The Long History of Politicians Shunning American Arabs and Muslims
By Erik Love - Jul 16th, 2008 at 5:47 pmRecently, you’ve probably seen several headlines similar to this one from The New York Times: “Muslim Voters Detect a Snub From Obama.”
But this is nothing new. Switch out the name of the candidate and this story could have come from 1984 or 1988. For years, many Americans Muslims and Arabs have felt effectively shut out of the political process. Despite some important achievements (like the presence of two Muslims in the current House of Representatives), many of the causes and issues that are important to American Muslims and Arabs have been sidelined because political contributions and support from these communities have been unfairly demonized. Let’s look at a few examples.
In 1984, Walter Mondale, the Democratic presidential candidate, returned the monetary contributions of several Arab Americans who supported his candidacy, saying that it was his campaign’s policy not to accept donations from that particular ethnic group. This came at a time when Arab Americans faced persistent bashing in the mainstream media (“oil sheik” was perhaps the most popular stereotype at the time).
In the mid-eighties, violence became a tactic used to intimidate Arab American political advocacy groups. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s California director, Alex Odeh, was assassinated in a bomb attack. This did not stop ADC from continuing its work, but in 1988 it was publicly snubbed by another presidential candidate. Michael Dukakis, the Democratic nominee, told American Arab political groups that he did not want their endorsement.
These high-profile examples from presidential campaigns are just the most visible instances. There are many others, at every level of government. A few years ago, I met a woman who ran for mayor of a Detroit suburb in 2001. She is a Muslim of Arab descent, and sure enough, her opponent in the campaign used her religion and her heritage against her. Her white, Christian opponent directly raised questions like “Would you trust having an Arab in charge of the police department?” She lost.
The Obama campaign’s recent gaffe–-in which two volunteers told two Muslim American women that they had to sit where cameras wouldn’t see them–-attracted a lot of attention, but this fits a clear pattern in American politics. Obama later apologized to the two women, but the presumptive Democratic nominee has yet to appear at a mosque, nor has he done much at all to suggest he would take action on issues important to American Muslims by rolling back harmful parts of the PATRIOT Act and putting a stop to special registration or NCEERS.
John McCain is no better. Earlier this year, a single conservative website falsely claimed that Ali Jawad, a member of McCain’s Michigan state finance committee and one of the GOP’s best fundraisers, was connected to Hezbollah. Rather than defend his supporter, McCain immediately kicked Jawad off of his campaign and disavowed all contact with him. It’s apparently enough to simply post a comment on a blog to completely humiliate a major, well-connected political donor (if that donor happens to be of Arab heritage). So imagine how less well-connected Americans of Arab or Muslim descent feel about their chances in the American political system.
There needs to be constant vigilance if we’re going to promote America’s dedication to inclusion and acceptance within our electoral system. Both McCain and Obama have failed to deliver. The strategy of pushing Arab American and Muslim American votes away certainly didn’t help the political careers of Mondale and Dukakis. Fortunately, there’s still time in 2008 for Obama and McCain to take a different route.
Erik Love is a Ph.D. candidate at UC Santa Barbara. He studies race, civil rights, politics, and social movements.
[...] UPDATE JULY 16: A version of this article also appeared at Pushback.. [...]
July 17th, 2008 at 4:41 pmVery interesting! Could a Muslim be president? Just try to suggest that to voters, and see how they respond. Even in the 1780s, in ratification debates, delegates to constitutional conventions were appalled by the suggestion.
July 17th, 2008 at 4:46 pmHow true! Recall two years ago when much of the political establishment (including Sens. Clinton and Obama) determined that when buying U.S. ports, Arabs need not apply. Never mind that we already allow British, German, and Chinese companies to own U.S. ports and never mind the fact that Dubai Ports World hails from a nation friendly to U.S. interests. The port deal was pretty much undone by an unholy marriage of protectionist jingoism with the ever-fashionable anti-Arab racism.
July 18th, 2008 at 10:37 am