Source: World Religion News – April 1, 2016

By Elisa Meyer

Reema Ahmad, the director of Project Mobilize, a political action nonprofit organization dedicated to the betterment of Muslim American community, understands the importance of this year’s U.S. Presidential election. Nowadays, she regularly stands outside mosques for the purpose of recruiting new Muslim voters, and to convince potential voters to register by making them understand what is at stake this election.

Her strategy to make the reluctant voters listen to her is by just wondering aloud what would happen if Donald Trump becomes the President of America. This usually gets her almost everybody’s attention. According to Ms. Ahmad, if you are not at the dinner table, you are on the menu.

In the United States, only 1% of the total population constitutes Muslims. However, it has not discouraged the civil rights groups, and organizations like the CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations), the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations, and the Islamic Circle of North America in their effort to register as many Muslim voters as possible.

In fact, CAIR and the other organizations are urging the mosques to turn themselves into voter registration centers. It is their aim to register at least one million new voters by November. The Muslim population is higher in states like Florida and Ohio. The Muslim organizations and the civil rights groups are hoping for that potential tilt that may swing the election in their favor, with their 1% Muslim votes. Registration is expected to drive up in the month of June, during the Ramadan festival period.

According to Ibrahim Hooper, a CAIR spokesman, there has never been a period in the American history, when the apprehension and fear in the U.S. Muslim community have been this high. Recently, there has been an increase in violence towards Muslims and mosques. As per the parents of Muslim children, their kids are being bullied at school. Websites like Creeping Sharia are openly criticizing the participation of Muslims in American politics, in the wake of Muslim organization’s voter registration campaigns.

It is not only Trump who is going against Muslims, nowadays. Even Ted Cruz is making headlines with his controversial proposals. In the wake of the ISIS terrorist attacks in Brussels last week, Cruz demanded that the authorities patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods.

Naeem Baig, President of the Islamic Circle of North America, said that the fitting answer to all these anti-Muslim sentiments is getting more engaged in the political process.