NEW YORK, 4 October — The number of Muslims running for elective office across the United States has dropped by 85 percent in two years because potential candidates fear the post-Sept. 11 anti-Muslim backlash would doom their campaigns.
That’s the conclusion reached by the Newark-based American Muslim Alliance, the nation’s largest Muslim political organization, which found the number of Muslim candidates dropped from about 700 in 2000 to about 100 this year.
According to Agha Saeed, founder of the American Muslim Alliance and a lecturer of political science and ethnic studies at California State University-Hayward and the University of California-Berkeley, the drop in the number of candidates is disappointing because Muslims need more representation at every level of government.
He and other leaders said Muslim politicians can fight anti-Muslim backlash and educate the general population on issues important to the community. They say it’s also imperative for Muslims to prove to the world they are active contributors to society.
The American Muslim Alliance tracks the number of Muslim candidates by sending out e-mails to its 98 chapters, scanning newspapers and receiving word from Muslims who contact the Newark headquarters.
Saeed attributes the large turnout in 2000 to his organization’s concentrated get-out-the-vote and run-for-office campaigns, and because it was a presidential election year. Out of 700 Muslim candidates that year, 153 won. But this year, Saeed was too busy hosting post-Sept. 11 vigils and workshops. Also, many of the filing deadlines for the March primary were in December, just a few months after the terrorist attacks, when many Muslims were too afraid to sign up to run for office, Saeed said.
