Muslims Delay Obama Endorsement

From the Worcester Telegram and Gazzette News Thursday, November 6, 2008

Muslims delay Obama endorsement

WORCESTER— On a day that Americans turned a new page in the country's history of race relations with the election of an African American to the presidency, Muslims were still riding the back of the political bus.

A national coalition of 12 Muslim American organizations known as the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections waited until the day before Election Day to publicly release its "indirect endorsement" of Barack Obama. While endorsements traditionally are timed to give them maximum exposure, an e-mail received by the Telegram & Gazette was deliberately sent so late that Mr. Obama's opponents had little time to react, according to Tahir Ali, national coordinator.

By making an "indirect endorsement," but keeping it low profile, Mr. Ali said, the organization avoided two pitfalls: "creating problems for the Obama campaign (and) accepting exclusion from the American mainstream," by not endorsing at all.

Islamic organizations were sensitive to the false assertions of the opponents of Mr. Obama, whose middle name is Hussein, that he is a Muslim. "The problem if we were to announce this endorsement earlier: it would have fallen in the wrong hands."

Rather than extolling Mr. Obama's virtues, the e-mail notes the "indirect AMT endorsement is embodied in the AMT-PAC scorecard … which gives 981 points to Obama and 291 to McCain." The scorecard weighs candidate positions on topics including civil rights, ending the war in Iraq, the economy and healthcare, said Mr. Ali, a Westboro resident.

"It's going to be used politically against" Mr. Obama, said Mr. Ali, a Westboro resident. He harkened to the 2000 election, when the American Muslim Alliance donated $50,000 to Hillary Clinton for her 2000 campaign to become a U.S. senator from New York.

Rick Lazio, her Republican opponent, called it blood money and Mrs. Clinton returned the donation, Mr. Ali recalled. While Muslims continued to support her Senate run, the humiliation was a factor in their support of Mr. Obama against her in the Democratic primary this year, he said.

There did not seem to be a similar backlash when Muslim organizations backed Gov. George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential election and gave "qualified" support to Sen. John F. Kerry for president in 2004, Mr. Ali said.

The 7 million U.S. Muslims — with an estimated 4.9 million of them registered to vote — represent a potent political force, according to Mr. Ali, author of the book "The Muslim Vote Counts." Muslims know how to harness that power, he said.

In the 1996 presidential election 56 percent of Muslims voted Democrat and 32 percent cast Republican ballots, Mr. Ali said. But Muslim organizations rallied their people behind Mr. Bush, resulting in 80 percent of them backing the Texan in 2000 and possibly making the difference in Florida, where Mr. Bush won by fewer than 600 votes, Mr. Ali said.

Al Gore "completely ignored us," he said. Mr. Bush met with representatives of Muslim organizations and addressed the needs they raised, saying that American law at the time was being used to discriminate against Muslims and the United States should be "an honest broker" in the Middle East peace process, said Mr. Ali, a naturalized American born in Pakistan.

The Muslims came to regret their support. Mr. Ali, who remains a registered Republican, said the policies of the Bush regime after 2001 have been hostile to them.

Despite moderate Republicans like Colin Powell, Muslims face a "neocon-led nefarious Islamophobic nexus of bigotry" from others, he said. Mr. Ali said he told a Muslim crowd in the battleground state of Indiana this past weekend, where he engaged in a get-out-the-vote effort, "On one hand we have a party that is hostile to us, on the other we have a party that completely ignores us, and to sit out the presidential election will be political death for sure."

But yesterday, after Mr. Obama won the election — including the traditionally Republican state of Indiana by 26,163 votes — Mr. Ali called it "a proud moment. Now I can say I belong to a country where they can elect a minority.

"It shows America has come a long way. It has matured itself out of these bigotry issues. That Jim Crow mentality has gone."

The American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections is an umbrella organization representing American Muslim Alliance, American Muslims for Palestine, Council on American Islamic Relations , Islamic Circle of North America, Muslim Alliance in North America, Muslim American Society-Freedom Foundation, Muslim Student Association — National, Muslim Ummah of North America, and United Muslims of America. Islamic Educational Center of Orange County, Islamic Society of North America and Muslim Public Affairs Council are affiliated with AMT as observers.