Muslim vote is powerful, group told
Examples are cited in Dearborn
BY ZACHARY GORCHOW
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
December 24, 2006
Muslims played a critical role in some key elections this year. But elected officials won’t take them seriously if they don’t continue to organize and turn out Muslim voters, two politically active Muslims said Saturday at a convention in Dearborn.
If there are efforts to register Muslims to vote, educate them about the candidates and get them to the polls to vote for one candidate, politicians will court their support, Jameel Johnson, an aide to U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., said at the Muslim American Society and Islamic Circle of North America convention.
“It is our job to make the Muslim vote visible to candidates,” he said.
A strategy of organizing Muslim voters worked in Virginia this year in the U.S. Senate race.
The effort was so organized that Muslim taxi drivers in northern Virginia took the day off to ferry Muslims to the polls, said Imam Mahdy Bray, a speaker at the convention. Volunteers also made phone calls to Muslims in Virginia to urge them to vote, he said.
As a result, Democrat James Webb ousted incumbent Republican George Allen by about 9,000 votes in a race in which 50,000 Muslims went to the polls — 47,000 of them voting for Webb, Bray said.
“You can make a difference when you work,” Bray said.
Mohammed Shoman, 18, of Dearborn said the conference inspired him to get involved. “We realize how much our influence is” now, he said.
Contact ZACHARY GORCHOW at 313-223-4536 or zgorchow@freepress.com.
(Excerpt) Read more at muslimnews.co.uk ...
Thanks so much to Freeper thecorneroffice for posting the pictures from the Clearwater Sarah event of yesterday! If you look at the Florida Victory sign at the top and the yellow state of FL, come down a tiny bit and see a lady in a large brim hat. She is in the first red stripe at the top. Then follow straight down from her to the second white stripe from the top. There you will see an elderly man in a white shirt and blue McCain/Palin hat. That is my hubby and I am to his right, also with a blue McCain/Palin hat. Easy to see, as we are the only ones in that area with blue hats on. :) I will try to copy paste your picture and get a copy made at Walgreens if I can. Thanks for posting all your great pictures! Wish we two Freepers could have met! :)
And yes! There were at LEAST 20,000 Sarah supporters in Clearwater yesterday! GO MCCAIN/PALIN!