Associated Press - Arab News

NEWARK, N.J., 5 February 2004 — Stung by a backlash after the 2001 terror attacks and hoping to increase their clout in this year’s presidential election, Muslim groups are mobilizing to sign up new voters across the nation.

Several thousand Muslims filled out voter registration forms during sign-up drives last weekend that coincided with the major Islamic holiday Eid Al-Adha, when people traditionally visit friends and relatives.

Thousands more took the forms home and said they would complete and mail them to local election boards in time to register to vote in the November presidential election.

“I came here, I worked hard, I became part of the economy and I pay my taxes,” said Amir Gauhar, a 35-year-old Pakistani-born resident of Burlington Township who registered to vote Sunday at a drive in Princeton. “I want to be part of a group of people who can bring about change. I feel very strongly this country is heading in the wrong direction. Our ducks are not in a row.”

Across the nation, similar voter registration drives were held over the weekend, including in the suburbs near Dearborn, Michigan, home to the nation’s second-largest Arab-American community after New York City.

“They realize that the more we are in numbers, the more people are going to listen to us,” said Celena Khatib, assistant director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Michigan office.

The goal is simple: Bring more Muslims into the political system so they can help decide the future direction of the nation.

Muslims in cities across the nation voiced concern over an anti-Muslim backlash after the 2001 terror attacks, and what they call the subsequent assault on civil liberties by the Bush administration. Of the more than 1,200 detainees caught up in the post-Sept. 11 dragnet, most were Muslims or people from Arab or southern Asian nations.

“The atmosphere we find ourselves in, people realize we need to have a voice, to make sure our rights are protected,” said Yaser El-Menshawy, chairman of the Majlis-Ash-Shura of New Jersey, the state’s council of mosques.

Many of the new voters noted that the 2000 election was decided in Florida, where Bush led Al Gore by just 537 votes out of more than 6 million cast when the US Supreme Court stopped the recount.

According to preliminary totals, 1,000 new voters were signed up in Los Angeles and in one mosque alone in the Miami area, 900 registered. In Ohio, 350 new voters were registered, in Maryland, at least 300 new voters signed up, and an additional 125 were registered in Sacramento, Calif. Other drives were held in Albany, N.Y.; San Antonio; Columbia, S.C.; and St. Louis.