Club Activities
AMERICAN MUSLIMS’ PARTCIPATION IN THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM
By Tashie Zaheer
In any healthy democracy, political parties bear the responsibility for providing representation of all the people in the government.
When the Europeans first immigrated to the United States, the political parties were central to the political mobilization of then immigrant groups.
Unfortunately, today, the political parties no longer do that. The mainstream political parties are largely absent from the minority communities, especially at the local level.
Some say that this change can be attributed to media-driven and candidate-centered political campaigns.
As I understand it, this change is attributed mainly to three factors:
1. A weak local party structure and changing campaign tactics.
2. Selective mobilization strategies and maintenance of existing party coalitions.
3. Assumptions about immigrants’ political attitudes.
So, the big question is:
What are the chances that our political parties will again work with community organizations to build the kind of mutually reinforcing relationships that helped bring earlier waves of Irish, Jewish, and Italian immigrants into the American political systems.
Some scholars and media pundits suggest that both Republican and the Democratic parties have begun to turn their attention to the new immigrant groups. However the recent history does not suggest that we will see any dramatic end to newest immigrant groups’ exclusion by either of the parties.
During the 2004 elections, both parties reached out to Latinos more than ever before, yet, their efforts were mainly symbolic and selective and did not include mass mobilization.
“AMERICAN DEMOCRATIC MUSLIMS & FRIENDS CLUB” has been created to serve as our link to the Democratic party.
As the old adage goes, “Some people wait for things to happen and some people make things happen. Sister Moina belongs to the later group of people who has created this group for us to engage actively in the American political system.
I am sure most of you remember that first time ever, in the year 2004, there was a Muslim block vote that put George W. Bush in the president House and boy! Was that a mistake!
Since no one has the “crystal ball” obviously, no one could have predicted about what happened after words. Nonetheless, “block vote” was an achievement of the greatest significance. It was this “Muslim Block Vote” that tipped the scale of the Presidential elections. It demonstrated the power of unity and what the able leadership of a small minority group was capable of accomplishing even with limited resources.
It gives me immense pleasure to remind you that our own, professor Dr.Agha Saeed was the architect of this most brilliant strategy of “Muslim Block Vote”. (A round of applause for Dr. Saeed).
The sad thing is that those eight years were the worst eight years for the American Muslims, and Muslims all over the world for that matter.
George W. Bush, under the guidance and in cooperation with the Cheney clan, created more terrorists, and suicide bombers than all the Al-Qaedas of the world could ever dream of creating.
The most unfortunate fact is that even under the watch of our Democratic party and the able leadership of one of the most educated and fair mined presidents today, the injustice and atrocities are still being committed against the innocent Muslims.
How many of you know Dr. Afia Siddiqui?
(Afia Story)
I sincerely hope that most of you have not forgotten the “Patriot Act” and the “Secret Evidence Act”?. How sad that these acts are still very much a part of our legal system.
It saddens me to say that today’s America is not what had made it the greatest country in the world. The fear mongering Politics has taken over the fairness out of our legal system.
As Americans, we must not let America become the type of a country we had left behind when we came here in search of a better life.
Freedom of speech, a judicial system based on fairness and Justice, and equality for all regardless of race, religious preferences, national origin, gender, creed or color is the America we have come to love and all of us need to work hard towards bringing that America back.
Today, in America, the Asian Americans and Latino populations are growing at a phenomenal rate, yet the political strengths of these groups do not match their demographic strength.
For example, we have witnessed time and again, that the voter turnout of the immigrant communities has always been hopelessly low.
Talking about the demographic strength, one thing that really amazes me is that in 1976, when I immigrated to US, the number of Muslims in America I used to hear was always quoted as 6 million. Please note that this was the time when I used to import my favorite Indian pickle from Canada since there were no Indian Pakistani stores to be found in these areas.
Today, when every other shop in California is an Indian/ Pakistani store or a restaurant, the numbers of Muslims in US are still quoted as 6 million.
Sometimes, I can’t help but wonder if we are really this unorganized of a community or we simply don’t have the ability to count?
Dear Friends, I would like to submit to you today, a number of recommendations for all of us to act upon.
1. Please join the “American Democratic Muslims & Friends Club” today. Contact Sister Moina for more information. Sister Moina is incredible leader of our community. A round of applause.
2. We the American Muslims and the Pakistani Americans are blessed to have some one like Dr. Agha Saeed as a leader of our community. I really mean it when I say that he is a one man army. He is a visionary, a forward thinking leader and a statesman. It is simply mind boggling to see him manage his most demanding schedule on a daily basis. And even more amazing than that is the fact that he his never too busy to answer your question in a timely manner or be with his friends and community members in their time of need. (A round of applause for Dr. Saeed, Please). Under his able leadership, we can;
1. Become a part of providing civic education to our community. That includes education on civil liberties, public affairs, voter registration, immigration issues, petition filing, employment discrimination issues, and much more. We can educate ourselves and others regarding the issues and challenges facing our community as a whole.
2. Help increase citizen participation, efficacy, and skills.
3. Help recruit, develop, and train new political leaders.
3. We must become actively involved in our city, state, and federal level elections. Work closely with the candidates. Get to know them and make sure they know us and our community and are well informed about the challenges faced by our community.
4. “Community” doesn’t only mean the Muslim or Pakistani community. We are a part of larger community. We need to get out of our cocoons and we must become part of this larger community.
5. We have chosen this land to be our new homeland. Despite its problems, we all know, America is still the best place on earth. Most of owe our successes and a great deal more to this country of ours. While it is natural to have the love for our motherland, we must have the same love for our new homeland. We must think and act as Americans.
6. Our children take the lead from us. “Do as I say, not as I do” has never worked before and is not going to work now. We can only lead by example and that is still the best way to lead. If we are involved in the political system, our children will be too.
7. We must make an effort to serve on a board or commission of our city, know the members of city council, school boards, hospital boards, state assembly, state congress and the senate. We should attend the city council meetings as often as we can.
8. Read the newspapers regularly and write letters to the editor. We must speak up when we see injustice being committed against the innocent. Remember, Martin Luther King Jr. Said, “Injustice committed anywhere in the world is threat to peace everywhere in the world”.
9. Help scrutinize and contain the power of the state and the federal governments. We need to monitor the elections and government performance.
10. Doctors and engineers are not the only respectable professions in the world. We need our children to be journalists, scientists, radio and TV talk show hosts, lawyers, teachers, professors, researchers, inventors, musicians, politicians, congressman and women and senators and whatever else they want to be.
11. We must work towards developing new media channels to present diverse interests.
Dear friends, I hope you agree with me when I say to you that our active involvement in the American political system is no longer an option.
The time to act is now, not tomorrow, not the day after. We can not allow the “fear mongering right wing politician” to do to American Muslims what was done to the Japanese Americans in the 60’s.
Thank you.
God bless you and God bless America!