Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The Arab-American Vote

According to a new Zogby poll, one-third of Arab-Americans reside in the five battleground states, and the majorities are voting for Obama - especially if they are Muslim.

There are 3.5 million Arab-Americans. They are 1% of the U.S. population and they comprise 5% of Michigan’s population. An article by Scott MacLeod in Time-Blog explores the findings of the Zogby International poll for the Arab-American Institute. Dr. James J. Zogby is founder and president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), so there appears to be a vested interest in the poll outcomes.

Arab-Americans were far more likely to support Obama if they were Muslim. Muslim respondents picked Obama over McCain by a whopping 84%-4%, while Orthodox Christians chose Obama by 47%-43% and Catholic Arab-Americans actually favored McCain over Obama, by 53% to 31%.

An analysis of the poll breakdown indicated that Obama’s lead was “somewhat soft” except among Muslims.

Arab-Americans were far more likely to support Obama if they were Muslim. Muslim respondents picked Obama over McCain by a whopping 84%-4%, while Orthodox Christians chose Obama by 47%-43% and Catholic Arab-Americans actually favored McCain over Obama, by 53% to 31%.

According to an article in CQ Politics, Arab –Americans and Muslim Americans are proud that Obama’s middle name is Hussein. Here is what Zogby told a crowd of Arab –Americans and Muslim Americans:

“Be proud of America when Barack Hussein Obama is nominated to be president of the United States,” James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute (AAI) and a former deputy campaign manager of Jesse Jackson’s 1984 presidential run, told the crowd between acts at a comedy club event Aug. 25 at Bar Standard.

See the Barack Obama Arab-American bumper stickers at Café Press


"All 3 of Obama's names are Arab. Obama is much more Arab than african so he really is the Arab American candidate. Arab's in America may now have representation. Israel is certainly well represented."

See Arab Americans For Obama

We are a community of Arab Americans who are working nationwide to elect Senator Barack Obama the next President of our nation. We believe in Senator Obama's message of hope, action and change. We believe that Senator Obama has the judgment to lead and the courage to renew America's promise.


See Aljazeera article Arab-Americans ‘backing Obama

This article by Barbara Sowell was originally published in Digital Journal, September 22, 2008.

Note: The following comment from DJ is interesting:

. . .take a look at Obama's individual donor page at the FEC. Just beginning with the "A's," I counted about 175 Middle-Eastern sounding names, and I attempting to narrow them to Arab names. I did not count any name with a Western-sounding given name.

For McCain - zero.

Obama's donor pages at the FEC are abysmally slow. McCain just whips along. It makes it very difficult to go on through the alphabet.


Now, I assume these people have every right to donate to Obama, and maybe they are not Muslim, but when we hear whites accused of racism if they don't vote for Obama, but huge numbers of blacks will vote for Obama, and not McCain, and huge numbers of Arabs will vote for Obama and not McCain, well...yes, his full name means something. The fact that one-half of his family is Muslim means something to a Muslim.

9 comments:

  1. These are things we need to be aware of and think about. Obama heritage means something.

    Good information and thanks for adding the comment.

    Maggie

    ReplyDelete
  2. They know him for what he is: A Muslim. For if he was really a Christian, they would be gunning for him as an apostate.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Arab-American vote?? Indeed...

    There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all. This is just as true of the man who puts “native” before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance. But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else. The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans, or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality than with the other citizens of the American Republic. The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American.

    ~Theodore Roosevelt~

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fred I agree that there should be no hyphenated Americans, but there are. As a matter of fact, we are becoming more and more fragmented with each religion and every ethnicity voting its own identity. The only folks not represented by the powers that be in Washington are Unhyphenated Americans. So isn’t it about time we got some representation? We are proud Unhyphenated Americans!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Actually Obama is Arab, not African American, so it's no wonder that he appeals to these voters. I never thought this particular group could or would have such a big affect on our election. We MUST defeat Obama.

    Debbie Hamilton
    Right Truth

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great article. It speaks volumes... it's the old "birds of a feather" analogy. We were warned, right after World War I, that they (communists) would destroy us from within using our own freedoms and any enemy of ours that served their purpose.

    Roosevelt knew of this threat and was right when he said, "There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism.... The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities..."

    To hell with hyphenated Americans. I'm sick of them.

    ReplyDelete
  7. GREAT article! I loved every last one of Zogby's words (certain to 'help' Barack Hussein Obama):

    "“Be proud of America when Barack Hussein Obama is nominated to be president of the United States,” James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute (AAI) and a former deputy campaign manager of Jesse Jackson’s 1984 presidential run, told the crowd between acts at a comedy club event (!!) Aug. 25 at Bar Standard." and

    ""All 3 of Obama's names are Arab. Obama is much more Arab than african so he really is the Arab American candidate. (!!) Arab's in America may now have representation. Israel is certainly well represented.""

    Thanks TexasFred for the Roosevelt passage. I read the whole thing before seeing it was written by Roosevelt. Talk about visionary.

    ReplyDelete
  8. So if I don't vote for Obama it means I'm anti-Arab now...this is all SO confusing. How about I just get back to not liking him because he's an unhinged socialist? There, all better now.

    ReplyDelete

Follow faultlineusa on Twitter