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Nader promises to repeal patriot act { October 18 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/11133305p-12049737c.htmlhttp://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/11133305p-12049737c.html
Muslim, Arab American vote shifting to Kerry, polls show
By Stephen Magagnini -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Monday, October 18, 2004
Davis businessman Hamza El-Nakhal helped elect George W. Bush president in 2000, along with a majority of the estimated 3 million Muslim and Arab American voters nationwide.
"It was a big mistake," El-Nakhal says now. "He rejected the whole world community to make war on Iraq, and with the Patriot Act, he's really intruded on our civil rights. I'm scared all the time that I could be prosecuted for something completely phony - the Constitution does not protect us any more."
El-Nakhal, a native of Egypt, and at least half a million other Muslim and Arab Americans are expected to switch their support to John Kerry on Nov. 2, according to several nationwide polls.
Their votes could prove key in the battleground states of Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
"In just the four battleground states we're polling, over 200,000 Arab American voters have switched from the Republican to the Democratic column," said Jim Zogby, senior analyst for Zogby International, which specializes in Muslim and Arab polling.
A Zogby poll of the four states in September projected a turnout of 510,000 Arab American voters. That includes 120,000 in Florida and 85,000 in Ohio - both of which went to Bush in 2000, along with their combined 46 electoral votes. The poll showed Kerry leading Bush in these states, 47 percent to 31.5 percent, with 9 percent backing independent candidate Ralph Nader.
A second Zogby poll of 1,700 Muslim voters nationwide conducted for Georgetown University showed Kerry leading Bush, 68 percent to 7 percent, with 11 percent backing Nader.
Zogby and other analysts estimate the Muslim electorate at around 2 million voters. About 40 percent of them are African American and the rest fairly evenly divided among Arab Americans, Pakistanis and other immigrants from non-Arab countries.
There are at least a million other non-Muslim Arab American voters, most of them Christians.
Whatever their religious beliefs, Arab and Muslim Americans share concerns about Bush's handling of three central issues: the war in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the USA Patriot Act.
Agha Saeed, a Berkeley-based political scientist, said while many Muslims thought the attack on Afghanistan was justified, the war in Iraq has generated skepticism.
"When Saddam was in power, all the major contracts went to his friends; now the major contracts are going to Bush's friends, including Halliburton," Saeed said. "Under Saddam, there was torture in the prisons; under Bush, there was torture in Abu Ghraib prison."
For years, Muslim and Arab Americans traditionally split their vote down the middle, Saeed said.
"One of the attractions for Muslims, especially African Americans, to the Democratic Party has been social justice," he said.
On the other hand, many Muslims oppose abortion and homosexuality and are attracted to the Republican ideal of family values, he said.
Before the 2000 presidential election, Saeed and other activists decided the best way for Muslims to have an impact was to vote as a bloc. The American Muslim Political Coordination Council, an umbrella group for four organizations, reached out to the major presidential candidates.
"The only one willing to meet with us was George Bush," Saeed said.
In his second debate with Vice President Al Gore, Bush promised to end racial profiling of Arab Americans and to repeal the Secret Evidence act, which had been used to put Muslim and Arab Americans on trial without revealing the alleged evidence against them to the suspects or their lawyers.
Soon afterward, the American Muslim coalition called on all Muslims to vote for Bush.
"We had to vote for him," said Irfan Haq, a Sacramento businessman. "This was the first time in American political history Muslims came together as a bloc rather than canceling our votes. We were very hopeful that this would be a turning point and Bush would be willing to listen and reach out to the Muslim community."
The Arab American vote in 2000 was close: Bush won 45 percent to 38 percent, according to a Zogby poll.
Saeed and other activists estimate that at least 70 percent of American Muslims voted for Bush in 2000. They were among the groups that gave Bush the edge in Florida, where he won by just 537 votes.
But some local Muslim leaders who voted for Bush last time say they now regret that decision.
"There's fear in the community," Haq said. "At our get-togethers, the discussion has been about the application of the Patriot Act, the rounding up of 1,200 Muslim Americans, lack of access to a lawyer, people disappearing, FBI visits, and the general feeling that we are under siege."
Fueling those fears, Haq said, are anti-Muslim statements made by some Bush supporters, including evangelist Franklin Graham, who called Islam an "evil" religion, and commentator Ann Coulter, who has said all Muslims should be converted to Christianity.
"When you hear these things, how do you think other people in the Middle East will react?" Haq said. "Are we going to live in a world at peace, where we feel safe? Or in a world of perpetual warfare, which is where it seems we are going?
"We need change, and we are hoping Mr. Kerry will provide that."
This week, the American Muslim Task Force, a coalition of 10 national organizations, is expected to endorse a candidate, said Saeed, the task force chairman. He said it's a good bet it won't be Bush.
"In Orlando, Florida, a Muslim was stopped outside one of the largest mosques by the FBI and asked, 'What did you pray about today?' " he said.
"We have a person in our head office who was in the Concord Public Library and police showed up and interrogated him for 15 minutes because he was reading a newspaper that had an article on Osama bin Laden. It's profiling of belief, thought and conscience."
But not all Muslim and Arab Americans are convinced Kerry is the answer.
Muhammad Ali Hasan, a Los Angeles filmmaker, is among those who support Bush. Hasan, 24, a co-founder of the group Muslims for Bush, said his family has donated more than $1 million to the Bush campaign.
He noted that Kerry voted for both the Patriot Act and the war in Iraq and says Bush is more likely to find a solution to the Palestinian question than Kerry, whom he sees as staunchly pro-Israel.
Hasan said he believes the negative impact of the Patriot Act has been exaggerated; while he has been pulled off a plane and interrogated by the FBI, he said, he was allowed to re-board a short time later.
"Under President Bush, things get better every single day," he said.
There is also a strong Nader contingent.
Elias Rashmawi, a civil engineer in Davis and vice president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, is one of thousands of Arab and Muslim Americans planning to vote for Nader because they think America desperately needs an alternative to the two major parties.
"We're very disturbed by Kerry's positions - primarily on Iraq, where he has called for more troops, and on Palestine, where he has offered all-out support for Israeli policies," said Rashmawi, a Palestinian American.
Nader, who is of Lebanese descent, has promised to support an independent Palestine, withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq within six months and repeal the Patriot Act.
Saeed acknowledged Nader and other third-party candidates have a following among Muslim and Arab Americans, but said in closely contested states, those who favor Nader likely will vote for Kerry.
Regardless of how they vote, he said, Muslim and Arab Americans are taking the political process more seriously: Muslim organizations have registered 300,000 new voters nationwide, and are educating voters on all 16 California propositions.
"The post-9/11 world has expanded our political horizons," said Saeed. "It has obliged the community to learn how other people have struggled, what kinds of sacrifices people have made and what victories they have won."
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