Posted on 03/30/2004 1:51:02 PM PST by rogueleader
Ribhi Mustafa is a swing voter who has already swung.
Four years ago, he was frustrated with the slow pace of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, and he cast his ballot for George W. Bush.
"I figured it would be good to have some new blood - and it turned out to be worse," said Mustafa, 28, a registered Democrat from Northeast Philadelphia who works in his family's supermarket business. This year, he said, his choice will be Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.).
Mustafa's personal shift illustrates a problem for President Bush, who in 2000 condemned anti-Arab profiling in a nationally televised debate, and then went on to win a healthy plurality of the Arab American vote in four of the largest battleground states, including Pennsylvania.
A recent poll suggests Arab American voters in these states have soured on the President because of the administration's unwavering support of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the invasion of Iraq, and the government's crackdown on Arab and Muslim immigrants in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Kerry led Bush 54 percent to 30 percent among the estimated 550,000 Arab American voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and Florida, the March 14 Zogby International poll found. Sixty-five percent of respondents said it was time for a new president.
That's a big swing from 2000, when 46 percent of voters of Arab descent in the four states voted for Bush, versus 29 percent for then-Vice President Al Gore and 13 percent for Lebanese American consumer activist Ralph Nader, who was running as a Green Party candidate.
"I don't know what Bush does to win them back," said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, which commissioned the poll from the firm run by John Zogby, his brother. "They can't afford to write off any group that has hundreds of thousands of voters in key states."
Arab Americans could be about 2.7 percent of the 19.8 million voters expected to cast ballots in the four battleground states Nov. 2, according to the pollster's projections based on turnout in 2000.
One thing seems sure: It's a far cry from Oct. 11, 2000, when candidate Bush spoke out in a debate with Gore against the use of "secret evidence" in deportation proceedings against Arab immigrants.
"It was electric," James Zogby said, and polls showed Arab American voters breaking toward Bush right after.
Mustafa was among those impressed then, but he said he would not vote to reelect Bush this year. He said civil rights for Arab Muslim immigrants had eroded since the 9/11 attacks; he also dislikes the administration's "total disengagement from the peace process" on the West Bank.
"What really did it for me was when Bush called Sharon a man of peace," said Mustafa, who has family living in a village outside Ramallah, in the West Bank. "I started screaming at the television. His own people call Sharon 'Bulldozer.' "
Sammy Zakaria, a Center City physician of Syrian descent, is a registered Republican who voted for Bush four years ago. "I am an Eagle Scout," he said, attracted to the GOP's traditional message of fiscal conservatism, low taxes, and support for faith-based values.
Now, Zakaria is concerned with the ballooning federal deficit and is angry at the Patriot Act, which greatly expanded the federal government's surveillance powers. Although he calls Islamist terrorists "freaks and thugs" who must be resisted, Zakaria has many innocent friends who have been detained in airports or summoned to federal offices under a since-abandoned policy to register legal immigrants from Muslim countries.
"Actions speak louder than words," said Zakaria, 28. "They treated us like suspects."
An estimated 160,000 Arab Americans live in Pennsylvania, an increase of 25 percent from 1990, according to the Arab American Institute's analysis of census data.
Despite their concerns, Arab American voters have come a long way since 1983, when Philadelphia mayoral candidate W. Wilson Goode Sr. returned $2,725 in checks from a fund-raiser hosted by a community leader. The man was the head of an organization attacked as anti-Israel.
"They were able to do that in '83 because we weren't a force - we weren't organized," said Marwan Kreidie, a Democrat who is president of the Philadelphia Arab-American Corp., an advocacy group. "That kind of thing didn't just happen in Philadelphia; it was everywhere. There's been a dramatic change - we're involved in every race and courted by every party for money and votes."
For instance, seven Democratic presidential contenders visited a conference of Arab American leaders in Michigan last fall. The President sent top aides, and both campaigns plan to target the community.
There are less positive signs, too, including the use of a dark-skinned man - who Democrats contended looked Middle Eastern - in a recent Bush ad attacking Kerry's record on terrorism.
Still, Bush supporters say the President is not writing off Arab Americans, and point to some bright spots in the Zogby poll: Bush still enjoys majority support among Christian Arabs, as well as the Iraqi and Chaldean communities, which are large and influential in Michigan.
Besides, Kerry voted for the Patriot Act and the Iraq war, too, said George R. Salem, a Republican lawyer in Washington who is chairman of the Arab American Institute.
"He is just the anti-Bush at this point," Salem said. "As the campaign progresses, people will be presented with a clear record, and they'll ask themselves whether they want a new player or a second-term president able to address their concerns... . The Arab constituency is not monolithic."
Republicans acknowledge the trend found in the Zogby poll but say it is too soon to count out Bush.
"I would take everything this early with a grain of salt," said Nasser Beydoun, executive director of the Arab American Chamber of Commerce in Dearborn, Mich. "A lot of things can happen... . We'll watch and see what the campaigns and candidates do - and what the rest of the world does. What's going to happen in the Middle East [and] with jobs? There are too many variables."
One such variable is Nader, back and running as an independent. In the Zogby poll, 20 percent of respondents said they would vote for him over Bush or Kerry.
Sally Baraka of Philadelphia voted for Nader in 2000, considering him "refreshing" and his Lebanese heritage a plus. Now she thinks a vote for him would help Bush and is leaning toward Kerry.
More broadly, "I see the goal in this election is not just to bring in a new administration but to establish that we are a political force to be reckoned with," said Baraka, a 27-year-old lawyer who voted for Republican Bob Dole in the 1996 presidential election.
Witnesssed! How many evil 'celebrants' were there? What were they doing? Were there cops? Anyone in a dark suit taking pics?
"I figured it would be good to have some new blood - and it turned out to be worse," said Mustafa, 28, a registered Democrat from Northeast Philadelphia who works in his family's supermarket business
Sorry, but this guy is not how you start out an article with the intent to show Bush is in trouble. This guy wasn't going to vote for Bush unless the conflict between Israel and Palestine was solved. The stories start is a red herring...
Well. a lot of them are democrats.
It was about 20 or 25 of them chanting in the street, waving their hands...cops were there, I understand some fighting broke out...I will look for the story.
London Muslims “Celebrate” 9/11 Jihadist mullahs urge 1,000 followers to learn the murderous lessons of the WTC attack. | 11 September 2002
An obscene spectacle took place in North London earlier today. A thousand Muslims gathered at the Finsbury Park mosque to “celebrate” the bombing of the World Trade Center. The Metropolitan Police deployed a force 500 strong to protect the meeting, called “A Towering Day in History,” from disruption.
A dozen or so menacing-looking men with kaffiyehs over their faces stood on the mosque’s steps to prevent unfriendly journalists from entering.
The “celebration” began promptly at 1 PM, so that participants could applaud the action of the WTC bombers at exactly 1:46 London time—the exact time, a year earlier, when the first plane hit its target in New York. Chairing the meeting was Abu Hamza, an Egyptian-born engineer turned Muslim mullah, who presides over the notorious Finsbury Park mosque, where several of the detainees in Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay, captured fighting for the Taliban and al-Qaida, received their theological training. Hamza also reportedly recruited to the jihad Richard Reid, the would-be shoe-bomber who failed to blow up an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami on December 22, 2001. The good Imam is implicated as well in the training and instigation of Zacarias Moussaoui, under arrest on suspicion of conspiring with the 19 murderers of September 11.
The FBI has applied for Hamza’s extradition from the U.K for questioning in the U.S. (the mullah has been a British subject since 1985), but he is still at large in London, free not only to address his congregation but to “celebrate” the events of 9/11. He told the press that Saudi Muslims financed the “celebration” in the hope that from it will arise an organization that represents “the real views of Muslims in Britain.”
EXCERPT -
http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon_9_11_02fd.html
"A recent poll suggests Arab American voters in these states have soured on the President because of the administration's unwavering support of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the invasion of Iraq, and the government's crackdown on Arab and Muslim immigrants in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks."
Sounds like good news to me!
Me too. My daughter had a Muslim friend for several years, and they seemed fine. When my daughter talked of Christianity, her friend would say, she was just born in a Muslim house, but didn't believe one way or another. Her whole family seemed moderate. They moved to New Mexico a few years back and we lost track. Another girlfriend informed my daughter that the Muslim's brother was arrested after 9/11 for links to extreemist groups, but they weren't sure other than that. Also the non-believing moderate sister has become a raving lunatic that hates America.
Your either for us, or against us. It's not politics. The Muslims,(and other ethnic Americans), need to figure this out. I feel the same about the Jews. If you live in this country, THIS is your country and you need to forget the old country. If you would vote for Satan because of his stance on Israel, then you will end up living in hell and Israel will do whatever Israel is going to do anyway, it's not your country anymore. The same with Chinese, Mexicans, Vietnamese, Pak's, etc. Somebody votes for someone they like on the Isralei problem, and we get higher taxes, gun control, homo marraige, etc. Dangerous business voting for the old country you left to get away from the squalor and death to come to the promised land and bring the squalor and death with you.
I had 2 neighbors where I used to live from Yugoslavia. One was Croatian and the other was Serbian. They were both wealthy families with their own businesses. When I moved the Serbian had been arrested for strangling the Croatian's wife in my front yard. Both of them had told me they wanted to get over a million in cash and go back when the fighting was over. They brought it with them. The fighting will never be over. They had been citizens for 20 years, but they weren't Americans yet.
If the Muslims care more about the middle east than America, they should go back. Thats not a bumper sticker, thats just facts. If I didn't love America, I'd be gone. That's also why I'm a Texan. I can't fathom living anywhere else. About 20 minutes living in any middle eastern country would change most of their minds. I think the Iranians have it figured by now. Maybe the new Afghanistan will figure it out. Maybe Iraq will finally get a glimpse. Some dogs just have to have their noses rubbed in it and spanked a couple of times before they figure it out.
Go ahead, list 5 positive things they have contributed to society. (oil is off the table- we had to go in there and get it for them)
No. The Iraq War as it was timed, executed, and justified, was a tragic blunder which will bleed us for the next 5 to 10 years. I desperately hope I'm wrong, but that's the way I see it.
And yes, I've read Bin Laden's fatwas, edicts, pronouncements for years. In 1996, I was on a trip to Pakistan(hunting black buck and wild boar), and I heard a lot about how a group of madressah students(Taliban) and their Arab Ansar(friends) were picking a fight with Ahmed Shah Masood and the old Mujahedin who fought the Soviets. That was my first introduction to the madrassahs, the international Wahabbist movement, and the psychotic mullahs loaded with Saudi cash roaming South Central Asia.
As far as the "link" between Al Qaeda and Saddam. The only demonstrable link between the two is that Bin Laden and Hussein are both ethnic Arabs who hate the US. All the other alleged linkages have failed to meet even the Bush administration's smell test. Even Cheney doesn't push that line anymore.
You seem to be totally sold on the Bush Administration's views and don't seem to appreciate that even our side can occasionally be wrong. But I believe what separates us conservatives from the left is that occasionally, we dare to think for ourselves. So, I'm going to give you the picture as I see it.
Understand this...
The primary mission of Al Qaeda is the destruction of secular or even mildly reasonable Arab/Muslim regimes and their replacement by Wahabbist totalitarian states-- a sort of way-station on the road to a new global Wahabbist Calipate. There is no room for Arab nationalists, Shiites, or even traditional Sunnis on this magic bus. Mubarak, Saddam, Abdallah, Musharraf, etc are the primary targets of Al Qaeda and its sympathizers. Even Palestine(an Islamic cause celebre) is a secondary or tertiary issue to these people.
Bin Laden uses "sanctions on Iraq's children", "US troops in the land of Mohammed", and other grievances as simple pretexts for action, and to tug at the heart strings of the broader Muslim community. But to confuse this obvious propaganda line with any compassion for Saddam is absurd. Bin Laden couldn't give a flying f-ck for Iraqi children or yours.
The fact is Saddam Hussein and his Baathists, correctly understood the Bin Ladenites as a threat to their power. Indeed, they feared Bin Laden and creeping Sunni militancy far more than they feared the US. Saddam knew all too well that assisting or promoting the growth of Sunni radicalism inside Iraq would be like cutting his own throat. He and his sons had one agenda: staying alive and staying in power. Association with Al Qaeda would not further either of these aims.
The thing a lot of people don't realize, or maybe don't want to understand, is that Saddam was evil, but completely rational when it came to preserving his skin. After all, he didn't choose martyrdom, did he?
Bottom line... Saddam was interested in drinking good scotch, butchering his political opponents, and building a dynasty-- not dying gloriously in Bin Laden's jihad.
Now, we come to the brilliant proposition that we're fighting the terrorists on their own soil. I think, rather, we've fertilized the ground for variety of new terrorist groups-- from Wahabbist adventurers to Iraqi nationalists and Baathist dead-enders. We've also opened the Pandora's Box of ethnic strife in old Babylon. 100,000 or so US troops and billions of dollars are now trapped in this effort for years to come.
Ironically, it was harder for Wahabbists to penetrate Iraq when Saddam was in power than it is now-- as they're pouring in across the border.
Finally, it was a really dumb idea to disband all of the Iraqi Army. We should have sifted the ranks for the real Baathists, and kept those (the vast majority) who were Baathists in name only. After all, we used former Nazis to rebuild postwar Germany.
That's all for now, I'll get to the immigration catastrophe next.
Regards, Hamza
I know a couple of Coptic families here in Weschester, NY. Great, industrious, warm people. Unfortunately, Egypt's not been kind to you.
But I disagree that Arabs don't vote. Lots of Arab Americans voted in 96. More in 2000. Most people I know, Arabs/Iranians/Turks/Pakistanis and assorted Muslims tended toward Bush.
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