WASHINGTON — The annual four-day Labor Day weekend is a highpoint for Muslim-Americans, particularly in the Midwest and Canada. Attendance estimates at the 40th annual Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) event, held at McCormick Place in Chicago from Aug. 28 to Sept. 1, range from 30,000 to 40,000. Interestingly, a parallel event was held by the American Society of Muslims, led by Warith Deen Mohammad, on the same weekend and also in Chicago with about the same attendance figures by African-American Muslims.
For the first time the two conventions, held only three miles from each other, had one joint session. Leaders sought to introduce the American Muslims from overseas to the indigenous American Muslims who have been expanding their numbers exponentially within the United States. An unspoken but obvious attempt was made to bring these groups closer together as rapidly as the two memberships were prepared to accept.
The mainstream African-American group, the Nation of Islam, was started by Wallace D. Fard and his successor, Elijah Muhammad. At that time the group was generally referred to as the Black Muslims. Later, after Elijah Muhammad’s son, W. Deen Muhammad, took over leadership in 1975, he went to Makkah and began to understand the worldwide implications of Islam. He moved the group to Sunni Islam, founding the organization that became the American Society of Muslims in 1978. And he has remained the leader of the group, which now has 2.5 million members, ever since.
Louis Farrakhan took over the old Nation of Islam in 1978, which is now a considerably smaller organization. Originally the Nation of Islam was more militant but recently the group has organized highly successful and well-publicized peaceful demonstrations such as the Million Man March and a similar event for black women.
Some time ago Louis Farrakhan suffered serious health problems caused by his battle with prostate cancer. For some time African— Americans have hoped that the two groups, the Nation of Islam and the American Society of Muslims, might amalgamate. This year, at the ASM Convention, Warith Deen Mohammad announced that he will be retiring but will remain active in the organization. This would enable him to become a sort of elder statesman. He asked his members to elect a successor. As a result, leadership changes are still expected in both groups. Immigrant Muslim Americans have frequently noted that they hope to learn from the experience of African-Americans during the civil rights movement.
There were an extraordinary number of activities at the Chicago ISNA convention for both immigrant Muslims and their American-born children. While most of the convention events are efforts to prosyletize, make new converts, and reinforce the convictions of their members, there are also panel discussions focusing on politics.
There were serious discussions led by Muslims from different parts of the US about the political implications of the upcoming 2004 elections which are just a little more than 14 months away. In the year 2000 major Muslim leaders decided to encourage their members to vote together as a bloc, although two previous such attempts failed at the end because of regional favoritism in different parts of the country.
It was hard to say whether most Americans noticed the Muslims’ third attempt for a bloc vote. As a result of the extraordinary closeness of the election returns, specifically in Florida, the Muslim vote made all the difference between George W. Bush and his rival, Al Gore. It was the first time that most American Muslims realized that they really had the power to change American elections. At the time of the 2000 election Bush backers made a serious attempt to woo Muslim voters.
Gore and his party were deeply concerned that if they addressed Muslim issues they would lose the Jewish vote. Only belatedly they began to understand that instead, they were going to lose the much larger number of Muslims who probably have almost twice as many potential votes. Put another way, in the inimitable words of James Baker III, “the Jews don’t vote for us anyway,” but the Arab-Americans would.
Unfortunately, after President George W. Bush made it clear that he planned to help address the concerns of Arab and Muslim Americans, the 9/11 events changed everything in the United States. Bush supported Arab and Muslim Americans and helped those communities deliver their message that they were just as devastated as all other Americans by the terrorist attacks.
Bush’s words were belied by the events that soon took place, and particularly by the evangelical proclivities of Attorney General John Ashcroft. Because Ashcroft has not attempted to stop the racist inclinations and pronouncements of such Christian evangelists as Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, American Muslims are deeply frightened by these born-again, mostly Republican right-wing fundamentalists. Even Bush himself seems to tolerate such narrow-mindedness although he does not purposely encourage it himself.
There are now about 6 million Muslim Arab-Americans, and another 1 ½ to 2 million Christian Arab-Americans. The majority of Muslims voted for Bush and many Christian Arab Americans did the same. Both groups have been deeply disillusioned by what they have seen as clearly broken promises. Muslim Americans are prepared to work again for a bloc vote, knowing now how election results can be changed by working together.
They are listening carefully to both Bush and the likely Democratic nominees to see what they are prepared to offer Muslims. Muslim Americans are deeply concerned that Ashcroft has gone much too far in the direction of abridging civil rights for all Americans.
John Esposito, an Islamic scholar at the Center for Muslim and Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, addressed the concerns of Muslim Americans attending the ISNA convention. “It is incumbent upon Muslims to create a strategic response. But when Muslims do what other ethnic groups have done, they find themselves under attack by those who want to discredit them or shut down their organizations.” Muslims, like other minorities before them, need to keep working, and voting, to protect their rights.
— Richard H. Curtiss is executive editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
- Arab News Opinion 6 September 2003
