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Bush is losing the support of US Muslims
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WASHINGTON,
September 24 (IslamOnline.net) - With US presidential elections
looming large, polls showed a drastic decline of American Muslims'
support for US president George Bush in the coming November elections.
Nearly
68% of US Muslims said they would vote for Democrat presidential
hopeful John Kerry in the presidential elections, against only 7%
eager to vote for the incumbent Bush.
According
to the poll -- conducted by the Zogby International Center - and
surveying 1700 US Muslims, around 11% of the Muslim community are
willing to vote for the independent candidate Ralph Nader in the
coming elections.
The
poll also showed a turnout among the US Muslims' support for the
Republican Party as only 12% said they support the Republicans,
against 23% in the 2001 polls.
Around
50% of the US Muslims said they support the Democratic Party rising
from 40% in 2001, while the support for independent candidates has
increased to hit 31%, against 28% in previous polls.
Drastic
Turnout
Polls
in 2000 showed Muslims favoring Bush over Al Gore by a wide margin -
some showed support in the 90 percent range - and some groups argued
that some 60,000 Muslim votes put Bush over the top in Florida.
It's
amazing how much can change in four years, according to the Zogby
website.
“He
is not the president he promised to be in 2000,” Samer Hanini, a
29-year-old architect, was quoted on the website as saying.
“He
failed us in areas of Mid East peace, foreign policy and the economy.
I’m embarrassed I voted for him.”
After
the Sept. 11 attacks, and the anti-terror policies that followed,
Muslim leaders who had organized the Bush endorsement said openly they
had made a mistake , the USA Today said in a report
last week.
On
April 29, a poll
conducted by the Washington-based Arab American Institute revealed
that a majority of Arab Americans in four battleground states would
vote for Kerry if presidential elections were held that day.
Political
Unity
Feeling
their influence in the US elections, the American Muslims are willing
to politically unite during the November presidential elections as 81%
expressed support for the agenda of the US Muslim civil rights and
elections committee.
According
to the Zogby poll, around 69% of those polled said they would vote for
the presidential candidate whom the US Muslim committee favors.
Some
53% said they prefer to vote in the presidential elections as one
group.
The
US Muslim civil rights and elections committee comprises a number of
major Islamic organizations in the United States, foremost of which
are the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the American
Islamic society, the American Muslim coalition, the Islamic group for
North America and a group of Islamic groups in the country.
The
agenda of the committee for the November elections touches on
enhancing civil rights in the country as well as other issues of
concern for the American public as education, economic reform,
environment, election system reform and the dissemination of peace and
justice.
