Editorials and Opinion Pieces

The American Spectator

"Politics" by Grover Norquist

The Natural Conservatives
Muslims deliver for the GOP

June, 2001

George W. Bush was elected President of the United States of America because of the Muslim vote.

The what?

That's right, the Muslim vote. There are roughly six million Muslim-Americans. Hard data on their voting habits is surprisingly hard to come by, because national polling groups do not yet include "Muslim" as a full-fledged religious category (Protestant, Catholic, Jew, and "other'). But according to surveys by national Muslim groups, Bush won more than 70 percent of Muslims who voted. In Florida, that totaled 55,000 people, who, according to an exit poll by the Tampa Bay Islamic Center, favored Bush over Gore by 20 to 1. According to this exit poll, Bush got 88 percent of the vote to Gore's four percent, with eight percent voting for Nadar. The margin of victory for Bush over Gore in the Muslim vote was 46,200, many times greater than his statewide margin of victory. The Muslim vote won Florida for Bush.

U.S. Muslims come from Pakistan, India, Iran, Africa, and the Middle East, plus American converts. Just one out of six is of Arab descent; of the 3 million Arab- Americans, two-thirds are Christian. The Muslim community is thus not an ethnic bloc, but a faith-based, naturally conservative community. Sixty-one percent of Muslims, for example, would ban abortion except to save the life of the mother; 84 percent support school choice.

Muslims are Republican by economics as well, with a median annual family income of more than $69,000. Muslim immigrants don't walk across the border penniless--they fly into airports, largely to attend American universities. Fully a quarter are self-employed small businessmen--more than twice the national average. Abolishing the death tax is a major issue.

Socially and economically conservative in their attitudes, American Muslims look like members of the Christian Coalition or religiously active Catholics, who continue shifting to the Republican Party--55 percent of mass-attending Catholics went for Bush in 2000. But the Muslim vote is more in play. Muslims voted two to one for George H. W. Bush in 1992, then in 1996 went two to one for Clinton. George W. Bush got them back only through a vigorous outreach campaign. Muslims around the globe noticed, for example, that he always speaks of believers who attend "church, synagogue, or mosque." He is the first president to utter the word "mosque" in an inaugural address. In Philadelphia last year, Talat Othman, chairman of the Islamic Institute, gave the first Muslim prayer at a Republican convention. The Democrats scrambled to invite a Muslim to speak to their convention two weeks later.

Much of the credit for the strong GOP performance goes to Khaled Saffuri, the founding president of the conservative, pro-free enterprise Islamic Institute. (I was on the founding board of directors.) Saffuri organized a series of meetings between Muslim and Republican leaders, including a visit by Bush himself to an Islamic Center in Michigan. Saffuri also gained Republican support for the national campaign to have a postage stamp honoring Eid, the Muslim feast. Bush, Speaker Denny Hastert, Chairman Jim Nicholson, and National Republican Campaign Committee Chairman Tom Davis wrote letters in support of the Eid stamp. Since authorized, it will appear this September.

Saffuri also brought to the GOP's attention the most important issue for the Muslim community--the misuse of "secret evidence" in immigration cases, allowed under a 1996 law. One Muslim man was held in prison for three years based on secret evidence that turned out to be a claim by his former wife (with whom he was in a custody battle) that he planned to kill Janet Reno. The wife had pulled a similar stunt on a previous husband.

When George W. Bush condemned the use of secret evidence in his second nationally televised debate with Al Gore, national Muslim groups decided to endorse Bush. Eight national Muslim groups did so on October 23rd. Eighty-five percent of Muslim voters, in a poll commissioned by Muslim leaders, reported that they were aware of the leadership's endorsement.

As for claims that Muslims voted for Bush because Joe Lieberman is an observant Jew, Muslim leaders themselves cite Lieberman as one of the most Muslim-friendly Senators, praising his strong faith and co-sponsorship of a resolution condemning anti-Muslim bigotry.

The American Muslim community is large and growing, thanks to both high immigration and relatively large families. The number of mosques in this country has increased 25 percent since 1994. The aggression of the secular left has created a more ecumenical right over the past 20 years, with evangelical Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Orthodox Jews working together on pro-life, school choice, and other issues. They have new allies for the asking.