More Attention Paid to Muslim Vote

October 21, 2000

Source: Omaha World-Herald

On October 21, 2000, the Omaha World-Herald reported that "Much attention has been paid in recent years to the voting patterns of Jews (overwhelmingly Democrat), evangelical Christians (overwhelmingly Republican) and Catholics (all over the map). But hardly anyone has collected data on the voting preferences of the nation's Muslims - a growing group that could decide close elections in swing states such as Michigan, where there is a large Muslim population. The Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C., attempted to fill that gap last month with a survey of the presidential preferences of Muslim voters. The results were surprising, said council spokesman Ibrahim Hooper. Forty percent of the 1,022 respondents said they would vote for Republican George W. Bush. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader was second with 25 percent. Democrat Al Gore was the choice of 24 percent of respondents. Eight percent remained undecided. It was a turnaround from a similar survey the council conducted in June, which showed Gore in the lead and Nader a distant third. The September survey paralleled a recent Zogby poll of Arab Americans in which 40 percent of respondents said they would vote for Bush while 28 percent said they would vote for Gore. Nader drew 15.5 percent while another 14.6 percent remained undecided. The poll was commissioned by the Arab American Institute in Washington, D.C."