community's
still going to vote for Obama in overwhelming numbers.
In this election cycle, however, neither Obama nor Romney have made
substantial outreach efforts to potential Muslim voters.
Farid Senzai, the director of research at the Institute for Social
Policy and Understanding, noted that although Obama has held annual Eid
events and similar ceremonies, he has not done "much in terms of
direct, overt meetings" with American Muslims.
He suspects this may be partly the case because a sizeable percentage
of Americans continue to falsely think Obama, a Christian, is actually
a Muslim.
Like most of United states the Muslim Voters are divided and undecided.
The independent voter has a right to vote any candidate but the
registered one for the parties has just to be vote for their respective
parties. Talking to some Muslim voters myself I found them undecided
too but obviously the inclination is more towards Obama.If Obama wins
or loses it would be the last and first black president in the history
of United States for a long time to come.
There are great Muslim donors to both parties. Especially Obama has
some great Muslim donor friends. There are sporadic news of some
Muslims taking part for some posts in this election. After the election
we will be able to know how many got elected to those offices.
Source: Some
facts and figures from Al Jazeera.
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