Minnesota Muslims “waking up” and expect to make gains in voting today

From NPR:

Muslims Hope To ‘Wake Up’ At The Ballot Box This Year

On a recent Saturday afternoon in an office in St. Paul, Minn., a flurry of calls went out to Native American and Latinos voters reminding them to vote Nov. 6. And there was a new group added to the list: Muslims.

Until last year, ISAIAH, a multi-racial coalition of faith communities in Minnesota, was mostly made up of churches. Now, 24 mosques have joined the voter turnout effort. The group is focused on getting communities of color to vote this year in reaction to what it describes as politics of fear and a rise of white nationalism.

 

Ellison and Imam Asad Zaman
Pals! Imam Asad Zaman (left) with Rep. Keith Ellison.  Will Ellison be Minnesota’s next Attorney General after today?

 

With Muslims and immigrants used as boogeymen in political rhetoric, Imam Asad Zaman, executive director of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, said, getting his community to the ballot box is vital. Zaman is leading the local Muslim effort to get out the vote and has been a leader on political engagement in the community for more than 15 years.

And there are more Muslims now running for office, hoping to be part of a “blue wave.” In Minnesota, nine Muslims are on the ballot for state, federal and local offices.

“Many candidates running for office are using Islamophobia as a means to get to political power. That is absolutely un-American,” Zaman said. “The community is under assault. Fortunately, most of us are beginning to wake up.”

The community is under assault. Fortunately, most of us are beginning to wake up.

(Imam Asad Zaman)

He points out that in Minnesota there are 50,000 registered Muslim voters. Though Muslims make up a small voting bloc — they’re about one percent of the nation’s population — those votes can matter in close elections. Many feel a renewed sense of urgency to choose leaders that will represent them.

[….]

About two-thirds of Muslim voters identify as Democrats according to the Pew Research Center and about 13 percent as Republican.

Muslim populations growing in key battleground states

“What’s interesting is that they are clustered in key areas including battleground states such as Virginia, Florida, Michigan, Ohio and especially in urban areas,” Alzayat says. “So, for example you have about 120,000 registered Muslim voters in the state of Michigan. You have about 120,000 registered in Florida. You have about 100,000 registered in Virginia and those numbers really matter because in close elections … just a few votes can make a difference let alone tens of thousands, if not 100,000.”

It is a long ‘glowing’ story, read more here.

I have a huge Minnesota archive, go here if you have some time to read!

RRW is on twitter and facebook

This is a little housekeeping post for new readers, and maybe some longtime readers too!

First, if you subscribe to RRW and read my posts on your computer or phone and never visit RRW, you are missing a lot.

What prompted me to write this post is a comment from a new reader telling me that I needed to get my posts out on twitter and facebook.  I can only assume it is because there is no sharing button on those subscription e-mails, WHICH ARE CONTROLLED AND SENT BY WORDPRESS and not me, that my new reader doesn’t know how to share my posts.

Here (below) is a screenshot of a portion of a page at RRW from earlier this week.

 

RRW front page
Notice that each post on the site has a sharing feature at the bottom

 

Notice that each post on the site has a sharing feature at the bottom. 

Also see that I have a facebook page you can access at left.  These days it is mostly maintained by a friend. At facebook here.  ‘Refugee Info Resource’ has 49,000 likes.

And here (below) is just a bit of my twitter page from yesterday.  I do more tweeting than I do posting on facebook.  Even if you aren’t on twitter you can see my twitter feed in the right hand sidebar at RRW itself.

So I suggest you visit RRW directly each day by clicking the link below. The newest posts appear at the top and as you scroll down you can see all of my posts going back eleven years!

https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/

 

RRW twitter page screen
Follow me @RefugeeWatcher

 

By the way, you may see my posting here at RRW slow down a little this month.  I have a lot going on, but I do plan to tweet daily.

This post is filed in my category simply called ‘blogging’ where you will find other posts from me over the years about the logistical aspects of this work and how to get the most out of visits to RRW.