Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May/June 1998, Pages 21, 95

Election Watch

U.S. Muslim Groups Hold First National Coordination Meeting to Discuss Election Strategies for 1998-2000

By Richard H. Curtiss

In 1985, responding to a survey by the San Francisco Jewish Community Relations Council, almost one-third of the Jews in one northern California region said that they did not believe non-Jews would vote for a Jew for Congress. In fact, however, all three of the elected representatives from that area already were Jewish.

The point of the story is that although the two percent of the U.S. population who are Jewish are highly conspicuous in the media, government, both the first- and second-term Clinton cabinets, the judiciary (where two of nine Supreme Court justices are Jewish), and in Congress (where about 10 percent of senators and representatives are Jewish), some ordinary members of the U.S. Jewish community seem the last to know it.

There is a parallel with the U.S. Islamic community, who have the numbers to make a significant impact on the U.S. political system, although the Muslim rank and file don’t seem to believe it. That is because, at first glance, the situation of America’s Muslim population seems dramatically different from that of their Jewish compatriots. There are no Muslims at all among the 535 members of Congress, none in Clinton’s cabinet, none on the Supreme Court, none in White House or State Department political policymaking positions, and none among governors or lieutenant governors of the nation’s 50 states. And Muslims among the thousands of state legislators can surely be counted on the fingers of two hands, or perhaps even one.

In the United States there are no certain population figures for religious affiliation, since the U.S. census does not record it. However, Jewish community newspapers generally estimate the number of U.S. Jews at six million. To reach even this figure, however, the definition of Jewishness has had to be broadened from those who actually belong to a synagogue to include also those who consider themselves “ethnically Jewish” but who do not practice the religion.

Muslims seem to set a higher standard for themselves. Those who attend a mosque fairly regularly are believed to number between 1.5 and 4.5 million. If the standard were broadened to include those who attend a mosque infrequently or not at all, but nevertheless consider themselves Muslim, the number might rise as high as 6 or 8 million.

Although current population figures are uncertain, some other things are not. The Jewish community is declining in numbers. Nationwide, somewhere between 40 and 60 percent of American Jews marry outside their religion, and only a very small percentage of the children of such mixed marriages are raised as Jews.

Among Jews married to Jews, the birth rate is low. The rates for adherents to Reform and Conservative Judaism, who constitute between 85 and 90 percent of American Jews, are not even at replacement level. Among Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews, birthrates are high, but since together these constitute little more than 10 percent of U.S. Jews, overall the U.S. Jewish community is not replenishing itself.

The statistics are fuzzier with American Muslims. In the American “melting pot” many Muslims, too, marry outside their religion, but apparently not at quite such high levels as U.S. Jews. One survey showed that 40 percent of Muslim women in the U.S. marry non-Islamic men, but of these men, half convert to Islam.

As for replenishment, many U.S. Muslims have large families, and virtually none are childless. In addition, 13 percent of the very large number of immigrants who arrive in the United States each year are Muslim.

Given these figures, it is reasonable to wonder why Jews have such a remarkable level of political influence in the U.S., and Muslims have virtually none. A story told by Dr. Agha Saeed, Pakistan-born secretary-general of the Northern California-based American Muslim Alliance, which has 66 chapters in 26 U.S. states, provides one explanation.

A man noticed huge numbers of people pouring into a stadium. Reasoning that there must be something inside worth watching, the man went up to the only uniformed attendant in sight and asked if he, too, might enter.

“No,” said the attendant.

The man started to leave. But then, noticing that the crowd rushing into the stadium was growing, the man returned to the attendant and asked: “Why can’t I enter when everyone else can?”

“Everyone else didn’t ask me,” the attendant replied.

Dr. Saeed’s point is that it’s time for America’s large and growing Muslim community to enter the political system and, to do so, there’s no need to ask permission. All that’s needed is an understanding of the rules of the game, and a willingness to play it. His second point is that in a system where perhaps only 50 percent of Americans vote, no community needs huge numbers to make its voice heard.

For the past year he has devoted his organization to a campaign he calls “2,000 in the year 2000.” He explains that in 1996 Muslims ran for every elective office in the United States except that of president and vice president. A Muslim ran for governor in the state of Washington, other Muslims ran for the Senate and the House of Representatives, for state senate and assembly seats (which a few won), for judgeships and for other positions at the state, county and municipal levels.

What he is saying is that there should be 2,000 Muslims elected in 2000. He explains that since there are 521,000 elected officials in the United States, some 200,000 important appointed positions, and another 38,200 people in congressional staff positions, a goal of 2,000 elected officials seems relatively modest, given the size of the American Muslim population. He believes that the time has come for Islamic groups in the U.S. to encourage Muslims with the right leadership qualities and appropriate experience to run for public office at all levels, and then to support their campaigns with votes, funds and volunteers.

Dr. Saeed and other Muslim groups and their leaders also are talking about other ways to increase Islamic political influence in the United States. Such discussions were held informally at AMA national conventions in Boston in 1996 and in St. Louis in 1997. The result was formal creation of a coordinating council for such discussions early this year. It had its first meeting March 21 in Dallas, with each national organization restricted to no more than two participants.

While a certain percentage of the day-long meeting was spent getting acquainted and even more time was consumed in discussions of by-laws, procedures and funding, there was also discussion of effective participation in the 1998 national elections and the all-important presidential election in the year 2000.

Clearly for some delegates things were moving very rapidly for an organization founded only weeks earlier. For others, like Dr. Saeed, who has been moving toward such a council for more than two years, every week between now and this year’s November election is valuable time that must not be lost.

Meeting participants were able to cite successful examples at the city and state levels of Muslims in diverse areas of the country who managed to agree on Islamic community endorsements of specific candidates. The endorsements were made known through local mosques, and in many cases candidates won by such slender margins that they acknowledged they could not have been elected without Muslim support. Among these was Sen. Robert Torricelli in New Jersey, Sen. Tim Johnson in South Dakota, and other winners at lower levels.

Word clearly has gotten around. At a March 21 dinner by the American Muslim Caucus, a Texas-based organization that hosted the first Muslim national coordinating council meeting, the principal speaker was a Republican candidate for a seat in the House of Representatives held for the past 20 years by an ardent Jewish supporter of Israel. With everything to gain and nothing to lose, the Republican challenger gave all the right answers to questions from the floor, including the politically delicate matter of how he would vote when next the issue of moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem arises.

In the Dallas/Fort Worth area in which the dinner was held, Muslims outnumber Jews by a significant margin. It was clear at a similar meeting the next day hosted by the Metroplex (Dallas-Fort Worth) chapter of the American Muslim Alliance that candidates for office are aware of this. Although most were running for local offices which have little to do with foreign affairs, both a Republican candidate for Congress and an Independent Party candidate for another congressional seat again said all the right things about the Middle East, along with less controversial local issues.

Heartened by these demonstrations of the power of their numbers, the coordinating council delegates returned to their home states considerably encouraged. Although there was no immediate press statement at the end of the meeting, it appeared that subject to approval by board members of their organizations, the national Muslim groups will concentrate their efforts in the 1998 elections on a “California strategy.” It will aim not only at securing the election of some Muslim-endorsed candidates, but also at demonstrating to politicians everywhere the power of Muslim voters in America’s most populous state.

If the demonstration is successful, it could have a major effect on the positions of presidential candidates in the year 2000. California’s population now is huge. It is generally believed that, in a close election, whoever wins California wins the presidency. So if word gets around that no one can win California without winning the Muslim vote, it could create a sea change in U.S. foreign policy even within the next two years.

Dr. Agha Saeed and some of the others who attended the March 21 coordinating council meeting in Texas think that is an attainable goal.

So do I.