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American Muslim voter census project By Abdus Sattar Ghazali NEWARK, CA June 27, 2002: The American Muslim Alliance, under the leadership of Dr. M. H. Qazi, President of AMA Orlando, Florida Chapter, has launched a project to count the registered American Muslim voters. Former Congressman, Mr. Paul Findley, in his book Silent No More: Confronting America’s False Images of Islam, estimates that 2.3 million Muslims voted in the election 2000. But this data needs further elaboration and refinement. An AMA statement said that the American Muslims are now becoming actively involved in national politics. They created history in the election 2000 by voting en bloc. Concerning the impact of the Muslim bloc vote, a leading political thinker pointed out that “President George Bush should thank Florida Muslims for opening his way to the White House.” According to Richard Curtiss, Executive Editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, “Muslims can have an enormous influence throughout the off-election year and become a major factor in the 2004 election.” The AMA believes that the the census will not only help in providing a more authentic counting of the American Muslim vote but also reflect the sociology of Islam by documenting the geographical/ and ideological distribution of Muslim voters. There are an estimated seven million Muslims in the United States. The census of registered voters will surely bring greater visibility and recognition of the Muslim constituency and increase their clout in local and national politics. The information is voluntary and confidential that will be analyzed and disseminated in aggregated form. The AMA has appealed the Muslim community to help in this census project by visiting www.muslimcensus.com to fill out census form.
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