Taking a Seat at the Lunch Counter: Arabs, Muslims and the American Ballot Box
by
Hady Amr
How have the September
11th attacks on America affected how Arab Americans and American
Muslims organize themselves for the ballot box? What does the future
hold for the political influence of America’s approximately 3 million
citizens of Arab ancestry and as many as 6 million Muslims? Who are
their allies? Who are their enemies? What are their political issues?
And where do we expect to the political influence of these communities
to be in the years ahead?
The future also depends—to a
great extent—on the communities themselves, and how effectively they are
able to organize.
African Americans did not
end segregation in the American South in the second half of the 20th
century by complaining about it; African Americans ended segregation by
taking a seat at lunch counter, by sitting in the front of the bus, by
having the courage, the dedication and the wisdom to go where they
previously weren’t allowed. Until the early 1990s, Arab Americans and
American Muslims suffered from political segregation. They were often
kept off political campaigns, they often had their campaign
contributions returned. And all because their ethnic and religious
backgrounds made them suspect in the eyes of many. And despite being
almost the size of the American Jewish Community, there is still not a
single American Muslim Member of Congress.
While this political
segregation along ethnic and religious lines had not ended
entirely—evidenced by Hillary Clinton returning tens of thousands of
dollars of campaign contributions from American Muslims in 2000 because
she felt they were a political liability—another monumental September
date in US-Middle East relations dramatically leveled the playing field
for Arab Americans and American Muslims.
On September 13,
1993, President Clinton presided over the signing of the Oslo Accords
between the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin and Palestine
Liberation Organization Chairman Yasir Arafat. This event dramatically
altered the traditional view among on Capitol Hill that political
support from Arab Americans and American Muslims would antagonize a
pro-Israel lobby that is still rated by Fortune Magazine as the
fourth most powerful lobby in America, more powerful than the AFL-CIO.
Despite lingering prejudices, since September 13, 1993, the doors to
America’s political power structure are now dramatically more open to
Arab Americans and American Muslims than at any time in recent decades.
During the 1996 Presidential
campaign, Arab Americans and American Muslims played prominent roles in
both the Dole and Clinton campaigns. Arab American Peter Dagher served
as Clinton’s Director of Operations and went on to run for Congress in
2002 in Chicago where although he failed to get elected, he galvanized
the local Arab American and American Muslim communities to support his
campaign. American Muslim Mona Mohib served on the African American
outreach team and went on to, among other posts, the Clinton White House
and today serves as the Political Director for Al Gore’s Leadership 02
Political Action Committee and became the first American Muslim to serve
on the Democratic National Committee. Clinton handily won the Arab
American vote in 1996 56% to 34% according to polls by Zogby
International.
During the 2000 Presidential
Campaigns, a coalition of American Muslim organizations, founded mostly
in the 1990s, and led by the Islamic Institute’s Khaled Saffuri,
long-time Arab American and American Muslim activist, endorsed George W.
Bush for President based on many factors, among them commitments made by
the Bush to ban the use of secret evidence and racial profiling, all of
which came to an end after September 11th, although the
political access they earned during that process has remained.
Meanwhile Presidential
candidates Al Gore and his running-mate Joseph Lieberman also gave
unprecedented access to Arab Americans and American Muslims. Lieberman’s
first public meeting after being appointed the Vice Presidential nominee
was to meet with Arab Americans in Michigan, a sign of growing
prominence for the Arab American community. Dr. James Zogby served as
the Gore-Lieberman Campaign’s Senior Advisor for Ethnic American
Outreach and I served as the Campaign’s National Director for Ethnic
American Outreach. Our work, together with that of the Arab American
community and their supporters succeeded in adjusting Gore’s policy away
from endorsing secret evidence, racial profiling and in creating the
first-ever section of a major Presidential candidate’s website devoted
to Arab American interests.
In 2000, much ado was made
in the press of the endorsement of Bush by major American Muslim and
Arab American organizations but the actual vote was quite another
matter. Analysis of the Arab American and American Muslim vote shows,
first, that Gore won nine of the twelve states where Arab Americans live
in the highest concentrations California, Connecticut, Illinois,
Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, and
Pennsylvania. Second, Gore won fifteen of the twenty counties with the
highest Arab American concentrations. In the end, however, exit polls of
Arab Americans conducted by Zogby International gave 46% of the vote to
Bush, 38% to Gore and 14% to Arab American third party candidate Ralph
Nader. This was a clear migration away from the Democratic presidential
ticket, but not at all the "landslide victory" claimed by many of Bush’s
Arab American or American Muslim supporters. Even in Dearborn, Michigan,
the city with the most famous concentration of Arab Americans in the
USA, Bush only beat Gore by 3000 votes—Bush 20,100, Gore 17,101, other
1672—according to official City figures.
If the Muslim endorsement of
Bush in 2000 played any role, it was to put the Muslims in America in
the nation’s political spotlight for a moment. According to a poll
published by the Georgetown University hosted project "Muslims in
American Public Square" also conducted by Zogby International in
November 2001, 40% of American Muslims describe themselves as Democrats,
23% Republican and 28% independents. According to the poll, Bush also
won 42% of the Muslim vote, while Gore won 31% and Nader 12%. Again,
Bush seems to have done better in the American Muslim community than
Gore but this is definitely no landslide. Despite the endorsement of
Bush by American Muslim organizations, the poll found that the four
issues with the most dramatic margins in the American Muslim community
are all issues that have been championed by the Democratic Party, and
interestingly, also, the American Jewish community: 96% of American
Muslims support the "elimination of all forms of racial discrimination,"
94% support "providing universal health care for citizens," 93% support
"providing more generous government assistance to the poor," and 93%
support "stricter laws and regulations to protect the environment." Such
common ground could prove politically significant as alliances shift in
the decades ahead.
But how has the American
political process changed since September 11, 2001? In the two most
important state-wide elections since then, which were for the office of
Governor of the States of Virginia and New Jersey, Arab Americans and
American Muslims played prominent roles. In the case of Virginia, the
role of Arab Americans was, in a way, historic. The northern Virginia
Arab American community’s annual candidate’s night drew just about every
major candidate for state-wide office easily making it one of the most
notable political events of the entire campaign. And not only did an
Arab American Saba Shami and I serve as Democratic Party Candidate Mark
Warner’s State Director for Ethnic Outreach and Advisor on Ethnic
Outreach, respectively, but a pan-ethnic coalition of Middle Eastern
Americans including Bangladeshi Americans, Eritrean Americans, Iranian
Americans, and Pakistani Americans was fully embraced by the campaign.
Through our efforts, the Warner Campaign also became the first-ever
major campaign for state-wide office in US history to put campaign
literature in Arabic on their website. Moreover, Mark Warner is now
Governor of Virginia and he and the Virginia State Democratic Party have
been appointing Arab Americans to significant offices and committees in
the state.
At the same time, however,
tendencies among the politically active segments of the American Jewish
community seem to have shifted significantly to the right when it comes
to the Middle East, likely resulting from the increasingly violent and
deadly conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and commensurate with
changes in political views in Israel. As a consequence, a number of key
Members of Congress, who have long voted for Middle East policy
positions that coincide with the views of the Arab American and American
Muslim communities, have found themselves coming under attacks
calculated to throw them out of office. Long-time Congressman Earl
Hilliard, the first African American Member of Congress from Alabama,
lost his June primary election to an African American challenger who
political insiders and the Washington Post alike recognized was largely
funded by right-wing elements in of the pro-Israel lobby. They were out
to defeat Hilliard for his reluctance to support right wing, pro-Israel
positions on the Middle East. While the typical Congressional election
in Alabama is generally run with a few hundred thousand dollars,
Hilliard’s opponent, Artur Davis out-raised and out-spent him, spending
over $1.2 million for the primary, perhaps a record in Alabama. Where
did Davis’s funds come from? According to
www.opensecrets.com, an
excellent source for campaign finance information, Davis did not raise
much money in his home state of Alabama. The most up-to-date analysis of
his funds available at the time of writing shows that a remarkable 79%
came from out of state, with $172,222 of his first $427,232, or 40%
coming from the New York metro area alone—with three of the other top
five metro areas being near-by Nassau-Suffolk on Long Island,
Bergen-Passaic in New Jersey and Stamford-Norwalk in Connecticut. Taken
together New York and these three satellite county clusters provided 53%
of Davis’s first several hundred thousand. To demonstrate the astounding
influence that New Yorkers played in this Congressional race, one need
look no further than Hilliard’s own campaign finance information.
Hilliard raised no more than $29,306 from any one metro area, and that
metro area happened to be Birmingham, Alabama, smack dab in his
Congressional district.
The defeat of Hilliard was
intended to send a message to the Congressional Black Caucus and others,
that severe negative consequences will befall those who resist their
views. And make no mistake; the election will certainly frighten some
Members of Congress. But many Members of the Congressional Black Caucus
seem to be resentful of this political attack from non-African American
interest groups from outside the Congressional district. Furthermore,
the remarkable efforts of the Arab American and American Muslim
community to raise money for their ally at the last minute and drive
down to Alabama along side many member of the Congressional Black Caucus
to campaign on Hilliard’s behalf has earned great respect for the Arab
American and American Muslim communities.
Some say that other Members
of Congress who have also long-resisted the political pressures of the
right wing elements of the pro-Israel lobby are also paying the price
for their political views. When redistricting took two Congressional
districts away from Michigan, veteran Congressman John Dingell who has
served since 1955, and has long been a leading opponent of Likud’s
policies, was placed in an August 6th run-off primary
election with fellow Democrat Lynn Rivers. While the two are similar,
politically, on a variety of issues, Rivers received the support of the
right wing elements of those opposed to Congressman Dingell’s balanced
stands on the Middle East. Arab Americans and American Muslims are
visibly supported their longtime ally Dingell with fundraisers and "get
out the vote" drives. While Congressman Dingell was ultimately
victorious, he did pay an electoral price for his balanced positions on
the Middle East.
So, on the one hand, the
political process seems to be rapidly opening up to Arab Americans and
American Muslims. On the other hand, Members of Congress who have long
supported Arab American political positions, particularly as they
related to Middle East foreign policy, have found themselves under
dramatic attack.
There are those who would
argue that, like affirmative action, the inclusions and openness to Arab
Americans and American Muslims into America’s political process matters
little if the issues they stand for are not being fully embraced. But
the fact is that it does make a difference when Arab Americans and
American Muslims are present inside campaigns, at the policy table with
the President, as staffers and Members of Congress on Capitol Hill and
in elected and appointed offices inside state and local government. When
anyone, including Arab Americans and American Muslims, are included,
their issues do get address and they do affect the process. The most
direct ways for any community to affect the political process are by
participating. The communities are fast coming to the realization that
the old strategies like demonstrating and letter-writing are futile
unless linked to savvy insight into how politics works and day-in,
day-out participation.
Where Arab Americans and
American Muslims will be in the upcoming elections cycles in 2004 and
beyond will depend on how effectively they organize themselves to more
fully take their seat at America’s political table. In turn, this will
depend on their willpower and their wisdom. But as famed Speaker of the
House of Representatives Tip O’Neil once said, "All politics is local;"
Arab Americans and American Muslims would do well to heed that advice
and concentrate on organizing locally first at the county level and then
the state level. Only then will they be truly ready to one day take the
step to Presidential endorsements and not be taken at least partially
for granted. The organizing strategies of Arab Americans and American
Muslims, along with the remnant political inclinations of the right wing
elements pro-Israel lobby, will make a difference. So too will potential
political alliances between Arab Americans, American Muslims and
mainstream American Jews who share very similar beliefs on a large
number of domestic political issues.
But the future is hard to
predict. What is sure is that the growing numbers of Arab Americans and
American Muslims will yield increasing influence over the political
process. In ten years Arab Americans and American Muslims may not yet be
major players in of Presidential politics, but the decade will likely
see the election of the first American Muslim Members of Congress, and
that along with the Arab American Members of Congress, the Congressional
Black Caucus and others, they may soon form a critical mass on Capitol
Hill which is increasingly unwilling to compromise its views on
America’s Middle East policy and will likely form a rather progressive
block on domestic issues long with many American Jewish Members of
Congress.
- Hady Amr was formerly the National Director of
Ethnic American Outreach for Al Gore’s presidential campaign and served
in former President Bill Clinton’s Department of Defense at the Near
East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies. Amr is currently an
independent consultant who divides his time between Arlington, Virginia
and the Arab world. He contributed
this
commentary to
- Media
Monitors Network (MMN).
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