 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
March 8, 2002 Battle ground strategy to make Muslim vote effective By Abdus Sattar Ghazali NEWARK, CA: Dr. Agha Saeed, the National Chair of the American Muslim Alliance, has suggested a battle ground strategy to make the Muslim and Arab vote effective in November election. Addressing an AMA gathering, he said “we have to identify those states where the contest is closest, the margin for victory is the smallest and where small groups can play important role”. He said that an optimal Muslim strategy has to be a national strategy because nine million strong Muslim and Arab community cannot vote for the same candidate in any case, except the President and the Vice President candidate, because these people do not live in the same city or the same state. “With this strategy we were able to create a bloc vote in the year 2000.” However, Dr. Agha Saeed went on to say, that “this year we don’t have a presidential election so I am proposing to you a BATTLE GROUND STRAGY. We have to identify those states where the contest is the closest, the margin for victory is the smallest and where small groups can play important role”. Explaining this strategy, Dr. Agha Saeed recalled that the Senate was divided 50-50, when Jim Gafford made a move from being a Republican to be an independent. And with one person leaving the Republican Party the chairmanship of the Senate and all its committees went to Democrats. The power structure changed. Bush’s ability to get through the legislation changed. He said:“Now if in 2002, for the Republicans to loose or gain two or three senate seats could decide the balance of power for the next two years. And may even decide, not necessarily, the presidency for the next term. Therefore, if you identify these states and organize ourselves. Understand, where the contest is the closest, the margin for victory is the smallest where small groups can play important role.” Dr. Agha Saeed argued that if we have identified five states – California, Michigan, Illinois, New Jersey and New York - and we are going to play that role. “One state where we have the largest number of Muslims and Arabs in the US is California. We have not actually come together and demonstrated our ability to be effective in any major election. This is the year to do that.” The former Congressman, Paul Findley, in his book called: Silent No More, has documented the Muslim Bloc Vote in 2000 and how 66,000 Muslim votes were decisive for a Bush victory? Most major media has recognized that. The AMA Chairman pointed out that when Al Gore went to a mosque in Michigan last year, I asked Jim Zogby who was the person who took him there, why did he go to the mosque? Zogby said that Al Gore knows how to count? “I think that was most precise answer. Politicians know how to count. “What I am suggesting is that a million people or 1.2 million people (if you add Christian Arabs), is a large segment of population in California that could make some kind of difference in outcome. So it is not a surprise to me that call, I was expecting that call from both candidates. So we received phone calls from both candidates for governorship of California. Why, because there are million Muslims in California.” Dr. Agha Saed said as we are now talking about nine million strong community, I will now suggest the following simple steps to make our voice effective: 1. We need to do is vote registration. That is the key. There are very large number of people who are not registered to vote. 2. We need voter education. We download the ballot, blow it up and bring the community and discuss every item of the ballot. So it is creating a ballot education. AMA is doing this ballot education. The Women League of Voters also does voter education without supporting any candidate. 3. We have to quadruple the number of activists in the Muslim community. We need people to be partner with new alliances. The activists could go to these alliances and become permanent members, that is we become part of this whole thing. |