US Muslim vote

The journey of this season’s political campaigns has been more analogous to a soap opera than a US presidential election. With less than a week to go, polls reflect that the competition is growing closer than just a few days ago, by about four percentage points, in wake of a relaunching of investigations into Hillary Clinton’s alleged violation of US State Department email protocols, which has Donald Trump gloating. This would impact Electoral College votes as most states have a system where the electors take into account the popular vote in their respective states. Hence, the popular vote still matters — and this time, various groups comprising the minority vote have a greater role, including the US’ one per cent Muslim population. The candidates have caused distrust with Muslims as they have drawn a thin line between freedom of speech and hate vernacular, lowering Muslim morale.

Granted, some Republican values are more attuned with Islam’s conservative values but for Muslim Americans, protection for their race and rights is the most important concern as Trump’s rhetoric talks of marginalising and expelling minority groups, targeting Muslims specifically and reversing the conventional saying of “innocent until proven guilty” into “guilty until proven innocent” — if the opportunity to prove oneself “innocent” are even granted. The Muslim vote thus leans towards the Democrats but only as an option for the lesser of the two evils. While Muslims support the likes of slain Muslim US soldier’s father, Mr Khizr Khan, who has been encouraged by the Democrats, they do not trust Clinton. Albeit, the Democratic National Party’s complaint against the FBI’s Republican director over politically motivated action just days ahead of the election seems plausible. Clinton’s rhetoric of inclusion and equal rights for all groups is influencing the Muslim vote as right now, Muslims are looking for protection; aligning deeper values with political parties and candidates is secondary.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 3^rd, 2016.

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