c. 2000 Religion News Service
Survey: Gore Trails Both Bush and Nader Among U.S. Muslims
(RNS) Vice President Al Gore is behind both Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Green Party candidate Ralph Nader among likely U.S. Muslim voters, according to a survey by a leading Muslim advocacy group.
In the non-scientific poll released Tuesday (Oct. 17) by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Bush is supported by 40 percent of Muslim voters, with Nader receiving 25 percent and Gore receiving 24 percent. Those numbers are dramatically different from a similar June poll, when Gore led Bush by 32 percent to 28 percent.
The estimated 6 million U.S. Muslims are considered a key swing vote in battleground states with high Muslim populations, such as Michigan, California and New Jersey. CAIR officials, however, put the number of eligible Muslim voters at only between 500,000 and 1 million.
On Sunday (Oct. 15), an influential group of Arab-Americans from the Detroit area formally endorsed Bush. The Arab-American Political Action Committee cited Bush’s “flexibility” on the Middle East and called him “someone who listens.”
CAIR officials attributed Bush’s and Nader’s rise in the poll to increased visibility by Nader and Bush’s support for ending the use of “secret evidence” by immigration officials in deportation hearings.
Bush’s support, however, is far from firm. Fifty-five percent of the respondents said their votes may change by Election Day, and support for Bush does not necessarily translate to support for Republican congressional candidates.
“Muslim voters are individuals and will go with those candidates who address their concerns,” said CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper.
With the crisis between Jews and Palestinians continuing to erupt in the Middle East, CAIR officials said they saw no negative reaction to the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew.
“If Lieberman was a factor at all, it was because of his positions, not because of his faith,” said Mohammed Nimer, CAIR’s research director.
CAIR is scheduled to convene a meeting of the American Muslim Political Coordinating Council later this month, and an “advisory” _ not an endorsement _ is expected from the group on the presidential candidates.
The survey of 1,022 likely voters was sent to CAIR supporters, mosques and Muslim community centers around the country, and Nimer said he was “hesitant” to say it was a scientific representation of all U.S. Muslims.
Survey: Pastors Would Support Jewish, Catholic Candidates but Not Mormons
(RNS) A national survey of Protestant ministers shows most pastors would vote for a Catholic or Orthodox Jew before voting for a Mormon or atheist.
The survey conducted by Phoenix-based Ellison Research asked 518 pastors how important they considered a candidate’s personal faith, race, political affiliations and past indiscretions in making a decision whether to vote for the candidate.
A candidate’s Jewish faith would not matter for 63 percent of pastors, and 64 percent said they would not care if a candidate were Catholic. But when it comes to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, 76 percent said they would be less inclined to vote for a Mormon candidate, and 86 percent said they would not vote for an openly gay candidate.
Ron Sellers, president of Ellison Research, said his best guess is that the Mormon disparity is a result of latent prejudices or misconceptions about the Mormon church held by many Protestants, especially evangelicals.
“The Mormon religion, because of its massive growth worldwide and strong missionary activities, is seen by many as a threat, and if you’ve got an organization you’re concerned about, why would you suggest someone to be the leader of the free world who comes from that organization?” Sellers said.
The survey was conducted earlier this year before Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., was named Vice President Al Gore’s running mate and the first Jew on a major party ticket. Sellers said the timing of the survey is important because pastors were asked about the possibility of a Jewish candidate and were not asked specifically about Lieberman.
When it comes to race, 84 percent of pastors said they would vote for an African-American, and 82 percent said the same for Asian or Hispanic candidates. Sixty-seven percent said gender did not make a difference, although 24 percent said they would be less inclined to vote for a woman.
Personal faith and piety are also important factors, according to the survey. Eighty-four percent of pastors would be more inclined to vote for a candidate who attends church regularly, and 71 percent would be more inclined to support a self-identified “born again” Christian for president.
Past indiscretions _ sexual or otherwise _ also affect a pastor’s vote. While 61 percent would still support a candidate who admitted to smoking marijuana in the 1970s, 38 percent would be less likely to support that candidate. Fifty-nine percent would be less inclined to vote for a candidate involved in an extramarital affair in the past, while 39 percent said it would make little or no difference.
The survey, conducted in late spring, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.
U.S. Christians Pushing for Resumed Middle East Peace Efforts
(RNS) A two-day emergency Middle East summit in Egypt ended Tuesday (Oct. 17) with Israel and the Palestinians agreeing to take “immediate concrete measures” to end more than two weeks of Israeli-Palestinian violence that has paralyzed the region.
Both sides pledged to negotiate resuming peace talks, with Israeli President Ehud Barak agreeing to scale back Israeli forces responsible for the deaths of dozens of Palestinians. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat made concessions too, rescinding an appeal for an international commission to investigate the causes of the recent violence, and conceding to Israel’s demands for the rearrest of Islamic militants who were freed last week from jail.
Still, the violence showed no signs of immediate cessation, and several Christian organizations in the United States issued calls for a permanent resolution to the crisis.
“(This is) a time to break the escalating cycle of violence, and to uncover the embers of hope that remain for a just peace,” said Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, chairman of the United States Catholic Conference’s international policy committee. “It is a time for moral leadership, at every level of Israeli and Palestinian society, that can look beyond the crisis of the moment lest hatred and revenge today poison the opportunities for peace tomorrow.”
Israel’s use of force against Palestinians brought condemnation from several groups, including the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, and the National Council of Churches.
“The massive and one-sided loss of life and infliction of injury and property damage belie Israeli claims to legitimate self-defense,” said a joint statement issued by the Rev. Robert Edgar, general secretary of the NCC and the Rev. John McCullough, executive director of Church World Service and Witness. “We call upon Mr. Barak to practice restraint, as we urge Mr. Arafat to do all in his power to stop the violence.”
The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA), implored President Clinton to “disassociate yourself from the stance that appears to blame the victims of this long-term oppression as the primary cause of the violence.
“While we deplore hostage taking and the brutalization and murder of Israeli soldiers, such acts simply do not justify the unconscionable, massive retaliation of the Israeli military,” Kirkpatrick wrote in a letter addressed to Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and Vice President Gore.
Vietnam Denies Mistreating Buddhist Dissident
(RNS) Vietnam has denied reports from a California-based Buddhist sect that prison officials mistreated one of five members jailed last month in southern An Giang province on charges of slandering the government.
“All the court proceedings have been carried out in accordance with the law,” said a statement by Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry, Reuters reported. “Prisoners in camps should obey the camp’s regulations.”
She said the head prosecutor in An Giang had called the report issued by the California-based Central Council of the Hoa Hao Buddhist Church “a sheer fabrication.”
According to the council’s report, communist authorities at an An Giang jail forcibly shaved the hair and beard of imprisoned sect member Nguyen Chau Lang. Lang, like many Hoa Hao monks, had sported a beard and wore his hair in a bun, the council said. According to the report, Lang had been “strangled” when he tried to resist the shaving, and had been unable to eat for days afterward.
Lang was one of five church members sentenced on Sept. 26 to jail terms as long as three years for “defaming the government and abusing democracy,” but the Central Council insists the five were arrested after complaining provincial officials abused their power.
The council’s statement accused authorities of denying church members a fair appeals process, and also claimed that on Sept. 14 another church member was placed under house arrest for two years for taping radio programs from abroad.
The Hoa Hao Buddhist Church combines practices drawn from Buddhism, Confucianism, animism and indigenous belief systems. The group claims more than 4 million followers in Vietnam and contends communist leaders in Vietnam have targeted the group because they fought against Hanoi during the Vietnam War.
Chicago Radio Station Honored by National Broadcasters Group
(RNS) The flagship station of Moody Broadcasting Network has been named religious station of the year by the National Association of Broadcasters.
WMBI, a Chicago-based radio station, recently won the NAB Marconi Radio Award, which honors excellence among the country’s radio stations. It previously won the award in 1996.
WMBI went on the air in 1926 and was one of the nation’s first religious radio stations. It is part of the Moody Broadcasting Network, which operates 30 stations across the country and provides programming via satellite to more than 660 outlets.
Quote of the Day: Natalie Gavin, a freshman at Samford University.
(RNS) “They won’t let us have MTV, but we’ve got pornography on the (student) directory.”
_ Natalie Gavin, a freshman at the Southern Baptist-affiliated Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., quoted by the Assoicated Press about a new student directory that included a mosaic of small photographic images on the cover. Some of the images were later found to be pornographic.
DEA END RNS
