Will 80 percent of American Muslims vote for Bush again?

In quoting the examples that "more than 80 percent of Muslims across the US cast their votes for Bush" and that in "Florida, a whopping 91 percent of Muslims voted for Bush" in the 2000 US presidential election, Oon Yeoh in his Transitions blog

tried to support his view that many Muslim Americans share Dr Malik Hasan's pro-Bush stance .

Maybe Yeoh is not aware of the fact that traditionally in the US, the Democrats are known to be more pro-Israel than the Republicans. This fact alone probably explains why during the 2000 election, Muslim Americans overwhelmingly cast their votes for Bush, hoping that the policies o­n the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will be more even-handed than those of the past administrations under the Democrats.

Let us review the Middle-East policies of the current administration since President Bush came into office:

  • March 27, 2001: US vetoed UN Security Council resolution calling for UN observers force in West Bank, Gaza.
  • Dec 15, 2001: US vetoed, for the second time in 2001, a UN Security Council resolution that condemned acts of terror, demanded an end to violence and the establishment of a monitoring mechanism to bring in observers.
  • April 19, 2002: President Bush called Ariel Sharon, who is found personally responsible by the Israeli Kahan commission for the Sabra and Chatilla massacres, a "man of peace".
  • May 1, 2002: Former House Majority leader Dick Armey (from President Bush's own Republican Party and his home state of Texas) publicly advocated o­n national TV the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The response from President Bush was a deafening silence.
  • Dec 21, 2002: US vetoed UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel for the deaths of UN workers in the occupied territories. A full 12 of the 15 members of the Security Council - including the other four veto-wielding permanent members, Britain, China, France and Russia - supported the resolution.

A permanent fixture o­n the American Muslim Alliance website, from which Yeoh quoted the survey that showed "more than 80 percent of Muslims across the US cast their votes for Bush", is part of the text from UN Security Council Resolution 242, which specifically called for the "withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict".

Based o­n the clearly pro-Israel policies from Bush administration regarding the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which undoubtedly is o­ne of the prime concerns of Muslim Americans, do you think the figures Yeoh quoted from the last US presidential election still stand when there's another survey asking Muslim Americans if they will be voting for Bush in the next election?

Unlikely.