......Mr. Wasiq spent Sunday with about 7,000 Muslims who gathered in Irving for what organizers dubbed the Muslim Ballot Box Barbeque.
Its leaders hoped the event would register several thousand Muslims to vote and impress upon politicians and the media that Muslim Americans are a political force to be reckoned with.
Organizers said the event – the first in Texas – succeeded because of the fallout, both positive and negative, from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"America has engaged in a colossal conversation about Islam," said Agha Saeed, the national chairman of the American Muslim Alliance. "We are not looking at this [event] as a finished product, but as a continuing process."
Ideally, Dr. Saeed said, Muslims would form a bloc of swing voters who could influence the outcome of close elections. Community groups would meet and consider the candidates and ballot propositions and decide which to endorse.
And because Muslims tend to be independent voters, campaigns could not ignore them, Dr. Saeed said. In the process, Muslims would learn more about the American political system, and Americans would learn more about Muslims.
"News is being made now by extremists of every creed and color," said Moazam F. Syed of Fort Worth, an event organizer. "The moderates, who are the movers and shakers in all walks of life, have not been given a stage. This is the attempt to give them a stage."
Dozens of Muslim leaders and candidates took that stage Sunday. Between the candidates and their well-rehearsed spiels, Muslim leaders led the crowd in chants such as: "I am a Muslim. I am American. I vote."
Several major candidates in the November elections did not attend Sunday's event, although many sent representatives.
Sandy Cornyn, the wife of the Republican Senate candidate John Cornyn, spoke at the event, organizers said. Ron Kirk, Mr. Cornyn's Democratic rival, sent a deputy campaign manager. Roy Williams, the Green Party candidate, made a speech. http://www.dallasnews.com/politics/localnews/stories/061002dnmetunity.ae9bb.html