Free Republic

WASHINGTON: In 2000, the Michigan-based Arab-American Political Action Committee (AAPAC), one of a handful of Arab-American PAC’s in the United States, endorsed George W. Bush for president. PACs are regulated committees that raise funds for political candidates and assist in their campaigning. Unlike many previous candidates, who had shunned or ignored Arab and Muslim voters, Bush campaigned actively for their support. He met with Arab and Muslim Americans, promised to include Arab-Americans in his administration and, in his second debate with Democratic nominee Al Gore, spoke of his opposition to the use of secret evidence, an important issue for Arab-Americans...

Wealthy Arab-Americans and foreign-born Muslims who strongly back President Bush's decision to invade Iraq are adding their names to the ranks of "Pioneers" and "Rangers," the elite Bush supporters who pledge to raise $100,000 or more for his re-election. The new crop of fund-raisers comes as some opinion polls suggest that support for the president among Arab-Americans is sinking, and at a time when political strategists from both parties say Bush has lost ground among Arab-Americans. The money-raising efforts are coming despite criticism of Bush by some Arab-Americans who feel they have been singled out in the fight against terrorism...

Arab-Americans raise money for Bush re-election campaign Wealthy Arab-American supporters of the US invasion of Iraq are financially backing US President Bush’s re-election campaign. Elite members Arab and Muslim communities are raising $100,000 or more for the Republican leader at a time when polls suggest that Bush’s support from these communities in plummeting, said New York Times. The newspaper named Iranian-born resident of Florida Mori Hosseini as on of Bush’s top fundraisers. The chief executive of ICI Homes has raised $200,000 for the Bush campaign, saying he was inspired by the President’s “decisive” action in Iraq. "He's the savior,...

Wealthy Arab-Americans and foreign-born Muslims who strongly back President Bush's decision to invade Iraq are adding their names to the ranks of Pioneers and Rangers, the elite Bush supporters who have raised $100,000 or more for his re-election. This new crop of fund-raisers comes as some opinion polls suggest support for the president among Arab-Americans is sinking and at a time when strategists from both parties say Mr. Bush is losing ground with this group. Mr. Bush has been criticized by Arab-Americans who feel they are being singled out in the fight against terrorism and who are uneasy over the...

<p>The turnout for Michigan’s Democratic caucuses came nowhere near what planners had first predicted. About 150,000 people participated, either by Internet, mail or in person, but that fell far short of original estimates of 400,000 voters.</p> <p>On Saturday, voters said their votes were motivated by which candidate offered the best chance of booting George W. Bush out of office, and others said they were motivated because they were angry – not only at Bush, but at the Democratic candidates who didn’t spend much time campaigning in Michigan.</p>

Thirteen years ago, in 1991, US soldiers arrived in Saudi Arabia to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi aggression and annexation. Among the American forces were women who drove vehicles. Perhaps inspired by this presence, several dozen Saudi women later held a demonstration in which they drove cars illegally. Women cannot drive in Saudi Arabia. Despite a recent, highly-publicized statement by a Saudi prince saying this situation would change soon there is no sign whatsoever of the law being altered. Indeed, in July 2003 a powerful Saudi businessman and writer submitted his regular column to a leading Saudi newspaper, Ukaz, forseeing a...

ELECTION 2004 Arab-Americans switch: Bush to Kucinich Prominent group that backed president in 2000 says they were 'stung' Posted: January 31, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Complaining it was betrayed, a key Arab-American group that endorsed George W. Bush in the 2000 election says it will back Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich for the Democratic nomination and stand behind that party's eventual nominee. Dennis Kucinich The endorsement of Kucinich was not based on who has the best chance to win, but on "principle," said Osama Siblani, head of the Arab-American Political Action Committee. "The argument we had yesterday was should we stand...

On the front page of today's hard copy NY Sun, there's a photo of Howard Dean wearing a keffiyeh, the tradional Palistinian scarf. Typically, when a non-Arab wears that garment here, it is as a sign of sympathy with the Palestinians.My efforts to find the photo on the web have failed. It is slugged as an AP photo.The photo ranks up there with ThatWoman (D-NY) kissing Lady Arafat.

WASHINGTON, 21 January 2004 — With the US presidential elections now under way, a new poll shows President George W. Bush losing substantial support among Arab-American voters. The poll, conducted in mid-January by Zogby International (ZI) for the Arab American Institute (AAI), surveyed 500 Arab-American voters nationwide, and had a margin of error of +/- 4.5 percent.According to the ZI/AAI poll, if the elections were held today, only 28 percent of Arab-Americans would vote to reelect the president. Forty percent, on the other hand, would vote for “any Democrat,” while the remaining 32 percent would either vote for an independent...

<p>ORLANDO, Fla. -- Jim Bajalia has always voted for Republican presidential candidates. The second-generation Palestinian-American was an enthusiastic College Republican at Florida State University, and he once explained to former Democratic President Jimmy Carter during an airplane encounter why he never voted for him.</p>

President Bush has her vote, said Dina Shapiro, standing in line at Bagel Power, a Jewish bakery in Scarsdale, N.Y. She applauds his war on terrorism. Bush won't get her vote, said Alia Charara, standing in line at New Yasmin Arabic bakery in Dearborn, Mich. She fears his war on terrorism. Shapiro, who comes from a family of liberal Jewish Democrats, sees Bush as a man who is looking after her kin. Her nephew lives in Israel: "Just as I feel Bush is taking care of me, he's taking care of my sister's son."

Throughout the world Arabs and Muslims are taking steps toward greater political participation, and these aren’t just through elections in Bahrain, Jordan and Qatar, or the coming local elections in Saudi Arabia. In the US, Arab-Americans and American Muslims are making great progress, and at astounding speed. Nov. 4, when a series of state and local elections were held throughout the US, was a milestone for Arab-Americans and American Muslims in Virginia, a state that scarcely had a mosque or an Arab community center when my family moved here 30 years ago. Virginia now boasts an Arab-American population estimated at...

DEARBORN, Mich. (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean received a standing ovation from an Arab-American audience on Saturday when he attacked leading conservatives and figures from the religious right. Dean, one of seven Democratic presidential candidates to address the Arab American Institute's national leadership conference in Dearborn, (Dean) pointed to an American flag and named some of the people he said it did not belong to. "It does not belong to General Boykin, or John Ashcroft, or Rush Limbaugh or Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson," the former Vermont governor said to cheers in the packed hotel conference room in...

Dearborn, Mich. -- An assemblage of politically active Arab Americans gave presidential candidate Howard Dean repeated ovations Saturday at the windup of a two-day meeting that marked a clear shift of allegiance from President Bush to his Democratic rivals. Dean got by far the warmest response of any of the seven presidential hopefuls who addressed the 300 people attending the national leadership conference of the Arab American Institute, a Washington advocacy group. But every Democratic speaker was applauded for criticizing the administration's policies in the Mideast and especially for the anti-terrorism tactics of Attorney General John Ashcroft, condemned by participants...