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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 9 -15 November 2000 Issue No.507 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 9 -15 November 2000 Issue No.507
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Books Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters A voice, at last
By Mohamed Hakki
Much has been said of the role played by Arab Americans in this year's presidential election and the reverberations that have been felt in other hotly-contested races throughout the United States. Pollsters and political pundits are eternally searching for the elusive new force -- the untapped voting bloc -- and for the first time in US politics, eyes turned to an emerging political alliance between Arab and Muslim Americans. Politicians were listening and the media wasn't shy to show it. Without a doubt, it was the birth of the long-awaited Arab lobby.
The cooperation between Arabs and Muslims on the American political scene has been a crucial factor in this awakening. Despite their considerable number, little attention has been paid to the Arab community. There are an estimated 3.5 million Arab Americans living in the US, compared with approximately 5.5 million Jews. But there are also anywhere between 7 and 10 million Muslims in America -- and their numbers are growing. Islam is the fastest growing religion in America.
Yet, as Congressman Paul Findley so rightly pointed out, there is not a single Muslim member of Congress or Supreme Court judge. No army general or top-level government official has ever been a Muslim. The list goes on. Arab American politicians are few and far between, and none of them are Muslim. This year things have changed dramatically, first and foremost with Arab presidential candidate Ralph Nader. Nader, who is the Green Party candidate, may not be running on the "Arab" ticket -- indeed, the majority of the public does not even realise he is Arab -- but he has dramatically changed the discourse of presidential candidates once and for all. He is the first presidential candidate to openly denounce Israeli policies, criticise US policy in the Middle East and defend Palestinian rights.
But what has dynamically changed for Arab Americans is the recognition of the power in voting as a bloc. Although Arab Americans cannot come close to the kind of donations Jewish Americans have made to the major political parties, they still have the sheer numbers that can force candidates to consider them a major factor. Zionist leaders boast that the Jews provide well over half of the political donations to Democratic candidates in the US. But Arab Americans match their numbers in swing states like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and Michigan. They also have enough votes in California, New York and Florida to affect final results.
Richard Curtis, editor of the respected Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (probably the only US political magazine friendly to Arabs), wrote recently that in 1996, Muslims and Arab Americans cancelled each other out. When they use their vote as a bloc, he said, they can succeed in bringing a candidate into office. Citing the case of the New Jersey senate race, Curtis noted that they succeeded in defeating Republican Richard Zimmer and supported his Democratic opponent Robert Torricelli, who credited his success to the Muslim vote.
Despite the near-Herculean efforts of Arab American Institute President James Zogby to rally Arab Americans around the Gore campaign, the vice president failed miserably to attract much of the Arab Americans voters. Contrary to common belief, Muslim and Arab Americans weren't turned off by Gore's choice of Joseph Lieberman as his running mate. If anything, the Arab American community considered Gore's record and views on the Middle East closer to Israel than Lieberman's, who is an orthodox Jew.
Early in the campaign Arabs forgave much of Gore's obvious pandering to Jewish voters as par for the course -- but he went further than anyone before him. At a gathering of the American-Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC), Gore told a story about the first US ambassador to Israel, Ogden Reed. When Reed went to meet Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, he found him standing on his head practising yoga. "Being a seasoned diplomat," Gore recounted, "he took his shoes off and stood on his head to see eye-to-eye with the Israeli prime minister." Gore promised that if he was elected, America would stand on its head in order to see eye-to-eye with Israel. This was a bit too much to swallow.
Arab Americans are often mistakenly assumed to base their agenda on issues affecting their home countries. But a sizeable segment of this community is critical of Arab governments. However, they have taken issue with several aspects of US immigration law and the recent anti-terrorism act. Under this legislation, several dozen people, almost all Arabs, have been detained without charges on the basis of "secret evidence," which was withheld from both them and their lawyers. Several have been deported due to minor offences.
Two things have galvanised the Arab American community like no other: the Al-Aqsa Intifada and the supercilious race between First Lady Hillary Clinton and Rick Lazio for the New York Senate seat. The administration's continued blame of the victim (the Palestinians) and its decision to focus its wrath on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was sickening and incomprehensible. All UN resolutions, all international conventions concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have been flouted by Israel and the US. In the New York race, where the Jewish vote is critical, all principles of decency have been thrown out of the window. Even Muslim American contributions had to be returned to the donors as each side tried to prove who is more Zionist than the other (or, as Bella Abzug would say, trying to out-Jew each other).
All of these factors make this year's elections a turning point. Although Arab Americans have made themselves a factor to be reckoned with, they have a long way to go. Several statistics are in their favour. For the most part, Arab Americans are younger, better educated and enjoy a higher income than the national average -- in fact, higher than the average in every Arab country, including Saudi Arabia. With figures this good, Arab Americans cannot afford to squander their chance to speak with one voice, and be heard.
Related stories:
The Nader factor
Can you see a difference? 2 - 8 November 2000
Ralph Nader by George Bahgory, 2 - 8 November 2000
A voice crying in the wilderness 24 - 30 August 2000
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