David Swerdlick writes for The Root on “Star-Spangled” Muslims which encourages Muslims to display their patriotism (the article quotes Aziz’s piece on Musims in the military).
What stuck out to me about the piece was this sentence:
Most Muslims are conservative, patriotic and believe in the American Dream, but they don’t always say it out loud. Whether fair or unfair, now, more than ever, they should.
While much of that sentence sums up Mr. Swerdlick’s article, I fixated on the “conservative” part. What the heck is that supposed to mean in this context and what is the proof for an assertion that a community which voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama (and whose opinions are largely to the left of his) is mostly “conservative.”
Dan 12:31 pm on November 16, 2009 Permalink |
My guess is that the ‘conservative’ term meant that American Muslims tend to be socially conservative, according to the author?
Buzz 12:35 pm on November 16, 2009 Permalink |
Bush won the Muslim vote in 2000 on campaign promises and iftar appearances, SURPRISE! All his words and hand shakes were hollow.
Obama won the Muslim vote as a reaction to (there has to be some name to label this horrible 8 years (200-2008) in American History, the Dark Years…?) It wasn’t enough to help swiftboated Kerry in 2004 but the recognition of betrayal and change had occured by then.
aziz 12:41 pm on November 16, 2009 Permalink |
btw this is the best comment i ever received on a post at beliefnet:
i am “simply a nerd” – I love it!
lol
null 12:45 pm on November 16, 2009 Permalink |
I would guess that he meant conservative in terms of all the issues that come under the umbrella of “family values” and also in terms of drugs, abortion, euthanasia, gay marriage and probably – considering how well to do so much of the Muslim community in America is – also in terms of limited government and lower taxes which are all Conservative talking points.
I think the phenomenon of Obama’s popularity with the Muslims is explained in other ways and have more to do with his life story and personality than his actual politics. Most importantly: he isn’t Bush.
These are just my guesses as an outsider, as the situation here in Australia seems to be analogous – Right of centre on domestic issues. Left of centre on Foreign Policy.
Why do you feel that Muslim community’s opinions are to the left of Obama’s?
abunoor 3:10 pm on November 16, 2009 Permalink |
First of all, although estimates vary to a large extent, Black Americans are probably at least one third of American Muslims and they are almost universally on the left side of liberal. Like BlackAmericans generally, they may have socially conservative views on individual behavior but these do not translate to political positions. The two Muslim congressmen, both Blackamericans are good examples of this — both are liberal Democrats including on so called “social” issues.
The Muslim bloc vote for Bush is largely overemphasized by different people for their own purposes (I’ve done it many times myself!)
On foreign policy issues, American Muslims are on the far left of the American political spectrum. I don’t have time to look for survey data, but looking at Muslim organizations who are active in the public sphere, they are almost universally far to the left on immigration, far to the left on health care, far to the left on civil liberties issues.
There may be a few public policy issues where many or most Muslims might be thought of as to the right that you mentioned above but there has been no organized Muslim political advocacy on any of these issues that I am aware of…of course maybe people can point to specific examples I’ve forgotten or of which I am unaware.
Buzz 3:26 pm on November 16, 2009 Permalink |
These type of stories abound. It is either a popular myth only few have discovered (source?) or it is fact as reported:
This one from Christian Science Monitor
abunoor 3:44 pm on November 16, 2009 Permalink |
Buzz, when I say “overemphasized” I am not saying the whole thing is made up.
As someone active in the Muslim community at the time here in Chicago, believe me there was no groundswell of support for Bush in the Blackamerican community.
Yes, there was an endorsement of a bloc vote for Bush by a segment of immigrant political organizations and yes that endorsement was probably more persuasive to a certain segment of Muslims than any such move will ever be again (in part because it turned out in hindsight to be such a colossal blunder).
Even at the time, the stated grounds for the endorsement were extremely flimsy (but you’ll note were supposedly based on civil liberties concerns, normally a more liberal issue — although also an issue for some on the right). Bush was able to use the fact that people were already happy with government persecution of Muslims under Clinton to his advantage little did we know that what happened under Clinton would be childs play compared to what Bush would do after 9/11. (We had no way to know something like 9/11 would happen but should have known Bush would be no friend of ours in civil liberties.)
People argued that Muslim bloc vote was so successful and responsible for Bush winning because that was in their interests at the time. The fact that political groups made such claims is not evidence in itself. In an election like Florida 2000 which was so close and so important I can only imagine how many different groups must have claimed that they were responsible for the result.
It is also likely that some amount of unjustifiable anti-semitism towards Gore’s running mate, or possibly some justified fear of Lieberman tilting the U.S. even more towards Israel played a part in the election that people don’t like to talk about.
What I mean by overemphasized is that it did not reflect some kind of political ideology in the community at large at the time.
Still, I do actually agree that there was some segment of immigrant Muslims who were tempted by the small government/low taxes line of the Republicans and could also dress that up in some family values type language at the time. The community shifted since 2001 due to events, due to generational change, etc. etc. so much so that the ‘conservative’ tag is not true politically.
I don’t think I’m arguing against anything in the original article here, I just think the use of the word “conservative” was sloppy and not well thought it. I guess it carries some idea of socially conservative. Although many communities Black, Latino, White Ethnic, Midwestern, etc. etc. are often freely labeled as socially conservative but I’m not always sure what this really means.
Buzz 4:14 pm on November 16, 2009 Permalink |
I think the trends in immigration are Muslim lower classes, working class and refugees largely go to Europe while the educated and small business owners immigrate to the US. This makes sense since the US has virtually no public services or support. If you can’t stand on your own feet in the US, you will likely starve if you have no support group. A lot of Iraqi refugees are heading back to the Middle East from the US due to this.
I should look at the recent national Muslim polls to see what percentage of Muslim-American immigrants go to mosque or masjid every friday. I bet it is a fraction of what you would find in Europe. The professional class of immigrants to the US are not the group you are describing and they fit the typical republican MO.
abunoor 5:17 pm on November 16, 2009 Permalink |
Professional class of immigrants are not backing the Republicans however…they went overwhelmingly for Obama.
You are not wrong in your generalizations, but don’t forget they are generalizations about the differences between European and US Muslims.
I don’t think you are right about mosque attendance however. I don’t have precise numbers on mosque attendance, but the percentage of muslims who say religion is an important part of daily life is higher in the US than Britain and France.
Buzz 6:17 pm on November 16, 2009 Permalink |
Generalizations, yes. Granted. And old generalizations. Things change every couple of years, but there is the basic economic pressure that the US applies to live here which dictates who comes to live.
muffy 9:48 am on November 17, 2009 Permalink |
According to the polling data that Razib linked to on the gnxp site, the weekly Mosque attendance rate among American Muslims is 41 percent. That’s about the same as the weekly Church attendance rate among American Christians.
According to here, it’s 23 percent of French Muslims go to Friday prayers, and that’s an increase from what it used to be. According to here, only 29 percent of Dutch Muslims attend mosque at least once a month. According to here, 16 percent of British Muslims attend Friday prayers.
I don’t see any evidence to indicate that European Muslims are more religious than American Muslims. There is, however, significant evidence that American Christians are more religious than European Christians, so the Muslim/Christian religiosity gap is likely lower in the USA than Europe.
Importantly, the same data show that Muslims in the USA are more likely to be employed than Muslims in Europe. I think a lot of the problem with integration is economic, not just cultural or religious.
abunoor 5:23 pm on November 16, 2009 Permalink |
Here’s some more data on that question, including the low mosque attendance in France. This source basically concludes that mosque attendance in western countries is roughly equivalent to church attendance among christians in those countries. This would contradict the common perception/fear that european muslims are much more religious than their christian counterparts. (although there is increased religious observance among the generation of muslims born in the west noted in the surveys)
abunoor 5:23 pm on November 16, 2009 Permalink |
Sorry, here’s the link.