Muslims who voted for Bush

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
1

i remember during Bush’s election campaign, some notable Muslim organizations in the US were mobilizing their members to vote for Bush. There were huge, massive flyer printouts done, lofty articles about why Muslims should vote for this individual, mass registration drives for Muslims in order to encourage them to get out and vote - basically some distinguished US-based Muslim orgs. were doing some of the leg work for Bush’s election campaign.

Where are those Muslims today and do they fathom how ridiculous their judgements were in terms of wanting to vote for Bush? Will Muslim orgs. in the US be repeating the same stupidity this year subsequent to some of the wonderful sights we have witnessed - racial profiling, Patriot Act, prisoners made to walk like dogs (literally)? Have those Muslim orgs. realized the stupidity of their old ways ? Is it too much to hope that they vote Dem or - :eek: my God, could it be - vote for an independent political party? But the latter would mean voting for some radical unconservative issues (like pro-choice)… and voting for an independent political party would perhaps signify working in collaboration with those damn hippy rastafarians :eek: Don’t they do dope & use swear words? :eek:

If any Muslim org. spearheads a “Vote for Bush” election campaign this year within their local Muslim community, then honestly - they have NO RIGHTS whatsoever to ever complain about Bush’s foreign policies or racial profiling, or the Patriot Act. In the end, you get what you vote for.

2

what happened back in 2000 was that muslims were divided into two groups: Landed immigrants & african american Converts. The gore team, for some reason met with the african americans , but they refused to meet with immigrant muslims. surprisingly the immigrants were concentrated in the swing states like florida, michigan, jersey, so gore's decision back fired.
i feel that this time around, majority of muslims will vote along similar lines i.e. democrats although i could be proven wrong

3

Nadia, you are absolutely right. I remember getting VERY angry at all of those organizations. I couldn't even deal with the idiocy of the leaders for so many reasons.

  1. The vote for Bush was, I think, largely based on racist attitudes toward Lieberman.

  2. It discourages the American Muslims from thinking critically for themselves and encourages mob mentality.

  3. It encourages a sort of us-against-them mentality.

It was moronic to think that the Republicans would be any better for the Muslim community. Both parties had somewhat crappy foreign policy, but Democrats at least historically usually put more money in toward health care and education.

But I think that the "Muslim vote for Bush" thing aint gonna happen this time. I should hope they have learned their lesson. Why not start a project that educates the Muslim community on key issues and policies, encourages Muslims to vote, and allows for independent critical thinking??

4

Let'stry this again.... The vote for Bush means the vote against Pakistan. How many of you would vote against Bush.

5

I still make fun of my parents for voting for Bush. The sole reason was because Gore was pro-Israel and pro-Jew - huh! and that’s what we are going to base our decisions on now!! I was highly unsatisfied with how my parents and my extended family voted because their sole reason was the “Israel” issue. :rolleyes:

6

yeah week before the election, they got calls from relatives and friends asking who they were going to vote for. When my parents said Gore, they got all uptight - what are you thinking, Lieberman is a jew etc. etc.

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This seems more a hardcore political discussion, than anything religious... but let me add my do aanay (and they are just an armchair view cz I won't be voting in this election).

Don't be surprised if a lot of muslims still vote for Bush in 2004. You have to remember that 9/11 was an abberation. When people are voting, they don't expect four passenger planes to fall out of the sky and crash into sky scrappers. So, to think that people should have considered Bush's policies vis-a-vis post-911 before casting their vote in 2000 is kinda illogical.

Fast forward to 2004. Now we know what Bush stands for. We know how he reacted to 9/11. Hypothetically, if Gore would be President, do you think he would have done things differently? May be. As I said, it hypothetical. One thing is certain. Any US president under whose watch 3,000 American civilians get killed by terrorists had to do remedial action. So we can pretty much kiss the notion good bye that Gore/Lieberman wouldn't have done anything.

Having said that, lets look at both parties' historical tendencies, cz that provides us guidance on how they will react (cz both lean towards their core constituencies). Dems are generally more tolerant of civil rights. So, they get good marks on that. We probably wouldn't have seen likes of Ashcroft making a mockery of US constitution.

However, after that everything else is downhill from Dems as far as muslims are concerned. Dems are historically more pro-Israel (yeah, so Lieberman was a jew too, but lets not go into it). Dems take huge campaign funds from Indians so you can expect more arm-twisting of Pakistan (remember that famous Pressler amendment .. and that six hour stop in Pakistan where Clinton just came to insult Pak's president and bawl). Kerry's interviews on middle east suggest a very hard line against muslim states. And lastly on most social issues, muslims may find themselves more closely aligned to conservative thinking... be it issue of homosexuals or abortion or teenage sexual conduct etc.

Core American values remain the same. Major foreign policy positions remain the same, regardless of who is the President. It is just some nuances that the President can dictate and, therefore, lets not live under some misconception that if muslims had decided differently in 2000, the landscape would be vastly different.

Taking a step back and looking at the situation from an objective stand point, I have no doubt that many muslims in the US will again come to the same conclusion that voting for Kerry will be more dangerous than voting for Bush. Unfortunately, this time around, chances are that the muslim bloc would be split and hence will become even more ineffective (if thats possible). In other words, few will give a damn.

ps. Thus I get off my soap box. Now let me know, if its ok to move it to WA? Thanks :)

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You should actually make it a sticky across all fora

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Matsui: *
You should actually make it a sticky across all fora
[/QUOTE]
hain ji???

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:hehe: thread that is… ganda bachcha!! :nono:

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Faisal, why won't you be voting this time round?

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Mehnaz.... duh!?!?! :)

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Faisal -- As I said, I don't think the Democratic foreign policy is any better. The point is, if you consider domestic policy, and issues that matter to me (primarily education), Democrats are the way to go. As far as issues of morality go, I'm not going to tell someone how to live her/his life, because I certainly don't want anyone telling me. As long as people are safe and are not denied their liberties, it's none of the government's business.

14

You aren't a US citizen? I thought you were.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Sahar02: *
and issues that matter to me (primarily education), Democrats are the way to go.

[/QUOTE]
Sahar, I don't disagree with you on this one point. I did say that Dems score better on civil rights as well. Dems also stand for bigger governments and more spending. Reps are opposed to both.

However, not a lot of people vote in a Presidential election on the basis of spending for primary education.

Also, I thought this discussion is more about larger national policies vis-a-vis muslims in the US and around the world, because we are discussing muslim vote in 2000. If we go by generic social issues, its not muslim-specific and by the poll released today Bush and Kerry are in a statistical dead-heat.

16

Alot of guppies were vouching for him too during the previous elections, if I recall correctly

Anywayz Nadia, recently our Prime Minister too said that he was praying that Bush wins the next elections, which proves the mindsets of our Government.

17

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Faisal: *
Sahar, I don't disagree with you on this one point. I did say that Dems score better on civil rights as well. Dems also stand for bigger governments and more spending. Reps are opposed to both.

However, not a lot of people vote in a Presidential election on the basis of spending for primary education.

Also, I thought this discussion is more about larger national policies vis-a-vis muslims in the US and around the world, because we are discussing muslim vote in 2000. If we go by generic social issues, its not muslim-specific and by the poll released today Bush and Kerry are in a statistical dead-heat.
[/QUOTE]

Right. All of those issues are my concern (I said "primarily" not "primary" education). The reason I raise these issues is that they are what differentiate Dems and Rep, so if we're trying to assess the Muslim vote, we have to consider where the two parties differ, and what's best for the Muslim community. I think civil rights is a huge priority, especially for the Muslim community. As are education and healthcare.

Anyway, is it so shocking to realize that Muslims have the same concerns as other humans?

18

[QUOTE]
We probably wouldn't have seen likes of Ashcroft making a mockery of US constitution.
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, becasue we saw clinton making the mockery of every decent person in USA.

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Here is a piece of advice and my two cents to every one who is going to vote in this upcoming election. If you are United States citizen (which of course you are if you are voting), then uphold the constitution, and remember the oath youtook when you became citizen. You will vote on the basis of what is good for USA. Your vote should not be based on being a Muslim, Latino, Asian, Arab etc. You are an American citizen, thus, vote for what is best for this country.

20

Nadia

I belive that this took place before 9/11 happened and peopel thought that a change in the white house would be better for US policy towards pakistan, and for issues including Iraq sanctions which were upheld by teh clinton administration, and acts like lobbign missiles on pharma factories, and stalemate in the mid-east conflict could be changed. No one could have predicted the future.

many people looked out for the domestic policies, tax, education..etc and voted based on that.

The key question is do we reallyt hink that if gore was in power hings would have been done differently. if i recall u are not a big fan of the clinton sec of state and sec of defense.. is rummy much better or worse than maddy? I am nto counting powell because he is just there for EEO or some race quota deal as he seems to have no say in what goes on.