Muslim Voters Favor Kerry

Republicans are looking forward to capturing a greater percentage of the Jewish vote in the upcoming election, but what about the Muslim vote? Muslims tend to be very conservative on social issues: they oppose abortion, oppose gay marriage, oppose the repeal of anti-sodomy laws, etc. They should be a great constituency for social conservatives... but they are leaning towards John Kerry. Why?

Huda, About’s Islam Guide, writes:

The prominent Islamic civil rights and advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) reported that 54 percent of eligible Muslim voters said they would vote for Kerry, while 26 percent favored Nader. A sizable 14 percent of Muslim voters said they are still undecided. (Fifty-five percent of the respondents said they voted for President Bush in the 2000 election.) ... When asked to list the most important domestic issue they will use to determine a presidential choice, almost 40 percent of respondents cited civil rights, followed by the economy at 25 percent. More than 90 percent said American policy in the Middle East is the most important international issue.

Al-Muhajabah comments:

This confirms trends I've been noticing for at least the last nine months and that have probably been developing for longer than that. Civil rights and civil liberties, as the survey shows, are the most important domestic issue, far more than the economy. There is probably some bias towards this answer since the survey was done by a civil rights organization and those who choose to respond to it are probably more interested in civil rights issues than others are. But I think it also represents a general feeling that Muslims are being specifically targeted by Bush's laws and policies, and that Bush is in some way responsible for or associated with the growing anti-Muslim climate that seems to be developing here.

The focus on civil rights is quite understandable, considering how much trouble Muslims have had in American recently. It also, I think, represents a great challenge for Muslim Americans: they will become great hypocrites if they only end up caring about civil rights for themselves and not for others. Their recent experiences could give them the impetus to become strong defenders of civil rights generally, just as Jews have been, but that means fighting for the civil rights of gays, Nazis, pornographers, and all sorts of people Muslims would normally regard as immoral. In other words, they will need to separate their religious revulsion from the public commitment to civil rights for all.

Can they do it? I hope so. This is, I believe, a crossroads for them. If they insist on a public commitment to civil rights for all, not just themselves, regardless of what their religion says about someone, then that could help them become much more important in the long-term development of the American project. Instead of simply being an immigrant community or religious minority, they will be key players in maintaining American values of liberty and freedom.

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