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Despite anti-imperial foreign policy position, Muslims divided over conservative presidential hopeful
With election season in full swing and the front runners for the Presidential seat making their way to the starting line, voters are beginning to get serious about where their loyalties lie.
This race, one candidate stands out for his vocal stance on foreign policy, a position that some believe is a selling point for the American Muslim community. However, Haris Tarin, Director of the Washington D.C. office of The Muslim Political Action Committee (MPAC), warns against relying only on rhetoric, citing the 2008 campaign of President Obama as a cautionary tale.
“When it comes to any elected official that the Muslim community looks at, we have to be able to look at the individual comprehensively and we have to be able to go beyond just the rhetoric,” said Tarin. “That is some of the disappointment that the Muslim American community felt around Obama.”
Longtime Ron Paul supporter and local political activist, Dr. Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad also believes that the previous presidential election can serve as a lesson when preparing for “Decision 2012.”
“The only advantage that we have seen in President Obama is one of phrasing. He speaks in a more judicious and evenhanded manner when he speaks about issues having to do with foreign policy that are of interest to Muslims. However his actions are virtually indistinguishable from the previous government,” said Ahmad.
The stark difference between the youthful Barack Obama who induced scores of chants for change and the quickly graying President Obama whose term accomplishments have been continuously questioned by even his most fervent supporters is not one that should come as a complete surprise said Tarin.
“A presidential candidate and an elected president are two different individuals.”
While Tarin believes this sentiment to be true of all candidates, including Ron Paul, Ahmad who ran for Senate on the Libertarian ticket in 1988 the year that Paul ran for President feels Paul has the knowledge to back his platform.
“Unlike George W. Bush, who didn’t understand foreign policy at all, Ron Paul has a much better grasp on foreign policy. He can call on good advisers but not be so enslaved to them,” said Ahmad.
Although Ahmad recognizes that Paul is unlikely to make it to the presidential elections, he is confident that if he were to somehow find himself on a ticket against Obama, he would be the biggest threat to the Obama reelection campaign over any other potential candidate.
In fact, one poll conducted by NBC News and the Marist College Institute of Public Opinion found Obama and Paul tied for support in a theoretical presidential election. Against all other candidates, Obama came out on top.
Another poll conducted by CNN and ORC International stated Obama as having a 52 percent to 45 percent advantage over both Mitt Romney and Ron Paul.
But will the American Muslim community rally behind Paul if given the opportunity to put him in the Oval office?
The Muslim Link newspaper surveyed its readers to get an idea of their opinion of Ron Paul’s political platform and if the opportunity arises, they would cast their presidential vote for Paul.
Of those polled, nearly 68 percent said they would vote for Paul, 18 percent said they would not and 14 percent said they were unsure of how they would vote.
Though nearly 65 percent of those polled agreed with Paul’s foreign policy stance, the majority stated that they simply did not know enough about the candidate’s other key platforms to make a decision. A striking commentary on the disparate awareness of Paul’s perspectives beyond foreign policy.
“This is where the challenge is. Ron Paul only speaks to our community on issues of foreign policy,” said Tarin. “This is just rhetoric, once you get into office the reality completely changes.”
Because Paul has been vocal on issues of foreign policy, Tarin believes the immigrant American Muslim community finds him of particular interest as they have a very real, vested interest in how U.S. policy shapes what happens “back home.” However, when it comes to the American Muslim population whose focus is primarily on domestic issues Tarin believes Paul’s past will quickly put him in a precarious position.
Melissa Fleming, a survey participant, said that while she did consider Ron Paul as a candidate she might have been able to support, she found that though he was vocal regarding Muslims, other comments he made in the past gave her pause and ultimately swayed her against the politician.
“As Muslims we are a group of people from many different continents, nations, countries and races. Ron Paul has made incendiary statements regarding African Americans and his super pack continues to make negative comments about one of the candidates because he decided to adopt an Asian child. It is not my belief that a person who finds it easy to make racist, stereotypical comments about some groups should be trusted with what they say about other groups. Is it okay if, lets just say, he doesn’t have a problem with perhaps Arab Muslims, but has a problem with Black or Asian Muslims?,” she wrote in response to the TML survey.
Paul has been facing intense criticism over controversial racist statements in newsletters published under his name in the 1980s and 1990s. As the contents of the newsletters have resurfaced in light of his presidential campaign, Paul has denied ever writing their contents. In a December 21st 2011 interview with CNN he reaffirmed his claim that he neither wrote nor was aware of the contents of the newsletters until some 10 years after they were written.
“I didn’t write them. I disavow them and that’s it,” said Paul.
Flemming is not convinced.
“The question is whether he is a good candidate for Muslims, well who are Muslims but individuals making up a group. He is a problem for some individuals in our grouping and therefore not a good candidate for Muslims,” she continued.
Other’s argue that many of his position are in line with issues of inherent interest to the American Muslim, particularly his stance on the Federal Reserve.
“He is for abolishing the Federal Reserve System and believe in going back to the gold standard. Paper money is fiat money. It is worthless and over time loses its value. To go to a gold standard is more Islamic as the early generations used gold, silver as a means of purchasing,” said Salman Sheikh of Silver Spring, Maryland.
While questions remain as to whether or not Paul is a potential candidate who can rally up strong Muslim support, his popularity in the general public appears undeniable, based on recent polls, and his stance on foreign policy remains a punctuation mark in his platform.
However, Ahmad is weary of the expectations of American Muslims when rallying support behind a candidate based on a single platform issue. Though voting is an essential step in shaping public policy, Ahmad believes that without a long term change in how the American Muslim community integrates from the ground up there will be little impact when it comes to truly seeing change in regards to issues of foreign policy that are of interest to Muslims.
“[The Jewish community was] discriminated against the way that Muslims are now but they didn’t just stand up and demand the United states establish Israel, they got involved on the grassroots and once they wanted to make the State, they already had a network in place,” said Ahmad.
Until Muslims establish themselves as politically involved members of the community, in addition to efforts to support the political candidates who share their views and perspectives, there is less chance of being truly influential in the policy making process regardless of the candidate or platform, he said.
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