Many Muslims feel they only have a small influence over American foreign policy (Pew Research Center, 2007). When challenged like all citizens to participate in the political system process, in my experience Muslim Americans behave as Americans, despite what the polls say or people tend to think about them as a religious entity. Yet some Muslims in America feel that they are misjudged, regardless of the content of their hearts and their true characters. Indeed, many Muslim Americans believe that the main problem they currently face is discrimination based on their ethnicity and religion.
For example, it is certainly amazing that a black man with a Muslim sounding name and Muslim parentage has won the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidency. On the other hand, Senator Barack Obama, an African-American Christian, faces questions about his Muslim roots. In other words, there is reason to believe he might not get a fair chance among some general election voters because of his parentage (his father was an African-born Muslim). At the same time, many Muslims support Barack Obama because they feel his election could send a message that Muslims have a place in America. In the end, seemingly, race and sex issues can be overcome in this election, but religion, especially Islam may not be easily overlooked (Telhami, 2004). According to Tahir Abbas (2005), discrimination against Muslims in the US has increased since September 11, 2001.
In particular, since September 11th, hostility and attacks against Muslims, both verbal and physical, have increased. Recently there have been numerous press reports of violent assaults and attacks on individuals and property such as mosques. Generally there seems to be an increase in Islamophobia. Research has shown that general hostility towards Islam and Muslims. (p. 45).
It stands to reason, therefore, that this climate of fear and intimidation may affect the ability—or the desire—of Muslim-Americans to participate fully in the political process. For this reason, in this paper I want to explore Muslim-American views on the upcoming election. My research questions include:
· Has the climate of fear inspired by the “war on terror” and the invasion of Iraq led Muslim-Americans to become more engaged—or less engaged—in the political process (with a focus on participation in presidential elections)?
· How do Muslim-Americans feel about the political process in particular the 2008 elections and their ability to have a voice in this process (especially in the 2008 election)?
Hypotheses
After conducting initial library research on the above questions, I am making the following hypotheses:
H1: I believe that Muslim- Americans will feel they have experienced discrimination since September 11th, 2001, when they attempt to vote in person.
H2: I believe most Muslim-Americans will support Barack Obama over John McCain and Hillary Clinton because they feel he better understands their own discrimination (mostly due to the fact that he has a Muslim-sounding name and his experience as an African-American in the U.S.).
H3: I also believe they will probably split in their attitudes about political participation. Half will believe the best response to discrimination is getting more involved in politics (i.e., voting), and the other half will withdraw from politics in response to their perceptions of discrimination.
Methodology
While I was conducting library research on my study, I decided to use surveys in order to answer my research questions as accurately as possible. To this end, I conducted an online survey of the views of Muslim-Americans regarding the upcoming presidential election. The survey was designed to measure respondents’ intention to participate in the 2008 election (compared to participation in previous elections), their experiences with discrimination at the polls, and their opinions about discrimination against Muslims more generally. Here are some of my survey questions (for a copy of the full survey, please refer to Appendix A).
1) If you plan to vote in 2008, who would like to vote for (choose from one of the remaining three candidates)?
2) Have you ever felt discriminated against when trying to vote at the polls?
3) Why do you think Muslims face discrimination in the United States?
After obtaining approval to conduct the survey from George Mason University’s Human Subjects Review Board, I recruited a convenience sample of Muslim-Americans, primarily from Northern Virginia, but also from other parts of the U.S. as well. To recruit this sample, I visited local banks which employed many Muslims. I also went to nearby Mosques and asked their leaders to distribute the survey to their congregations. Furthermore, I used the internet networking tools, such as MySpace and Facebook, to reach a greater survey pool. Finally, I emailed the survey link to George Mason University students as well. In the end, 164 participants accessed the online survey. 156 participants completed all 15 questions. What I discovered was that my survey respondents felt that this country had treated them wrongly.
Findings
The main reason for the initial questions in my survey was to make sure that participants considered themselves to be Muslim and that they were at least 18th years of age or older to vote in the 2008 election. More than 95 percent respondents who accessed the survey were over 18 years age, and also more than two-thirds considered themselves to be Muslim. If any participants answered “no” to either of these questions, the online survey tool took them immediately to the exit page. As a result, all of those who filled out the reminder of the survey were both old enough to vote and considered themselves to be Muslims.
Section 1: Muslim Political Participation 2000-2008
Table 1: Did you vote in the 2000 Presidential election?
%
Yes 31.7
No 63.3
Don’t Know 5
Total 100%
Table 2: Did you vote in the 2004 Presidential election?
%
Yes 42.4
No 43.2
Don’t Know 14.4
Total 100%
Table 3: Do you plan to vote in the 2008 Presidential election?
%
Yes 81.9
No 15.2
Don’t know 2.9
Total 100%
My first research question asked if the climate of fear inspired by the “war on terror” and the invasion of Iraq has led Muslim-Americans to become more engaged in presidential elections. My third hypothesis predicted that respondents would be split in their attitudes about political participation. In short, I predicted that half would believe the best response to discrimination is getting more involved in politics (and would increase their participation), while half would believe the best response would be to withdraw from politics.
The survey results did not support this hypothesis. This sample was not split. Instead, respondents showed a steadily increasing commitment to voting in American presidential elections. 31 percent of Muslim-Americans voted in the 2000 election, 42.4 percent voted in 2004. But, in this year’s election they are truly motivated to vote, with over 86 percent of Muslim-Americans stating they plan to vote in the election.
As we all will see, it may possibly be a single candidate who is conveying Muslim-Americans to the polls this year: Barack Obama. The astonishing level of Muslim support for Senator Obama and the reasons for this excitement will be discussed below.
Section 2: Perceptions of Voting Discrimination
My second research question explored how Muslim-Americans feel about the political process—in particular the 2008 elections—and their ability to have a voice in this process, and my first hypothesis predicted that most survey respondents would feel they have been discriminated against at the polls, and would have concerns that their voices would not be heard in the election this fall. The findings that address this question and hypothesis are summarized below.
Table 4: When I go to vote I feel unwelcome.
%
Strongly Agree 36.8
Agree 10.5
Neutral 29.5
Disagree 8.4
Strongly Disagree 16.8
Total 100%
As you can see in Table 4, over 45 percent of the respondents felt unwelcome when they attempt to vote at the pools, while 30 percent no opinion. Only 25 percent of Muslim respondents disagreed with the statement that they feel unwelcome when attempting to vote. This finding is troubling. Since this is a country that promotes democracy and freedom, the percentage for the discrimination should be zero.
Table 5: I feel afraid to vote in this upcoming election
%
Strongly agree 31.6
Agree 7.4
Neutral 29.5
Disagree 10.55
Strongly disagree 21.1
Total 100%
The results was more equally split between those who feel afraid was (almost 40%) and those who do not was (more than 30%) As far as I see is that while a numerous of respondents feels unwelcome, this right away translate into fear. Even though still more respondent said they were afraid than unafraid.
Table 6: Muslims will be able to vote in the 2008 election without being discriminated against at the polls.
%
Strongly agree 40.9
Agree 14.0
Neutral 23.7
Disagree 12.9
Strongly disagree 9.7
Total 100%
Table 7: Have you ever felt discriminated against when trying to vote at the polls?
%
Yes 34.0
No 47.9
I Don’t Know 21.3
Total 100%
The results reported in Table 6 and Table 7 show that the majority of respondents, irrespective of feeling unwelcome or even afraid, nevertheless feel that they will be able to vote without occurrence to obvious unfairness, or discrimination. Yet the findings are still troubling. Over one-third of respondents reported that they had faced discrimination at the polls, and close to one-fourth said that Muslims would face discrimination at the polls in November. Ideally, these numbers should be much smaller.
We will be able to learn more about how Muslim-American feels about voting and discrimination in America by reading their responses to the open-ended questions of the survey.
Table 8: Have you ever felt discriminated against when trying to vote at the polls?
%
Yes 34.0%
No 47.9%
Don’t Know 21.3%
Total 100%
What I found was that, as stated above, many Muslim-Americans do feel that they have been experiencing discrimination since September 11th, 2001, including when they attempt to vote in person. Here are a couple of examples of how Muslim-Americans feel discomfort when attempting to vote. One respondent discussed being treated differently because of her head-scarf. “Because I cover myself with scarf and I have been discriminated against,” she said. “Only because I was covered up they made me wait at least for 30 minutes or more, THEN they allowed me to vote [emphasis in original].” Other Muslim-Americans feel a great discomfort to vote, because they feel they will be looked in a demeaning way. “They check you like your [sic] a criminal,” as one participant wrote.
Incidentally, this is the one reason why Muslim-Americans believe that Barack Obama will be the only one to listen to their voices and stop discrimination at the same time. As one respondent said, “Obama…will look at all of us in the same eyes.” Muslim-Americans do trust Barack Obama, they all think that he will bring peace and love not only in America but all around the world. This is a topic that will be discussed in more detail below.
Explaining Discrimination
Many Muslim-Americans do feel that they have been experiencing discrimination since September 11th, 2001, including when they attempt to vote in person. As one respondent wrote, “we are paying for events for which we didn't plan..9/11...we had nothing to do with that.” Sadly, many feel that non-Muslims hate them because of these attacks. I will give you two more examples of this. First, one participant wrote that “once I was followed all the way to my home...when I parked my car, the person yelled at me saying for me to go to my real home. I am unwelcome.” And the second one is very interesting I would have never thought that could happen to my any of my Muslim brothers and sisters. “People walk the other way if I walk by them…They grab weapons to defend themselves...I have no weapon...I can be attacked just for being Muslim.”
Also some of my participants wrote on my survey that they believe that Republicans make Muslim-Americans look like a criminal and make Muslims look bad
so the society can hate them as they do now. As one participant wrote, “since [a] Republican got in White House...Muslims [have] been hated since.” Another put it this way: “Republicans makes [sic] Muslims feel unwelcome.”
Finally, a number of respondents suggested that the discrimination against Muslims could be linked to religious differences. In short, many respondents felt their religion was under attack by many Americans since 9/11. As one respondent said, “they do not even know anything about the holy book Quran, they just make their assumption based on what they believe.” Another respondent put it this way: “Americans were
trying to mourn and take vengeance on those who attacked the US...However, they are attacking the religion not the people who did it.” In response to an open-ended question that asked those participants who did perceive discrimination against Muslims to explain why they felt this discrimination existed, one participant said, simply, “because Americans like to blame everything on Muslims.” In response to almost all of my questions, in short, participants talked about terrorism and religious discrimination. As one respondent said “Because they all believes [sic] that all Muslims are terrorist, it is like we say all Americans are KKK. They don't make sense.” That shows very clearly that may Muslims feel they have been treated wrong in United States, and, in the end, this overall climate of religious discrimination may help explain the feelings of fear and discomfort that many respondents expressed about voting in person at the polls.
Section 3: Support for Senator Barack Obama
Table 9: If you plan to vote in 2008, who would you like to vote for choose from one of the remaining candidates?
%
John McCain 4.0
Hillary Clinton 3.2
Barack Obama 92.8
My second hypothesis predicted that most survey respondents would support Barack Obama over John McCain and Hillary Clinton because they feel he better understands their own discrimination, mostly due to the fact that he has a Muslim-sounding name and his experience as an African- American in the U.S.
This hypothesis was supported by my survey results. First of all only 4.0% said they would vote for McCain, and only 3.2 percent said they would for Hillary Clinton [note: the survey was distributed during the primary campaign]. A huge majority of 92.8 percent said they planned to vote for Barack Obama.
What explains this level of support for Barak Obama? First, it is almost unbelievable to see that absolutely no participants mentioned why they wanted to vote for John McCain, but one participant did say that he or she could not “stand Republicans”. For candidate Hillary Clinton only one respondent said, “she is amazing.” Nothing more was said about these two candidates.
Yet 119 Muslim-American participants discussed and talked very highly about Barack Obama. They clearly explained why they want him to be the president. Some participants said that they want him to be the president because “he is same color as us”. Other participants talked about his family background, including his connections to the Muslim community. Since he has a Muslim background, as one respondent put it, “he feels what we feel.” Another put it this say: “his Muslim background will make all Muslims vote for him.” I must say this sample truly loved him
Many participants also mentioned that Barack Obama would put a stop to discrimination against Muslims. “He gives me the confidence that he will give Muslim-Americans a chance to redeem ourselves as human beings and make a good difference in the U.S.” Other participants mentioned the competition between religions in America.
These respondents felt very strongly that there is a big competition between Islam and Christianity, but they also believed that, because Obama has connections to both Christian and Muslim faiths, he “will stop the competition between Muslims, and Christians.” Basically, many in the sample felt that Barack Obama will stop the hate that is going around due to religions.
The faith the participants placed in Barack Obama can also be seen in their responses to the open-ended question – what should American Muslims do to prevent discrimination at the polls? Many respondents said that we should simply vote for Senator Obama “to make sure Mr. Barack Obama wins this election 2008.” Again, most of my survey participants mentioned that the candidate Barack Obama would put stop into discrimination. “To vote for Barack Obama, his Muslim background will help us to be discriminated [sic] free.” Muslim-Americans do feel the heat since post 9/11. I believe that no matter what they will still vote this year for candidate Barack Obama, because Muslims feel that he will be the only one who can support them to be discriminated free in this country. Obama will “show the world that we are not all terrorists, just like all white people are not members of the KKK.”
In several places the participants also said that Barack Obama is the only one everyone should vote for because he is like JFK—the presidential candidate that overcame divisions between Protestants and Catholics in U.S. politics. As one respondent put it, we should “vote for Obama because he is the first true citizen who has campaigned for the presidency...he will make sure that people receive free treatment and their rights fulfilled. He is the next JFK.” Muslim-Americans do trust and know that Barack Obama’s knowledge will be useful, in a way to stop discrimination and comparisons between religions.
Respondents also supported Obama for reasons that had nothing to do with religion or discrimination. They also talk about his kindness and humbleness. “The world loves his humbleness...and his smartness...we need to be lifted up since Bush ruined the U.S....we are almost like a 3rd world country now.” Another respondent also discussed his personal qualities. “I believe that he has the intelligence, temperament, leadership style and ethics to be President; his policies as well as his larger vision of re-engaging American citizens in our country's governance are what we need right now.”
One last thing the participants truly feel is that Barack Obama is the only one who can bring safety and security in this country: “I believe Mr. Obama portrays a vision of America that has been lost over the last two decades. He portrays an America where prosperity is attainable and our homeland is secure, respected and prosperous.” The participants talk so highly about Barack Obama.
Section 4: Barack Obama and Race/Religious Discrimination
Table 10: I believe many Americans will vote against Barack Obama because he is an African-American.
%
Strongly Agree 43%
Agree 23.7%
Neutral 18.3%
Disagree 11.8%
Strongly Disagree 5.4%
Table 11: I believe many Americans will vote against Barack Obama because he has a Muslim middle name.
%
Strongly Agree 45.2%
Agree 25.8%
Neutral 22.6%
Disagree 7.5%
Strongly Disagree 4.3%
As we all can observe, more than two-thirds of participants mentioned that Barack Obama would lose vote due to race and color. More than 70 percent mentioned that he would not win the vote for 2008 elections because of his family ties with Muslims faith. What this mean to me is that whereas the sample is united in support of Barack Obama, they worry that other Americans will not give Barack Obama a fair chance due to racial and religious discrimination.
Discussion and Conclusion
I believe that my survey showed that the amount of Muslim participation in American presidential elections has improved tremendously. This survey also suggests that, no matter what, Muslims will participate in record numbers in this election year. Muslims will vote even if they feel discriminated against by poll workers or observers—as significant minorities of my sample (between 25% and 40%) did. Muslim-Americans will do whatever it takes to make sure that Barack Obama wins. I have also learned that Muslim-Americans feel they have faced discrimination against in this country since 9/11, and that they have placed great faith in Senator Obama, believing that he will end this discrimination. In the future, I will use this survey to educate non Muslim-Americans in this country and I hope that this will send message and stop the discrimination. On an immediate practical level, I believe that if state or county officials hire some poll workers who are Muslims, which will be one way to stop the discriminations.
Weaknesses and Limitations
This study was very challenging as there were not enough books, not enough articles or other previous research on this topic. It can take days, nights, weeks, and months to find any information about Muslim views. As with most studies, my sample may have biases which would then take away from the accuracy of my findings. There is not enough emphasize put on specific ages and the sex of each participant which can then alter my findings. For instance, if all the people surveyed were of a specific age, then my sample pool is limited to the opinions of those from that age group; hence, allowing for inconsistencies in the accuracy of my study. It would have been better to take gender, age and other variables into consideration when devising survey questions, in order to determine if gender or age or ethnicity/national origin affected the findings in an important way. The lack of data about respondents’ ages also leads to another weakness, especially with regard to the findings on Muslim political participation. It is possible, in short, that the low participation rates of survey respondents in the 2000 and 2004 elections is due to the fact that some respondents may have only recently reached voting age.
Yet I think this is not the case. When I handed out my survey, for example, I gave it to wide range of ages (not only college students). First of all, when I went to the mosques with my survey recruitment handout, most folks were middle age. Based on my distribution I believe that more middle age respondents took my survey than those under
30. For this reason I believe the results that Muslim-Americans will participate heavily will remain valid.
Future Research
If any one wants to do the similar research, they should be very careful as to where to find the sources. The new researcher must ask people around to get help. Please be advised that this is a very time consuming project, with lots of reading, writing, and lots of research.
Main questions which the future researchers should focus on.
· How to overcome the discrimination in this country against Muslims?
· What should be done in the area of politics, and in law to prevent discriminations against Muslims?
· Do variables such as age groups and genders of Muslim-Americans affect their opinions towards elections?
In addition, I recommend to all policymakers to do some changes in their system. The policymakers must hire some Muslims to work at the polls to make Muslim voters feel more comfortable at the polls. Also, regardless of who they hire, all poll workers should treat the Muslims the same way as they treat other Americans. I also recommend that the employees at polls should be trained well enough before they start taking the vote. The proper training will also help the poll employees not to discriminate, and, if they do not follow their training, they should get fired.
Preliminary List of References (MLA):
Abbas, Tahir. Muslim: Communities Under Pressure. London England: 2005.
Avc. Edu, “Administration of Justice Defined.” Course Description. Article Date: Unknown, Search Date: April 6, 2008 http://www.avc.edu/catalog/0607-catalog/Administration_of_Justice.pdf
Bill Ong Hing. Deporting Our Souls: Values, Morality, and Immigration Policy. Cambridge University Press: 2006 pg 157
Crotty, J William. The Politics of Terror: The U.S. Response to 9/11. Northeastern University Press University Press of New England: 2004.
Journalgazette.Net, “Obama Invokes King Legacy.” Journal Gazette, 5 April 2008. <http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080405/LOCAL/ 804050349/1002/LOCAL>
Fisher, William. POLITICS-U.S: Arab, Muslim Americans Targeted Again. <
Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck, and JaneI. Smith, and John L. Esposito. Religion and Immigration: Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Experiences in the United States. United States. Lanham, MD: Altamira Press, 2003.
Kassaimah, Sahar. American Muslims Role in the Political Process. 16 Feb 2004. <http://www.masnet.org/views.asp?id=960.>
Liu, Emily. Muslim American Concerns and Struggles Post 9/11.
<http://www.ithaca.edu/icjournal/02_muslimamerican.pdf>
Mazrui, Ali A. “Between the Crescent and the Star-Spangled Banner: American Muslims and US Foreign Policy.” Ethnicity and International Relations, 72 (July 1996): 493-506.
Pew Research Trust. “Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream War on Terror Concerns.” 22 May 2007.
Sacirbey, Omar. U.S. Muslims Mobilize in 2006 Elections With Eye on 2008. 31 October 2006.
Strum. Philippa. “Conference -- Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ Task Force Report on Strengthening America: The Civic and Political Integration of Muslim Americans.” 27 June 2007. <http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.event_summary &event_id=217566
Telhami, Shibley. “Ties That Bind: Americans, Arabs, and Israelis after September 11.” Foreign Affairs. 83.2 (2004): 8-12.
“Two Muslim Authors React to Survey of Muslim-American Attitudes Toward U.S.” Fox News.com: The O’Reilly Factor. 24 May 2007.
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