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Comment
Concerns of the American Muslim community
“American Muslims pushed President Bush closer to Ariel Sharon” is the conclusion reached by Dr. Muqtedar Khan while commenting on President Bush’s decision to overturn decades of American diplomacy to side with Israel on issues, such as the removal of settlements and the Palestinian right of return, that had been viewed by the past Republican and Democratic administrations as subject to bilateral negotiations.
After a meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the White House on April 14, President Bush announced that the US would not object to Israel retaining settlements in the West Bank and denying the right of return to post-1948 territories.
In Dr. Khan’s view, American Muslim leadership, in recent months, has voiced the opinion that American Muslims, disenchanted by Bush's foreign policy, would vote against him in November and Bush retaliated to this loud rumor in the community by supporting Sharon's Gaza plan hoping to garner a much larger share of the American Jewish vote to offset the loss of Muslim vote.
He is right, the American Muslim leadership has expressed concern over Bush’s foreign policy but Dr. Khan has conveniently ignored the major concern of the American Muslims which is the biased domestic policies in the aftermath of 9/11. No doubt that the American Muslims, like many other fellow Americans, are against invasion of Iraq and uneven-handed policy in the Middle East, but the Muslim community is more concerned with its abridged civil rights which is a major issue for it in the forthcoming elections.
He further argues that if he was running for President and had to choose between American Muslims and American Jews -- as a Christian he is anyway in the theological middle – he would chose the latter because former talk a lot, while the latter spend a lot.
Dr. Khan is opposed to the politics of bloc voting which he believes harmful for the American Muslim community. But many American Muslim leaders believe that the American Muslim community does not enjoy the same financial clout that is enjoyed by the American Jews. Therefore, the only alternative left for the Muslims to have an effective voice in the presidential elections is to vote in bloc.
Surely, Bush’s decision will attract some Jewish votes but several pollsters warned against jumping to conclusions about Jewish voters. According to Post-Gazette, pollsters said Bush's embrace of Sharon's controversial plan might have little political effect because Jewish voters are not single-issue voters. But the action further solidified Arab-American anger at Bush.
Now about the US policy towards the Middle East. There is a general feeling in the American Muslim community that there is not much difference between a Democratic or Republican administration when it comes to Israel. Dr. Khan has also implicitly acknowledged this when he said that “an obvious answer to this sudden change in plan is that when it comes to Israel, the tail always wags the dog.”
In the final analysis, American Muslim community’s concerns are best reflected in the latest CAIR Report entitled “Unpatriotic Acts,” released on May 3, 2004. The CAIR report outlines 1019 incidents and experiences of anti-Muslim violence, discrimination and harassment in 2003, the highest number of Muslim civil rights cases ever recorded by the Washington-based group. According to the report hate crimes alone jumped by an unprecedented 121 percent.
The report enumerated four factors that contributed to the sharp increase in reported incidents: (1) A lingering atmosphere of fear since the 9/11 attacks. (2) The war in Iraq and the atmosphere created by the pro-war rhetoric. (3) The noticeable increase of anti-Muslim rhetoric, which often painted Muslims as followers of a false religion and as enemies of America. (4) The USA PATRIOT Act, the implementation of which has been associated with abuses.
Hence the American Muslim community is justified when it vigorously protests against the biased policies of the administration and makes civil rights as a major issue in the November election.
May 4, 2004
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