American Muslims favor Kerry, shows survey

By: Mohamed Ali

NEW YORK: American Muslim voters are showing overwhelming support for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry over Republican George W. Bush.

A new US Muslim Poll, conducted by Zogby International for Georgetown University’s Muslims in the American Public Square (Project MAPS), found that Muslims support the Kerry/Edwards ticket over the incumbent Bush/Cheney ticket by a margin of 76 percent to 7 percent.

the Zogby pollsters said the overwhelming support for Kerry shows a dramatic change from the 2000 presidential election when the majority of Arab-Americans voted for Bush. But four years later, Bush has failed to capture even those Muslim voters who call themselves politically conservative.

The new poll shows a migration away from the Republican Party by Muslim voters. In 2001, 23 percent of Muslims identified themselves as Republicans while 40 percent called themselves Democrats and 28 percent independents. Now, only 12 percent call themselves Republicans while 50 percent of Muslims are Democrats.

The poll also found that American Muslims voters are becoming more vocal and active. Fifty-three percent of American Muslim voters believe Muslims should vote as a bloc for a presidential candidate.

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