Muslims in U.S. Politics: Recognized and Integrated, or Seduced and Abandoned?

Abstract

A Muslims have been in the United States for more than a century, they have mostly lived on the margins of its political life. On the one hand, their small numbers, ethnic diversity, and lack of experience in playing the democratic game have impeded their political integration. On the other hand, the inertia of traditional American antipathy toward Arabs and Muslims and the political and religious domestic interests of both the Zionist lobby and the Christian Right have managed to keep them out of the mainstream.1 Their reluctance to participate in the democratic process was finally put aside during the 2000 presidential election, when a coalition of Arab-American and Muslim political action groups launched a voter registration drive, endorsed the Bush-Cheney ticket, and contributed financially to the Republican party.2 While the community is gathering statistics at the instigation of Governor Jeb Bush on how many Muslims voted in Florida, they continue to believe that they were the margin of difference that delivered the presidency. (According to some estimates, over two thirds of Arab and Muslim voters cast their ballot for the Republican ticket, including 90 percent of the Muslim voters of Florida, estimated at over 70,000.) They have also been credited with a higher voter turnout than the general American electorate. Their elation at their success in making a difference is being slowly dissipated as they face a continuation of the policies of the past. These policies were defined and pursued during the last three decades according to “American security” and “national interests” by both Republican and Democratic administrations. These interests