Obama Strategy for Muslims
Obama campaign strategy toward Muslims is shortsighted June 27, 2008 By Junaid M. Afeef Many Muslim voters love Sen. Barack Obama. It seems Obama does not have quite as much affection for his Muslim supporters. Muslim voters support Obama for many reasons, but a shared faith is not one of them. Muslim voters know Obama is Christian. That does not matter. What does matters to many Muslim voters are his life experiences, his worldview and his position on a myriad of domestic issues. When Muslim voters look at Obama, they see a leader who will restore civil liberties. In him they see a president who values diplomacy, and as one young Muslim professional commented on a listserv, they see someone who will bring an "informed international perspective." Muslim voters look at Obama and they hope that, as a person of color who has experienced racism in his life, he will be sensitive to bigotry and bias in all of its manifestations, including racism, anti-semitism and Islamophobia. Reg