Muslim Voters Shift Democratic but 'Up For Grabs,' Says CAIR
(CNSNews.com) - Are Muslim voters in America moving towards the Democratic Party, or are their votes up for grabs? A critic of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) says the group is trying to have it both ways. Urging politicians not to "dismiss" the Muslim community's vote, CAIR Tuesday released a survey which it said showed Muslim voters were increasingly shifting away from the Republican Party. But it also claimed that American Muslims were "not married to any party." CAIR executive director Nihad Awad said the survey made it clear "American Muslim voters defy simplistic labeling and maintain an independent streak that should be taken into account by any candidate for public office." "The results show that American Muslim voters are very diverse, well integrated [into American society] and politically active in the society," Awad said at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. He noted that 89 percent of the respondents said they vote regularly. "But," he added, "there has been a shift in their political orientation since 2000." Awad said that during the 2000 election most Muslim voters voted for President Bush, but that more recently there is "tremendous opposition to Bush administration policies." According to the survey, which CAIR described as "the first scientific and most comprehensive survey of American Muslims," 42 percent of Muslims voters are Democrats, 17 percent Republicans and 28 percent Independents. "They are not married to any party," said Awad. "American Muslims are undecided when it comes to candidates or party, but they are very decisive when it comes to certain issues." Awad said education, civil liberties, the Israel-Lebanon conflict, and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were the most important issues to them. "Unfortunately several candidates in both parties, but mainly in the Republican Party, have exploited legitimate fear that the society has and wanted to get more votes and more money by smearing the American Muslim community, by questioning their loyalty, their love to their country, and by spreading rumors about the Muslim community," he said. According to CAIR, the survey of 1,000 Muslims was randomly sampled from a database of nearly 400,000 American Muslim voters. The database was developed by matching state records of registered voters with an extensive list of about 45,000 Muslim-sounding first and last names. But Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, called CAIR's methods "dubious" and said the survey was "just one aspect of [CAIR's] untrustworthiness." "There is a contradiction between CAIR's positions, which is that we've given up on the Republicans - but we're up for grabs," Pipes told Cybercast News Service . "CAIR is in the business of using survey materials as a way of conveying its own views. Those views may change from time to time, and so do their numbers," he said. Pipes added that by using data for only registered Muslim voters, CAIR's survey results were misleading as they did not apply to all Muslims. Make media inquiries or request an interview with Monisha Bansal. Subscribe to the free CNSNews.com daily E-brief. E-mail a comment or news tip to Monisha Bansal. Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.
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