In 2000, when we overwhelmingly voted for George W. Bush we told ourselves that come 2004 election and we would be better organized. 2004 came and went, and after being ignored by almost every presidential candidate, we vowed to work for a better Muslim participation in 2008. We are now in 2008 and there is not much out in public to convince us that we could be effective in the forthcoming elections. 

Individually, our participation is no less than other citizens of the country. Some 60 percent of our community members vote regularly and our contribution to candidates also runs into millions. Yet, our voice in electoral politics as a community and as an effective component of the American pluralism is missing big time. The blame is not on political parties or their representatives. We ourselves are responsible for this situation. Not many of us want to spare the time for political work at the grass root level. Not many of us are willing to actively join the political parties under this or that pretext and many of us are not convinced theologically that democracy is the best of the worst types of political institutions that humanity has experimented with.

When I use the word "we," I mean Muslims by and large as I am aware of the fact that the participation of African-American Muslims in the electoral process is much better than Muslims of immigrant backgrounds. African-American Muslims have been effective in not only getting two of their leaders elected to congress but also in having a substantial number of their activists risen to important political positions at various state and city levels. The lack of meaningful coordination and cooperation among these two segments of the Muslim community has obviously created conditions for the ineffectiveness of Muslims in the electoral process.

Muslims have three major approaches in electoral politics. A substantial number of Muslims are not convinced about the effectiveness of our particular model of democracy and believe that the laws of God are more just in establishing a democratic state. They also believe that only a Caliphate type of government can truly represent the Creator on earth. Big on words and short on substance, this group is still dealing with its logical inconsistencies in defining its objectives. It does not explain how it would select or elect its leaders and who would have the authority to implement and interpret the Quranic principles. Its literature on these issues is almost non-existent.

The second group believes that Muslims must participate in the electoral process as part of their religious obligation. Muslims cannot be unconcerned with their surroundings, hence, they must engage with other segments of the society actively on all issues and matters. Within this category are two sub-groups; one believes in the creation of a Muslim political party to impact the electoral politics and the other believes in the formation of a voting bloc to influence the election outcome.

A third group argues that Muslims should get involved in electoral politics individually. They should become part of the existing political parties and use their presence in those parties to promote an agenda that in their view might serve Muslim interests. All these groups assume that Muslims are a well organized and monolith community with a clear agenda and defined objectives. They often ignore the divisions that exist among Muslims on horizontal and vertical lines. Everything that can divide people divides Muslims too. Secondly, they also ignore the fact that there is hardly any debate among Muslims or their organizations or leaders on issues that concern the community and the country. For instance, take the recent Papal visit to the United States.

Muslim organizations were divided on the subject of meeting with the pope. Rather than discussing the issue beforehand to develop an intelligent and effective stand, the leadership decided to take the decision before even discussing it with their peers, and those who are concerned about the issues. There was hardly any khutbah given on the subject in any Islamic center anywhere in the country. Those Muslims who sometimes read newspapers learned about the Muslim position through the reported news in secular media. No, Muslim media ever received any news item about the issue. The lack of debate among Muslims create apathetic conditions among the masses rendering all talks about political participation meaningless.

Additionally, they ignore the objective conditions that exist on the ground. None in the Muslim community has accurate information about Muslim voters. To be more precise, not many Muslim communities have any data about Muslims living in their vicinities. It is almost impossible to talk about Muslim political activities without having any data of any sort. The presence of all these realities is not an excuse not to do anything for the future. Perhaps, a humble beginning can be made in terms of developing tools to collect accurate data about Muslim voters in each state, subdivided in congressional and assembly districts with further subdivisions at precinct levels. This is not an easy task. The available data in county voters list is not very helpful as there are hundreds of Muslims names that do not fit the general profile.

However, we must begin somewhere as a community. We can no longer live on slogans and false figures. We have to make determined efforts to collect data about our electoral presence in each congressional district. We can initiate the process if we have dedicated people who may assume responsibilities to be the lead person in this respect. There are many who would like to work on this project, yet there are effectively no institutions or organizations that are willing to undertake the work. On the contrary, many Muslim groups and leaders believe that by simply making statements that "Muslims are six millions in America," and that they can attract the attention of national political leaders. We also have to initiate debates among us on issues that concern the community and country. So far, we have remained only a foreign policy dominated community. We have not spoken on issues such as education, environment, crimes, violence, economy, and health insurance. We have not contributed anything substantial to the existing debate on the issues. If we look at the themes of the major conventions and conferences organized by Muslims, we hardly find anything substantial on national issues. The lack of any discussion on national issues in the Muslim community delivers a negative message to the rest of the country. Thus, at each level, we must always engage ourselves with groups who are concerned with domestic issues. We do not have to always come up with something unique and different. We can fulfill this role in our individual or collective capacity.

We also have to encourage our women and youth to get involved in the political arena by volunteering work for various offices at various levels. They can work as interns in offices at the city, state and congressional level.

However, for doing all the above, we need an effective organization. Either an existing organization should come forward to take a fresh initiative or a new organization is set up to do the job.  We need to follow the road of civic participation, and start the journey by taking the first steps on this epic and long journey towards political inclusion and a more democratic nation.

At the initial stage let those who are interested in seeing Muslims become effective in electoral process should exchange ideas through e mails. 

I can offer to coordinate these efforts. My e mail address is [email protected]

Dr. Aslam Abdullah is Editor-in-Chief of the Muslim Observer, director of the Islamic society of Nevada, Las Vegas and acting president of the Muslim Council of America, a Washington-based newly formed groups of Muslim activists