Who should muslims endorse as President?

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Here is a li’l bit of history. Back in 2000, many muslim organizations in the US fully endorsed George W Bush. Reasons varied of course, but he was deemed better largely because Al Gore had selected a “jew” as his running mate. While personally I don’t appreciate that single-track mind-set, but that is a moot point. We’ll never really know how it would have shaped up in a normal course of his presidency, because lo and behold, 9/11 happened and the world changed completely.

After 8 years of Bush (and Republicans), muslims in America are again at the cross-roads.

First of all, I doubt if muslims even vote as a bloc. There are so many internal squabbles and conflicts. Many organizations try to make it a bloc vote so muslims can bring their issues to the front of the candidate who listens to them. I think I am ok with this argument. Jews and blacks and latinos and Indians - all have political clout because of the money they give and the bloc vote they represent (not 100% bloc votes, of course). They are a constituency everyone wants to court.

Now, the tricky part is who to endorse and who to vote for.

Practically, in the post-9/11 world, my guess is an over-whelming muslim endorsement for any candidate will be the proverbial kiss-of-death for that person’s campaign. Go figure! :slight_smile:

Secondly, in this highly charged anti-muslim environment, is there really any candidate from either side who will be really “good” for muslims? I don’t think so. All we have are degrees of “worse”. Dems are generally deemed good for civil liberties inside US. Though with Clinton years, thats also a question mark. Republicans (and conservatives) are more closely aligned with muslims on moral and social issues (abortion, marriage etc).

From a foreign policy stand point, George W Bush has proven to be a hack, but he has good terms with the oil-rich sheikhs of middle east and our favorite President in Pakistan (tongue in cheek, of course). Neither Republicans nor Democrats will dare to try anything strict with Israel on the issue of Palestinians (that cause is nearest and dearest to a lot of muslims).

So, who should muslims endorse?

Look forward to intelligent arguments one way or the other …

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Re: Who should muslims endorse as President?

I don't think there are any intelligent arguments on this. At least not to a point of a satisfactory outcome. As you point out, both sides have fatal flaws on many issues that are important to Muslims.

I don't think that is unusual, however. As a non-Muslim I don't feel like there is a party or candidate that comes close to my views either. The 2 party system really sucks.

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Re: Who should muslims endorse as President?

i would think obama; even if he does want to bomb pakistan. Apparently he was once a madressah student in indonesia.... something muslims can relate to methinks. :D

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Re: Who should muslims endorse as President?

***Nothing Tricky about Obama...........

He Shoots Straight..........

Need to give him a Chance.......has NO Access Baggage Like Hillary!

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Re: Who should muslims endorse as President?

And which muslims are we talking about here? The Indian Muslims, the Pakistani Muslims, the Irani Muslims, the Iraqi Muslims, the African Muslims, The Palestinian Muslims????
Just because we are Muslims, doesnt mean we share one common brain. Some Muslims lean more towards the Democrats, some more Republican, some Independent. Muslims in America really have no control over how any one of the candidated will execute their foreign policy once in the white house. Chose a candidate you feel comfortable with and agree with most of their policies.

How Many PM
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Re: Who should muslims endorse as President?

Think he's talking about "muslims in America". Obama will be a good choice for Muslims even though he's just another politician. McCain will only continue Bush policies. Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX, was at Bilderberg 2007 meeting in Istanbul) has asked Huckabee to yield to McCain. Jew-liani and Terminator (seen his photo with billionaire Warren Buffet and trillionaire Jacob Rothschild?) have endorsed him. So, McCain is their man.

Ron Paul is the only straight shooter amongst them. Unlike the rest, he's not even a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

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Re: Who should muslims endorse as President?

Voting on religious grounds is stupid. I would say vote for a person who has a promise to solve your major problem.

DVD Burner sees disc as blank
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Re: Who should muslims endorse as President?

Actually I do not believe desi votes or muslim votes matter in the American elections. the numbers are too small and given the electoral votes system, has very little significance if any.

I know there are a lot black voters who have muslim names but a vast majority of them see themselves as blacks and not as muslims and they will vote based on that

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Re: Who should muslims endorse as President?


There is a portion in my first post (read it, pls) that talks about my view that Muslims may not represent a cohesive voting bloc, anyway. However, the sad truth is you, as a community, are only important if you bring a bloc of votes. If Muslims are scattered all over the political map, they have no value, and can not hope to push any kind of agenda that is important to them.

To be a viable political force, as a community you have to be cohesive, united, knowledgeable, (preferably) rich (to donate money) and are actually willing to go out and vote. Otherwise no one cares for you and your issues. You can be a maverick, and I am sure many people love that feeling.

Seminole, you are right that no one size fits all. This is an especially difficult choice for Muslims this year.

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Re: Who should muslims endorse as President?

How many Muslim voters (registered) are there in the US? Any estimates on that number?

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Re: Who should muslims endorse as President?

What is muslim’s “major problem”? Koi aik problem ho tau batayeiN… :grumpy:

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Re: Who should muslims endorse as President?

^Not the problems of muslims but your and your fellow humans. Just do not vote on religious ground. If everyone thinks like that then even talented people from minority religion will not get a chance

Timepass - (Ramzan Mubarak also)
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Re: Who should muslims endorse as President?

I think Muslim should vote democrats. It is purely because of civil libery and anti-war point of view. A Dem President is more likely to respond positively to civil liberty issue and are more likely to yield to pressures from Civil liberty organization like ACLU and others. They are also less likely to jump to war bandwagon unless it is really really needed. This also means they do not need to play too much of anti-muslim card , which in turn will mean less hostility and suspicion towards a muslim neighbor.

I dont think Israel issue should even come into consideration.Whoever comes in power Israel policy will remain same.

Just my 2 cents.

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Re: Who should muslims endorse as President?

There are about 400,000 American Muslim voters in the US, according to CAIR.
Source

Men in Capris.
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Re: Who should muslims endorse as President?

400,000 registered muslim voters appears a very low number. There are about 142 million registered voters in the US. This will make muslims 0.28% of population. Not likely.

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Re: Who should muslims endorse as President?

There are close to 2 million registered Muslim voters in the US.

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Re: Who should muslims endorse as President?

In general I agree with you. However "Pakistani" Muslims think that Republicans are good for Pakistan while Democrats are against Pakistan and put more sanctions.

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Re: Who should muslims endorse as President?

I do think more than 400k registered voters will be muslim but most of them do not see themselves as a block of muslims but more as african-americans. They will vote Obama

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Re: Who should muslims endorse as President?

I think Muslim American voters are pretty much equally divided between blacks, South Asians and Arabs.

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Re: Who should muslims endorse as President?

I wonder how many of those are Nation of Islam idiots.