Muslims Say GOP Rhetoric Is Eroding Once Solid Support

c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Raise a million dollars and get Rep. Virgil Goode voted out office. That was the challenge Salman Tajuddin, an investment manager from Arlington, Va., issued recently to fellow Muslims and the Democratic Party, posting it on Naseeb.com, a Muslim networking Web site. “Virgil Goode has it out for Muslims. […]

c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Raise a million dollars and get Rep. Virgil Goode voted out office. That was the challenge Salman Tajuddin, an investment manager from Arlington, Va., issued recently to fellow Muslims and the Democratic Party, posting it on Naseeb.com, a Muslim networking Web site.

“Virgil Goode has it out for Muslims. So I’ve got it out for him,” Tajuddin wrote, referring to Goode’s recent suggestion that tougher immigration laws were needed to keep more Muslims like Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., out of Congress.


But because Goode’s congressional district is in mostly rural south central Virginia, Tajuddin conceded that ousting the five-term congressman would be next to impossible. But Goode’s comments have cemented Tajuddin’s support for Democrats while further alienating him from the Republican Party.

“The rhetoric only drives Muslims away,” said Tajuddin, who grew up admiring Ronald Reagan and voted Republican until 2002. “It becomes part of the way Republicans are perceived, as distrustful of me. And if they’re distrustful of me, why should I trust them?”

Such sentiments are becoming common among Muslim-Americans who once voted Republican. They view Goode’s as only the latest attack by an increasingly hostile party. And they wonder whether such sentiments are limited to a few members of the GOP, or are more widespread.

“I think it’s a party-wide issue,” said Irfan Khan, a student at the Charleston School of Law in South Carolina. “I’m kind of mistrustful of Republicans because of their track record with other minority groups, and because they’re in bed with Christian conservatives.”

It’s remarkable how much things have changed. In 2000, four prominent Muslim groups endorsed President Bush, citing his support for combating racial profiling. Bush drew approximately 42 percent of the Muslim vote that year; one Muslim group put his share as high as 72 percent.

Bush was the first president to use the word “mosque” in an inaugural address. Then Sept. 11 _ and later, the Patriot Act and the Iraq war _ changed everything. By 2004, Bush’s support among Muslims had imploded. Going into the election, Democrat John Kerry led among Muslims 76 percent to 7 percent. (Exit polls after the election did not include figures for Muslim voters).

Saghir Tahir, a Republican state representative in New Hampshire, doesn’t think anti-Muslim sentiment is partywide, but nonetheless wasn’t surprised at Goode’s comments.


“I expected that all along because there are a few Republicans, certainly they’re extremists, just like in every party, every country, every religion,” said Tahir, adding that his faith didn’t stop voters in his Manchester district from electing him to a fourth term in November. “People know that I’m a Muslim, but people also know that I’m a die-hard American.”

Tajuddin said there are some Republicans he could support, including Rep. Tom Davis, a moderate from Northern Virginia. “He’s done a lot for Muslims,” Tajuddin said, even though Davis didn’t speak out against Goode. Tajuddin chalks this up to political caution and party loyalty. In fact, none of Virginia’s GOP-dominated congressional delegation spoke out against Goode.

Corey Saylor, the national legislative director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the silence from GOP leaders was disappointing, but perhaps not surprising.

“But that says more about us,” Saylor said. “Muslims have a long way to go in terms of being able to put pressure on these guys to make them feel like they have to condemn something like this.”

While a few Democrats, joined by newspaper editorial boards and a slew of civil rights organizations, roundly condemned Goode, Muslims are also hesitant to automatically see Democrats as the party that would defend them against religious prejudice.

They point to the controversy that erupted last February, when the White House approved a deal to let a United Arab Emirates-based company run several key U.S. ports. Democrats joined in condemning the deal as a security lapse. Sen. Frank Lautenburg, D-N.J., even likened it to doing business with the devil. Lautenberg later apologized.


“You can’t brushstroke the entire Republican Party, but there are many of their politicians who have made inflammatory statements,” said Saylor. “The prime difference is that Democrats are more willing to make continuous outreach to the community.”

Regardless of the source of inflammatory statements about Muslims, the danger is the same, hate crimes experts said, especially if they are not condemned.

“Every time a person in a public position says something that is degrading and prejudiced towards Muslims, and every time other public officials remain silent, they’re contributing to a process of escalation that can lead to violence,” said Stephen Wessler, executive director of the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence in Portland, Maine.

What worries Wessler is that he believes anti-Muslim sentiments are no longer fringe, but mainstream.

“That’s why I’m so disturbed,” he said. “I see people who are respected members of the business community, the medical community, expressing bias without even realizing what they’re saying because the stereotypes are so widespread.”

Even as Ellison’s election _ and his taking the oath of office on Thomas Jefferson’s Quran _ reminded Muslims of their acceptance by American society, the criticism from Goode and other conservatives was a strong signal of just how much hostility remains.


Indeed, comment sections on right-wing Web sites fumed with anger over Ellison’s decision to use the Quran for his swearing-in. Roy Moore, the former chief justice of Alabama’s Supreme Court famous for his 10 Commandments monument, wrote on worldnetdaily.com that Ellison “shouldn’t even be allowed to serve.”

Some had even more radical ideas.

“Muslims should not be allowed to enter this country,” Miami resident Frank Zeinali wrote in a letter to The Miami Herald supporting Goode. “I advocate the forced removal of all Muslims, moving toward a Muslimless society.”

All of that just reinforced to Khan, the South Carolina law student, that “Islamophobia is real.”

“We are the new boogey man,” he said. “Muslims everywhere need to be concerned about what’s happening.”

KRE/LF END SACIRBEY

Editors: To obtain file photos of Ellison, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.

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