Muslims aim for political capital – use religion to get it

Is Islam a religion? If so, then isn’t raising $10,000 by a Muslim group for a political candidate a violation of IRS laws? Shouldn’t Andre Carson and Keith Ellison be well aware of such laws and the Bill of Rights?

Excluding the IRS issues though, it should now be clear that Islam is much more than just a ‘religion’. It is also a political, legal (sharia), and military system as well.

So what is it exactly that Muslims in the U.S. don’t have, can’t do, that Muslim politicians like Ellison continue to stress the need to take over political institutions to “improve” the lives of Muslims? The article below indicates those who partied with Carson where professionals and Ivy League graduates and dropped $10K in one night so it can’t be money. Could it be sharia law? The convergence of state and religion? Following the Brotherhood’s plan of “eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within?”

As witnessed at the Tyson chicken plant, when Muslims become the majority, they vote out American tradition and values, and replace them with Islamic, sharia laws.

Muslims aim for political capital | IndyStar.com | The Indianapolis Star.

POWELL, Ohio — U.S. Rep. Andre Carson showed up Saturday night at a home in this affluent Columbus, Ohio, suburb as a candidate among strangers. He left with some of the best friends a freshman congressman could have.

About 40 Muslims from Ohio and across the country came to talk with Carson, D-Indianapolis, over tacos and refried beans.

Just after sunset, with the evening sky aglow behind him, Carson stood on the patio to tell the group about the importance of Muslims being engaged in politics.

“This is a new day today,” Carson said. “This is a day to be proud as Americans and as Muslims.”

The crowd, heavy with professionals and Ivy League grads, then opened their checkbooks for Carson’s campaign to the tune of more than $10,000.

It was a fitting end to a day that might come to be seen as the moment when a new “Muslim political machine” mobilized in America.

That was how it was billed more than once Saturday in downtown Columbus, where the Plainfield-based Islamic Society of North America has been holding its 45th annual convention this weekend.

Aside from looking to the start of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that begins today, one of the primary themes for the convention has been politics — appropriate for an event tucked between the Democratic and Republican conventions.

The wildly popular running mates atop the Muslim ticket these days are U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., who in 2006 became the first Muslim elected to Congress, and Carson, whose election this spring made him the second.

Both were swarmed by autograph-seekers and people with camera phones wanting a picture.

But they are seen as rare signs of hope for a Muslim American community that saw the modest political capital it had built over decades collapse with the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001.

These days, Muslims find their political standing so low that some candidates who are taking their cash refuse to be publicly photographed with them.

A key Muslim elections task force will not endorse Democrat Barack Obama — despite nearly universal support for him in Powell — for fear it could do him harm.

And Obama himself has left some Muslims smarting after his campaign awkwardly removed two veiled Muslim women from the background of a campaign event earlier this year.

It hasn’t helped that Obama has been working to convince people he is not a Muslim from the perspective that such rumors are considered a smear tactic.

In this backdrop, Muslim leaders from the Islamic Society and other groups met with several government agencies to speak of frustrations with such issues as being hassled by airport security and the constant barrage of Internet sites devoted to allegations that every Muslim group and every Muslim leader is a terrorist sympathizer.

In this noxious environment, Muslims see grass-roots political activism as the key to a better future.

“We must play a role in setting the agenda in the United States,” said Agha Saeed, chairman of a coalition of Muslim groups focusing on the election.

Sessions here for Muslim clergy and other community leaders offered tips on registering voters, creating Muslim voter guides and mobilizing the faithful to go to the polls. One suggestion was to take caravans of voters to the polls for early voting after Friday prayers Oct. 24, more than a week ahead of the election.

Other Muslims took part in forums on how to form political action committees and how to make the most of their campaign contributions.

No more should Muslims throw money at any candidate willing to visit the mosque, said Khurrum Wahid, a Miami attorney with the Center for Voter Advocacy. Instead, they should scrutinize platforms before making invitations and watch candidate voting records after contributions are made. Elected officials, he said, should know Muslims by name.

“If you don’t ask for a return on your investment dollars,” Wahid said, “you are not a very good citizen.”

The idea widely discussed here is not just to win a few seats but to create a farm team of future Muslim candidates who can influence party platforms and run for higher office after getting some experience.

Ellison suggested ISNA devote an entire day to something akin to a candidate school at next year’s convention, to be held over the Fourth of July weekend in Washington, D.C.

He also proposed the creation of a database of politically active Muslims that could be provided to Muslim candidates across the country, as he did for Carson.

Muslims were urged to vote in every obscure local race and run as candidates for offices as humble as the school board and party offices.

“We need more Muslim precinct committeemen. We need more Muslim city council members. We need Muslim mayors, Muslim governors and Muslim congressmen,” Carson told an audience of 900 at one of the politics workshops. “We need more of a Muslim presence in public office.”

Heeding the call is Hendricks County Council candidate Shejea Khan, 21, who said she was inspired to become a candidate by Ellison’s calls for more Muslim activism.

Khan, a Democrat, faces an uphill battle to win an at-large seat in a heavily Republican county. But winning, she said to a huge ovation, should be only one goal, along with changing attitudes about Muslims.

“Even if we don’t win, we still get our name out there,” she said.

In his appearances with secular audiences in Indianapolis, Carson has moved quickly past discussion of Islam to focus more on the “universality” of his beliefs.

But at the convention and the evening fundraiser, he greeted fellow Muslims with the traditional Islamic greeting “assalamu alaikum,” or “peace be upon you.”

He admits that wouldn’t play well in a union hall, but he’s also been known to greet Jews with a friendly “shalom.”

Carson shared one of the challenges he faced as a Muslim candidate: 10 Christian pastors in Indianapolis said they would oppose him because of his faith. One pastor, Carson said, made it clear that he would make trouble for Carson unless he was paid off. Carson didn’t pay and didn’t name the pastor. Other pastors, he said, embraced his candidacy.

More than $200,000 of the $1.3 million Carson has raised this year has come from Muslims.

Carson has been welcomed at private Muslim fundraisers in California, New York and Florida, to name a few.

Ahmer and Samar Ahmad, hosts of the meet-and-greet in Powell, have been reading about Carson. And they like what they see.

Because they had many relatives and friends in town for the ISNA convention, they agreed to throw together the fundraiser at the last minute.

Both American-born children of Pakistani immigrants, the Ahmads said they are big believers in supporting Muslim candidates.

“My parents came here in the late ’60s and ’70s and have worked really hard to give us a great life. But it has been about building our religious institutions,” said Ahmer, 33.

“The time has come now to build the American civic involvement.”
Call Star reporter Robert King at (317) 444-6089
Related:
It seems to be all the rage -via Atlas Shrugs Separation of Mosque and State: Obama voter drives in mosques and via NIN ISNA’s Illegal Endorsement of Obama and Obama’s Illegal Campaign Presence at ISNA’s National Convention

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