Thread: The Duty of American Muslims this Election

"The Christian Science Monitor"
Commentary

THE DUTY OF AMERICAN MUSLIMS THIS ELECTION
Forget self-pity. Make your voice a constructive one.

By Mansoor Ijaz

from the October 31, 2008 edition

London - I am American. I am Muslim. I am not a registered Republican or Democrat. But I do believe my vote matters. And I'm proud to be a citizen of the United States, where I can exercise my birthright to help choose my country's political leadership.

In previous elections, I advocated a choice of candidate. This year, I simply encourage every registered American Muslim and Arab-American to vote – your vote and your voice matter. You can be an agent for change, if you choose to be. You have no right to complain about what is wrong with our country if you don't vote.

Recast your feelings of outrage and exclusion at the bipartisan Islamophobia that has engulfed the 2008 presidential race. Make it a constructive voice – enough of the "woe is me" victimization that has plagued our communities since 9/11. Whatever abuses we suffered, whether from the US Patriot Act or from violations of our civil liberties born of anger and frustration at attacks carried out by those who defaced our faith, we have more freedom, more opportunity, and more say in how our country is run than we would in any other country.

We are citizens who work hard, pay taxes, send kids to school, and participate in community activities – in short, we are as much America as "Joe the Plumber." Unfortunately, we often don't act it.

If we want our place in American political life, we have to earn it. If we want our voices heard, we should not need prominent citizens such as Colin Powell to defend the American Muslim identity as part of our nation's political fabric and denounce Islamophobia in American politics. We should raise up leaders from among ourselves who by virtue of their public or military service to our country – as Americans first, not Muslims who happen to live here – can make a valid case for the issues that uniquely affect us.

As my fellow American Muslims ponder their choices this election, I urge them to think about the larger problems our world faces and how we, living in its freest country, can be catalysts for change.

On America and Islam. We are engaged in a generational struggle against extremism, particularly the Islamist variety. Yet as a society, we have so far refused to give a platform to rational Muslim voices for fear they may be wolves hiding in sheep's clothing. We should vote for the candidate whose administration will open doors to qualified American Muslims to serve as beacons of democracy's promise. Muslims at home and abroad must have better examples to follow than Osama bin Laden's manipulative exhortations as the defender of Islam's poor and disaffected.

On America's foreign policy challenges. Preventing the complete collapse of Pakistan, which is already in a dysfunctional state, should be one of the top priorities for the next administration. If Pakistan failed, it would pose two critical risks – becoming a strategic haven for the world's Islamist extremists and allowing unregulated fissile materials to find the wrong hands.

The next administration cannot rely on military force to fix Pakistan. America needs to lead an international effort aimed at creating a New Deal type Works Progress Administration to put Pakistanis to work. People who work and trade don't bomb and kill. Candidates who believe in a multifaceted and nuanced approach – instead of blunt-instrument policies – to such vexing problems are better equipped to represent our future.

On America's failing intelligence system. The next administration will have to fix a bloated and inappropriately staffed intelligence apparatus. If we are to combat the asymmetric threats we face effectively, America needs a new genre of human intelligence gatherers whose language skills and cultural identities enable us to know what signals intelligence can never tell us. We spend billions on satellites that cannot find one man. If we spent just millions on training our own citizens Urdu, Farsi, Hindi, and Arabic so we could gather good intelligence for the sake of making better policy, perhaps we could avert the next attack.

On the future of Muslims in America. America is a race- and religion-blind meritocracy. No door has ever been closed to me. I intend one day to hold high public office and I believe my fellow citizens will give me that chance irrespective of my religious beliefs because they know I love my country and have defended it against those who have torn my religion apart.

I want my government to ensure no door is ever closed to my children. I teach my children the principles espoused by Jefferson and Washington as much as I care that they learn the sayings of prophet Muhammad. Leadership is about constructing frameworks that gird a society's architecture. American Muslims need to help construct these frameworks, or our generations will be lost.

The practice of democracy is really about average citizens – no matter our race, religion, or gender – wisely choosing the best and brightest to lead us.

I don't care whether John McCain and Barack Obama visited a mosque or failed to address our communities during the presidential contest. I do care that they understand that my vote, and those of my fellow American Muslims, matters. And that they will take seriously how important a part of American life we really are.

• Mansoor Ijaz is a New York financier.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1031/p09s01-coop.html

Hmm, interesting.

ON BALLOTS THIS NOVEMBER:MORE MUSLIM AMERICAN WOMEN

Thursday, October 30, 2008

By RASHA MADKOUR, Associated Press Writer


MIAMI — Many things have changed for Muslim Americans in the seven years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks: Interrogations from FBI and immigration officials. Additional screenings from airport security. The feeling of being targeted by the contentious Patriot Act.

And then there's this: More Muslims, particularly women, are running for political office, spurred by the perceived erosions of their civil liberties.

The soul searching that followed 9/11 prompted more woman to step into leadership roles, a trend encouraged by the community, said Agha Saeed, founder of the American Muslim Alliance, which has been tracking Muslim candidates since 1996. Before Sept. 11, less than 5 percent were women, Saeed said. Now about one in three are.

Dozens of Muslim Americans of both genders have seats on city councils and work on Capitol Hill, Saeed said, though few hold statewide office. Only two Muslims _ Democrats Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Andre Carson of Indiana _ serve in Congress.

"9/11 had a big impact," Ellison said. "We kind of came to the conclusion that sitting on the sidelines ... was not going to be a successful strategy, and that people needed to get involved."

Jamilah Nasheed, an African-American convert to Islam and Missouri Democratic state representative, is one of just nine Muslim Americans in state legislatures nationwide, and the only woman, according to the alliance. She is almost certain to win re-election this year, and Muslim American women in California, Michigan and Minnesota are vying to join her.

Among them is Democrat Ferial Masry, who faces a tough race in her bid to represent a heavily Republican general assembly district near Los Angeles. The 59-year-old high school government and history teacher was born in Mecca but moved to Egypt when she was 10 so she could attend school, not an option for girls in Saudi Arabia at the time. She was a write-in candidate for the seat four years ago after the Democratic Party approached her.

She said no one expected the unknown "woman from Saudi Arabia with an accent" to do well, but she got almost 35 percent of the vote.

No matter how she does this time, she believes she's already won by challenging stereotypes about her faith.

"They have this perception of Muslim women _ veiled, oppressed and depressed," says Masry, who doesn't don a scarf. "I'm giving a different picture."

Farheen Hakeem, a 32-year-old activist and Green Party candidate for an open seat representing Minneapolis, first ran for mayor in 2005, then for a county commissioner seat. She lost both times.

"I was asked every question under the book," says Hakeem, who wears a head scarf and is of South Asian descent. People would grill her about Islam's treatment of women.

"If I'm so oppressed, how am I running for mayor? I'm still Muslim," she'd tell them. Now, she says, "People are like, 'Yeah, so what, she's Muslim.'"

Rashida Tlaib, an immigration lawyer from Michigan, never thought about running for office until after the terrorist attacks, when she said she saw the immigration system being used to target people of Middle Eastern descent and felt a responsibility to get involved.

After she worked on immigration reform, Tlaib was approached by the Michigan House floor leader, who wanted her to work for him, then later urged her to run for his seat. Tlaib was also recently tapped to be Barack Obama campaign's liaison to the Arab American and Muslim American communities.

"I think this is fate, what in Arabic we call 'naseeb,'" says Tlaib, 32, who was born to Palestinian parents and raised in southwest Detroit. She was the first in her family to graduate from high school, and earned a law degree while working full-time and helping raise 13 younger siblings.

Having won the primary in her heavily Democratic, majority Latino district, Tlaib will likely to join lawmakers in Lansing next session, and she looks forward to exposing them to Muslim holidays and traditions like fasting the month of Ramadan.

But Tlaib is quick to emphasize that she didn't run because she's Muslim American; it's just part of who she is. When she walked her district's neighborhoods, people were more interested in talking about crime and foreclosures than her unfamiliar name.

Still, Tlaib's victory has excited the local Muslim community, where men have brought their daughters to meet her.

"They are just completely proud and feeling like this is the reason they came to this country," Tlaib said, "so their children could get opportunities like this."

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/200ct30/ ... cs,00.html

OH NO.

After she worked on immigration reform, Tlaib was approached by the Michigan House floor leader, who wanted her to work for him, then later urged her to run for his seat. Tlaib was also recently tapped to be Barack Obama campaign's liaison to the Arab American and Muslim American communities.

"I think this is fate, what in Arabic we call 'naseeb,'" says Tlaib, 32, who was born to Palestinian parents and raised in southwest Detroit. She was the first in her family to graduate from high school, and earned a law degree while working full-time and helping raise 13 younger siblings.

So I guess his connection to Khalidi doesn't matter?

Many things have changed for Muslim Americans in the seven years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks: Interrogations from FBI and immigration officials. Additional screenings from airport security. The feeling of being targeted by the contentious Patriot Act.

What ever act is appropriate, so be it. If the Muslims of this country are upset over being targeted, then let them vent their anger towards their evil brothers who are the problem. Let them publically speak out against them..something we don't hear enough of. A country's citizens have a right to protect their own without having to be accused of profiling..after all, that is the key to finding or getting close to foreign enemies who would do us in. But tell me, why is it we don't hear more than we are hearing from Muslim people in this country about their condemnation of the terorrists? That's what worries me, not their religon.

Originally Posted by Rockfish

Many things have changed for Muslim Americans in the seven years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks: Interrogations from FBI and immigration officials. Additional screenings from airport security. The feeling of being targeted by the contentious Patriot Act.

What ever act is appropriate, so be it. If the Muslims of this country are upset over being targeted, then let them vent their anger towards their evil brothers who are the problem. Let them publically speak out against them..something we don't hear enough of. A country's citizens have a right to protect their own without having to be accused of profiling..after all, that is the key to finding or getting close to foreign enemies who would do us in. But tell me, why is it we don't hear more than we are hearing from Muslim people in this country about their condemnation of the terorrists? That's what worries me, not their religon.

I agree.

Originally Posted by Rockfish

Many things have changed for Muslim Americans in the seven years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks: Interrogations from FBI and immigration officials. Additional screenings from airport security. The feeling of being targeted by the contentious Patriot Act.

What ever act is appropriate, so be it. If the Muslims of this country are upset over being targeted, then let them vent their anger towards their evil brothers who are the problem. Let them publically speak out against them..something we don't hear enough of. A country's citizens have a right to protect their own without having to be accused of profiling..after all, that is the key to finding or getting close to foreign enemies who would do us in. But tell me, why is it we don't hear more than we are hearing from Muslim people in this country about their condemnation of the terorrists? That's what worries me, not their religon.

Well said RF!