On Muslims, church-state issues, and Ohio

Crossposted at My Left Wing, Street Prophets, Booman Tribune, and Daily Kos

Last night I attended my first meeting of the Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Central Ohio Chapter. The guest speaker was Romin Iqbal, a civil rights coordinator for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. He's also an attorney practicing in Ohio, and works primarily in the area of religious discrimination in the workplace, and other issues which affect civil rights of Muslims and other minorities.

I would like to highlight this event for two reasons. First, I tend to think it is a good idea to increase our understanding of different groups whenever possible. Secondly, I believe it is imporant, especially in Ohio in a year when Ken Blackwell is running for governor, to increase public awareness of the existence of groups that promote the separation of church and state.

I'm still working on my transcription, but I have part 1 and part 2 up. What I've posted so far addresses voting trends among Muslims, attitudes on political issues, and attitudes toward Muslims by different groups. The speaker addressed some of anti-Muslim rhetoric commonly heard from well-known Evangelicals, and also how White Evangelicals have similar attitudes on some "values" issues, but are very different on others.

(Trying to do my part to increase public awareness of this group, I'm posting a link to information about AU Central Ohio's next big event, which takes place on September 17. Click for details.)

A couple excerpts...from the section where the speaker discussed voting patterns, he noted that, even though Muslims still voted for Gore over Bush, Gore only beat Bush by 10% among that demographic, whereas Clinton beat Dole by 50%. Mr. Iqbal explained Bush's increased appeal...

How he did that was basically, again, the Republicans were able to build a faith-based alliance with the Muslims. Also, I remember watching this debate in 2000. It was the second debate, and they asked a question about racial profiling of African Americans. And Bush talked about that and then he said Arab Americans are racially profiled in what's called "secret evidence". People are stopped, and we have to do something about that. So Bush spoke up against racial profiling in the debate, and supposedly this was a reason that a lot of Muslims went over to the Republican side, because Bush brought up the issue of racial profiling and he spoke against it.

Obviously, that trend was reversed in 2004, and the speaker said he did not see any poll in which Bush got more than 10% of the Muslim vote.

The following excerpt is from part 2, and addresses how Muslim voters responded to poll questions in 2004 on various "values" issues...

Should the influence of religion and moral values in public life increase in America?
85% said yes

Should people be allowed to take kids out of public schools and get school vouchers to send them to religious private schools?
Almost 66% agreed with that.

Should the public sale and display of pornography be allowed or disallowed?
Almost 76% want laws prohibiting or at least restricting the sale and display of pornography.

Should religious institutions be allowed to ask the government for money?
Almost 70% of Muslims agreed with that

Should it be legal for doctors to give people means to end their own lives?
Almost 65% of Muslims disagreed with that

All of these so far are issues where Muslims are closely aligned with White Evangelicals. Where they differ--

Should it be allowed to display the Ten Commandments?
Almost 45% of Muslims say no, while almost 80% of White Evengelicals want the public display of the Ten Commlandments.

Should nondenominational prayer be allowed in schools?
Almost half of Muslims opposed, White Evangelicals mostly supported.

Almost 65% of Muslims do want more research using stem cells.
Almost half would not allow same-sex marriage

Do you believe that there should be universal health care for all citizens?
96% in favor

Do you believe the government should be more generous with welfare?
92% in favor, even though as a percentage, very few Muslims need welfare

81% want more controls on guns
94% want more laws and regulations to control pollution and protect the environment, even at the cost of jobs

Should there be an increase in funding for after-school programs?
Almost 94% said yes. And this is where they really differ from the Evangelicals, who have an extreme mistrust of the public school system, do not agree with it, do not want it to be funded, while the Muslims, at least in 2004, do seem to like the public schools. They want to strengthen them, more after school programs, more teachers, and they are generally in support of public schools.

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