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91
SAIS Review
vol. XXI, no. 2 (Summer-Fall 2001)
 A
lthough Muslims have been in the United States for more than a century, they have mostly lived on the margins of its politicallife. On the one hand, their small numbers, ethnic diversity, and lackof experience in playing the democratic game have impeded theirpolitical integration. On the other hand, the inertia of traditional American antipathy toward Arabs and Muslims and the political andreligious domestic interests of both the Zionist lobby and theChristian Right have managed to keep them out of the mainstream.
1
Their reluctance to participate in the democratic process was finally put aside during the 2000 presidential election, when a coalition of  Arab-American and Muslim political action groups launched a voterregistration drive, endorsed the Bush-Cheney ticket, and contributedfinancially to the Republican party.
2
While the community isgathering statistics at the instigation of Governor Jeb Bush on how many Muslims voted in Florida, they continue to believe that they were the margin of difference that delivered the presidency. (Accordingto some estimates, over two thirds of Arab and Muslim voters casttheir ballot for the Republican ticket, including 90 percent of theMuslim voters of Florida, estimated at over 70,000.)
 
They have alsobeen credited with a higher voter turnout than the general Americanelectorate.Their elation at their success in making a difference is beingslowly dissipated as they face a continuation of the policies of thepast. These policies were defined and pursued during the last threedecades according to “American security” and “national interests” by both Republican and Democratic administrations. These interests
 Yvonne Haddad is Professor of History of Islam and of Christian-Muslim Rela-tions at Georgetown University. She is a past president of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA).
Muslims in U.S. Politics:Recognized and Integrated, orSeduced and Abandoned?
Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad
 
92
SAIS Review
S
UMMER 
-F
 ALL
2001are, primarily, access to the oil from the Arabian Peninsula and thesecurity of Israel, and, secondarily, human rights, minority rights,women
’
s rights, religious rights, and democracy. Their leadershipcontinues to feel optimistic that Arabs and Muslims can make thedifference in critical states in future elections and that their votescan no longer be taken for granted by either political party since they demonstrated that they can vote as a bloc. Some in the rank and file,though, are increasingly feeling jilted by the Bush-Cheney administration, which courted them during the campaign. Oneeditorial in a national Muslim publication out of California thatplayed a major role in building a coalition to support the Bush-Cheney ticket reads:
“
Mr. Bush is no different than other politicians who makepromises only to break them, and who will say anything to achievepower in order to serve the agenda of their special interest groups.
”
3
The Muslim Mosaic
There are an estimated six million Muslims dispersed throughoutthe United States, with concentrations on the two coasts and in theMidwest. The community is noted for its diversity. It includesimmigrants who chose to move to the United States for economic,political, and religious reasons as well as
é
migr
é
s, asylum seekers, andrefugees from over sixty nations manifesting a variety of ethnic, racial,linguistic, religious, political, tribal, and national identities. But notall are recent immigrants; 35 percent of all Muslims in the UnitedStates are African-Americans.Muslim immigrants to the United States have brought withthem diverse national identities and allegiances to different ideologiesranging from local to regional nationalism to socialism. Those whoemigrated in the 1980s from the Middle East brought with them a different identity, one that is fashioned by the bitter experience of the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967, 1973, and 1982, as well as the civil warin Lebanon. They have given up on Arab nationalism and subscribeto some form of Islamic identity. A small minority favors
“
Islamism
”
as the only means of fostering unity and strength to overcome divisionand what they perceive as the incessant efforts by their enemies toundermine Islam and Muslims. They share a common worldview withimmigrants from South Asia who identify with the Islamist group
 Jamaati Islami
(Islamic Group) active in Bangladesh, India, andPakistan.The diversity evident in the different waves of migration and intheir economic, educational, and class differences is exacerbated by 
 
M
USLIMS
 
 AND
U.S. P
OLITICS
93other realities. For instance, Iranians tend to be hostile to Islamisttendencies, since they emigrated when Khomeini came to power.Furthermore, the community varies in its political perceptions alongother lines, the most important of which is the divide between theimmigrants who are generally interested in foreign policy issuesrelated to Muslim countries and the African-American Muslims whoare focused on domestic economic issues. The difference was mostapparent during the Gulf War. Warith D. Mohammed, the leader of the largest African-American Muslim group, was the only Muslimleader to support the U.S. policy. This difference was also evidentduring the last election, when the African-American Muslimsrefrained from endorsing the Bush-Cheney ticket.
The Political Adjustment of Muslims to the United States
The earliest immigrants were few in number and came to the UnitedStates when racism was paramount and when policymakers had a professed preference for Caucasians and for
“
 Anglo
”
conformity. Ittook several court cases in the 1920s to determine that Arabs wereeligible to become citizens. Muslim immigrants from South Asia werestill deemed unfit. Those who chose to settle here underwent the same Americanization process followed by millions of immigrants whopassed through Ellis Island. They were eager to belong and considered American culture compatible with Muslim concepts of virtue andhonor, emphasizing the similarities between Islam and Christianity.The Muslim immigrants who arrived after the 1960s came to a different United States, one that had passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Immigration Act of 1965.They came at a pivotal point in U.S. history, when the country wasnot comfortable with the definition of itself any more, and wasopening itself to hyphenated identities as well as to the potential of becoming a multi-cultural society. The repeal in 1965 of a series of laws that had excluded Asians from immigrating to the United Statesresulted in a large inflow of highly educated Asian Muslims who havecontributed to U.S. dominance in the medical and technologicalfields. They found unacceptable the assimilation with U.S. culturethat earlier immigrants had made. They emphasized difference anddistinctiveness as the marks of being Muslim, and saw them as themeans of ensuring the survival of the community and theperpetuation of their faith in the next generation.Two events in the twentieth century have had a profound impacton Muslim involvement in the U.S. political process: the 1967 Israelipre-emptive strike against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan and the Gulf War.
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