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AMP Report – October 31, 2007
Arab Americans seeking a say in 2008 election
The Arab American Institute held a National Leadership Conference (Oct. 26-28) in Dearborn, Michigan, that attracted over 600 Arab Americans from across the country.
Participants heard directly from many of the presidential candidates: Democratic candidates Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich and Bill Richardson spoke at the conference. None of the top three Democratic candidates for the White House attended in person. Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama addressed the conference via video messages. Republican candidate Ron Paul was the only Republican hopeful who addressed the conference.
“On the Republican side it says that their debate is moving in such a negative direction that they simply are not, most of them, in a position to come before this audience,” said James Zogby, founder and president of the American Arab Institute. “They have been building themselves up rhetorically and politically in such a hostile direction on these issues that I think it would be difficult.”
The Republicans are likely to pay a heavy cost in the Arab-American community, the leaders said, for positions that have alienated Arab-Americans, many of whom are nominally Republicans and supported President Bush in 2000. That support ebbed, largely, over issues of civil liberties, national security and the Iraq war.
Ron Paul, the lone Republican to address the gathering, said other Republicans missed an opportunity. “Why do they think people from the Middle East, who have become American citizens and that are voting, are unimportant?”
Paul called for “a return to the Constitution and protecting civil liberties” and for a foreign policy based less on making war than “talking to other nations.” “If Kennedy could talk to Khrushchev in 1962 at the height of the Cold War, why can’t we talk to people?” Paul said. “We certainly ought to be able to talk to Third World nations that don’t even have nuclear weapons.
“The talk about the war against Islamic fascism—whatever that is supposed to be,” said Paul who is running a campaign that stresses grass-roots organization. “I am not worried about that war—whatever it is. I am worried about the war that will ensue after the bombs start falling on Iran.”
Democrat Mike Gravel, a former U.S. senator from Alaska, gave a blistering critique of the state of American politics. “We failed in education. We failed in health care. We’re warmongers in the world,” Gravel said. “We failed and who do we blame? Those Latinos who want to come over the border to make a living and give their families a life.”
Gravel also criticized the conduct of the war in Iraq. “Oh, we have this trouble with al-Qaida,” Gravel said. “Let’s go halfway around the world to kill thousands of people—I am ashamed.“Seventy percent of Iraqis want Americans to leave. Eighty percent say it’s all right to kill Americans. What do American leaders say? We’re there to protect the people. How absurd!”
“If you want to keep the country the kind of country you want it to be … you need to be involved in politics, support candidates and run for offices,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, a former presidential candidate, told the participants.
Senator John E. Sununu
Senator John E. Sununu, a Republican from New Hampshire and a Lebanese American, told the candidates “it really isn’t enough to appreciate the background, the heritage, the culture that we share. You’ve really got to apply it every day, especially when you are in office.”
“You have to focus on the ways our community can bring a different perspective, different values, to the issues you will be asked to deal with every single day,” he said. “You really can’t let up.”
Sununu told those working on campaigns that they play an important role by providing candidates with the information and education necessary to do their jobs.
That role is important “if we are going to be strong and successful as a community and really make a difference on issues,” Sununu said. “Not just at the local level or the state level or the national level, but on a global level as well.”
James Zogby
“Arab Americans have a special role to play,” said James Zogby, founder and president of the institute, based in Washington, D.C. “We want to make America better, stronger, safer, freer, more secure, and we feel that our candidates ought to be hearing from us to improve the standing of our country.”
In 2000 and 2004, the presidential candidates competed for Arabs’ vote, especially in Michigan. Southeastern Michigan has the country’s most visible and influential Arab-American community.
In October 2000, Republican candidate George W. Bush expressed concern that Arab Americans were being racially profiled and unfairly targeted by prosecutors. But in this election, some candidates are warning about what they see as the growing threat of Islamic extremism abroad and in the United States. Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani has drawn criticism from some Arab Americans for having anti-Arab advisers.
Zogby said the voices of Arab Americans are needed now more than ever. “We’re like the canary in the coal mine,” he said. “You want to know how we’re doing in the Middle East? Ask Arab Americans.” If the U.S. government had listened to Iraqi Americans, the situation there might be better today, Zogby said.
Yalla Vote campaign
The conference launched "Our Voice. Our Future. Yalla Vote 08" campaign.
At the opening of a three-day national conference Arab-Americans were urged to leverage their political strength by concentrating on issues that are important to them, yet transcend ethnic groups—and to begin working on major issues by participating in local politics.
”The burden of reaffirming American values falls on us,” said James Zogby of the Arab American Institute, an organizer of the conference.
Community and political leaders, both Arab and non-Arab, offered advice to those interested in making a difference in their communities. They stressed the importance of participating in local politics by showing up for school board and town hall meetings, getting involved with a political party or running for office.
Arab-American political candidates for all levels of office came to the conference to network and learn from those who already have won campaigns. Helping these candidates is an “opportunity to show that we support them regardless of party,” said Rebecca Abou-Chedid, AAI’s national political director.
Conference sessions taught Arab-American activists about crafting a political message, running effective voter-registration drives, targeting voters, making telephone calls to prospective voters and supporters, and “the kind of unglamorous but nitty-gritty work of daily politics,” said Abou-Chedid.
Although these jobs might seem tedious, learning these skills sends a national message that the Arab-American community is serious about political involvement, Abou-Chedid said.
“It is important to gather as a national group because you exchange stories, you exchange experiences,” Abou-Chedid said. “It is always neat to have someone from western Pennsylvania tell a story to someone in southern California about what they are doing and the person goes back to California and applies it at home.”
The conference also provided an opportunity for Arab-American voters to discuss and debate issues that are important to them, such as Middle East peace, the economy, civil liberties and immigration.
The host town, Dearborn, Michigan is one of the largest concentrations of Arab Americans in the country.
(Source AAI/AP/Detroit News/ Detroit Free Press/ USINFO)
Read more about the conference:
http://www.aaiusa.org/press-room/3383/presidential-candidates-prominent-officials-address-aais-national-leadership-conference
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