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 http://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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