How Muslim voters can influence the November elections

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http://www.michiganradio.org/post/how-muslim-voters-can-influence-november-elections

How Muslim voters can influence the November elections

The Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, MI.

In the lead up to the November elections we’re hearing a lot about different voting blocs.

Well, the Michigan Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has released a detailed presidential election summary and legislative scorecard focused on issues of concern for Muslims here in Michigan.

Dawud Walid is the Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Michigan. He tells Jennifer White there was been little effort to court Muslim voters this election year.

“Definitely not, in the 2008 election the McCain campaign basically ignored us, and the Obama campaign however did have a special outreach coordinator that reached out to the Arab-American community as well as the American-Muslim communities. Those two communities are not synonymous,” Walid said.

But he says there has not been the same kind of outreach from the Obama campaign this election year, and no word from the Romney campaign.

“We have not heard a peep from the Romney campaign. As a matter of fact we’ve been hearing some things that sound a little hostile. He just gave his speech at VMI (Virginia Military Institute) about his foreign policy. And he made a statement that so called Islamists want to wage perpetual war with the west. So it appears that Mr. Romney is engaged in the politics of fear,” he said.

When asked what kind of impact Muslim Americans could have on the presidential race and on local races, Walid said:

“With the local races that are in the areas in which Muslims are a significant population and block, we believe that more Muslims will be voted in, in local races and particularly in the state of Michigan. From the national level we believe that there are certain key states where the Muslim community has a large enough percentage of eligible voters in a close race that the Muslim community could actually swing the vote one way or another. In Michigan, Ohio as well as in Virginia if the election goes to a few thousand votes or maybe ten thousand, fifteen thousand votes we believe that the Muslim community is a large enough voting block that we could influence the election, of who gets the electoral votes in those particular states,” Walid said.

DawudWalid

Dawud Walid is currently the Executive Director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI), which is a chapter of America's largest advocacy and civil liberties organization for American Muslims and is a member of the Michigan Muslim Community Council (MMCC) Imams Committee. Walid has been interviewed and quoted in approximately 150 media outlets ranging from the New York Times, Wall St Journal, National Public Radio, CNN, BBC, FOX News and Al-Jazeera. Furthermore, Walid was a political blogger for the Detroit News from January 2014 to January 2016, has had essays published in the 2012 book All-American: 45 American Men on Being Muslim, the 2014 book Qur'an in Conversation and was quoted as an expert in 13 additional books and academic dissertations. He was also a featured character in the 2013 HBO documentary "The Education of Mohammad Hussein." Walid has lectured at over 50 institutions of higher learning about Islam, interfaith dialogue and social justice including at Harvard University, DePaul University and the University of the Virgin Islands - St. Thomas and St. Croix campuses as well as spoken at the 2008 and 2011 Congressional Black Caucus Conventions alongside prominent speakers such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Congressman Keith Ellison. In 2008, Walid delivered the closing benediction at the historic 52nd Michigan Electoral College in the Michigan State Senate chambers and gave the Baccalaureate speech for graduates of the prestigious Cranbrook-Kingswood Academy located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Walid was also a featured speaker at the 2009 and 2010 Malian Peace and Tolerance Conferences at the University of Bamako in Mali, West Africa. He has also given testimony at hearings and briefings in front of Michigan state legislators and U.S. congressional representatives, including speaking before members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in Washington, D.C. Walid has studied under qualified scholars the disciplines of Arabic grammar and morphology, foundations of Islamic jurisprudence, sciences of the exegesis of the Qur’an, and Islamic history during the era of Prophet Muhammad through the governments of the first 5 caliphs. He previously served as an imam at Masjid Wali Muhammad in Detroit and the Bosnian American Islamic Center in Hamtramck, Michigan, and continues to deliver sermons and lectures at Islamic centers across the United States and Canada. Walid was a 2011 - 2012 fellow of the University of Southern California (USC) American Muslim Civil Leadership Institute (AMCLI) and a 2014 - 2015 fellow of the Wayne State Law School Detroit Action Equity Lab (DEAL). Walid served in the United States Navy under honorable conditions earning two United States Navy & Marine Corp Achievement medals while deployed abroad. He has also received awards of recognition from the city councils of Detroit and Hamtramck and from the Mayor of Lansing as well as a number of other religious and community organizations.

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