Mainstreaming Islam in the U.S.
By Erick Stakelbeck
CBN News
August 17, 2007
CBNNews.com - HOUSTON - When Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan made his final address, his major theme seemed to be for Christians and Muslims to get along.
This attempt for Muslims to be in the mainstream is growing across the country, and perhaps nowhere is it more evident than in the heartland of America.
It wasn't just history, but a foreshadowing of the future, when America's first Muslim congressman, Rep. Keith Ellison, took the oath of office. It signaled the entrance of Muslim grassroots politics into the mainstream and embraced a core American value: the ballot box.
Muslim activists say they are the new political force. The evidence is the 40,000 Virginia votes they claim helped James Webb unseat Senator George Allen.
One of the main drivers of this new machine is the "Voting Is Power' or 'V.I.P.' campaign. The director of the Muslim American Freedom Foundation says that the goal is to "register, educate, and mobilize" Muslims to shape the political agenda of the nation.
To gauge the potential impact of these efforts on American politics, look no further than Houston, Texas, where in the shadow of America's largest churches, Muslims are making their mark in mainstream local politics.
Just two months after 9/11, M.J. Kahn won a seat on Houston's city council, becoming the first Muslim to hold political office in Texas.
"That's the beauty about Houston and Houstonians," said Kahn. "I have never faced any challenge, any resistance, any hardship, or any attacks about my ethnicity, my religion or my appearance."
Some say that this unique character of the nation's fourth largest city has paved the way for Muslims to gain power.
Adeel Zeb, Communications Director of CAIR in Houston, said, "Different kinds of people, different kinds of dress, different kinds of food, different kinds of everything. Religious preference, gender preference, whatever you think you may like, you can pretty much find it in Houston."
"Houston's a gateway city," said Richard Murray, Ph.D, of the University of Houston. "We have lots of immigration from all over the world, and in the last 20 years we've had a substantial number of folks coming here from Asia and Africa -- parts of the world where there are many folks of the Muslim faith."
There are no scientific figures, but a 2002 Cornell study suggested that as many as eight million Muslims were living in the U.S. In a religion identification survey, Muslims accounted for seven percent of the population nationwide. In Texas, that number jumped to nine percent.
That's obvious in the Houston skyline. In 1970, there was just one mosque in Houston. Today, there are more than 80.
Those numbers weren't lost on Democrat Nick Lampson, who won the congressional seat that Tom Delay held for 22 years. Not only did Lampson court the Muslim vote, he vowed to hire a Muslim for a high-level position -- a promise he kept.
There are as many as 25 Muslims on staff in Capitol Hill offices, and they even have their own congressional staffers association to support them.
And many believe those players behind-the-scenes hold the real power. Congressional aides listen to constituents, schedule meetings, and help shape the policy of the person voting on the floor.
More Muslims are getting involved in the political process at all levels. At the 2004 Democratic Convention, Texas had the largest number of Muslim-American delegates, with eight -- six of those from Houston.
But the Muslim presence in Texas politics is bi-partisan. Fahar Ahmed is the general counsel for Fort Bend County's Republican Party.
She's been called on by the Bush administration to share her story with other Muslims about opportunities within the American political system.
Ahmed said, "Muslim-Americans are getting involved in mainstream political issues like getting out the vote, participating in campaigns, and also participating now in party politics, partisan politics. And they're finding the doors are very much open."
In traditional Muslim culture, religion and politics wear the same face. That leads some to warn that this open-door policy could backfire for the rest of the country, as Muslim political action groups advance their own agenda in the traditional American way.
"Islam, maybe I should say radical Islam, does definitely have a danger. It makes political claims of supremacy and violence that are irreconcilable with democracy," said David Cook, Ph.D, of Rice University.
"Muslims feel like there is a constant pressure on them to re-prove their loyalty to this country or to re-prove their patriotism," Ahmed said. "And I think they've done that, and I don't think it's fair that there is that pressure on them. But I think we realize that if we don't say anything, then someone else may speak on our behalf."
In Houston, Muslims are speaking up for themselves, and experts agree, their political clout will likely grow in upcoming election battles.
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