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Scripps Howard News Service - July 27, 2004
Muslim delegates uneasy in Bush's America
By LANCE GAY
BOSTON - Muslim delegates to the Democratic National Convention here said Tuesday they are furious about the erosion of civil liberties since the 9/11 attacks and alarmed at what they see as a needlessly reckless and divisive war in Iraq that is spreading hatred across the Islamic world.
"This is the most important moment of my life, and I just became an American citizen," said Gulten Ilhan, a philosophy professor at St. Louis Community College, who is a delegate representing Missouri. Ilhan, born in Turkey, said she is alarmed and angry about Bush's foreign policy. "After 9/11 we had the support of the world. Now three years later, he's turned the whole world against us ... Never in my life do I feel as unsafe as I do now," she said.
Parwez Wahid, a 44-year-old Massachusetts software developer and Democratic Party secretary in Framingham, Mass., said he followed the recommendations of Muslim leaders in 2000 and voted for George Bush after Al Gore refused to meet with Muslim leaders. Wahid said he has regretted that vote ever since.
About 70 percent of the Muslim vote went for Bush in 2000. The American Muslim Alliance estimates there are more than 4 million Muslim-American voters in the United States.
"Even if the devil was running against George Bush, I would vote for the devil," Wahid said.
About 40 American Muslims are delegates at this year's Democratic National Convention - a reflection, Wahid said, of organized efforts by local Islamic groups across the country to get Muslims more involved in American politics. The party does not keep records on the religious breakdown of delegates, but Wahid said the Muslim presence at the Boston convention is larger than at previous party events.
"We're trying to become mainstream," Wahid said. "If Muslims want a greater influence, then there's a role they have to play in American politics."
Sofie Rahman, a 21-year-old graduate of Emory University in Georgia who was born in the United States, said the crackdown on civil liberties after the 9/11 attacks served as a wake-up call for Muslims.
Rahman said many Muslims were like her parents, who emigrated from India but didn't participate in American elections because they felt their votes didn't matter. But she said the war in Iraq and the Patriot Act giving the FBI broader authority to monitor dissident activities prompted Muslims to pay much closer attention to political trends in their new country.
"It's growing. We started small, but it's going to get bigger and bigger as people get involved," said Rahman, who is about to enter medical school at Vanderbilt University. …….
Inayat Lalani, a 65-year-old retired surgeon from Fort Worth and one of seven Muslim delegates on the Texas delegation, said Muslims across the political spectrum are uniting over .
"We all have the same concerns," said Lalani, who originally is from India but has been in the United States for 43 years. "The U.S. relations with the Muslim world are so bad, we have failed. We want to correct this failure." Until the war in Iraq, Lalani said the United States enjoyed more than two centuries of cordial relations with the Muslim world. "I'm very, very much against this unjust war."
Zafar Tahir, a 42-year-old Houston Pakistan-American businessman, who also is serving on the Texas delegation, said he's most concerned about the erosion of civil liberties and embittered that Muslims were singled out after the 9/11 attacks. "I'm American first. I happen to be a Muslim," Tahir said, pointing to the American flag button he wore on his coat lapel.
Missouri delegate Asad Zaman, a 32-year-old principal of a St. Paul elementary school originally from Bangladesh, said he got involved in politics because he sees the 2004 election "as a fight for the soul of our country." "I am an American by choice. I chose an America that would guarantee my freedom, and an America that would guarantee my rights," Zaman said. "This is sad. This is not the America we wanted it to be."
http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=DEMS-MUSLIMS-07-27-04&cat=PP
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