The Mobilizer: 'Go From Being a Liability To Be An Asset'
Weeks before voters hit the polls in the 2004 presidential election, Muslim-American leaders were made the punchline of a comedy sketch on "Saturday Night Live." The laugh line, set up by Tina Fey, then-anchor of the recurring faux-newscast "Weekend Update," was harmless and playful -- it wasn’t so much a joke as an uncomfortable truth.
“Several major American Muslim groups gave their endorsement to John Kerry this week,” Fey said.
“In response, Kerry was like, ‘Aw, no, really, thanks, I'm good. Thanks, though. Thank you.’”
That sketch, and the entire climate around the 2004 election, was telling of the lagging social and political capital that the Muslim community had been able to build up since 9/11, said Khurrum Wahid, a prominent attorney.
“That was a joke because Muslim groups were really seen as a liability,” Wahid recalled of the "SNL" sketch. “How do we go from being a liability to be an asset?”
Wahid soon started Emerge USA, a nonprofit aimed at mobilizing Muslim-, Indian-, Pakistani- and Arab-Americans, registering them to vote and become politically active within the community.
Political engagement is an arena where Muslim-Americans lag behind the rest of the general public. Two-thirds of U.S. citizens who identify as Muslim (66 percent) said they are certain they are registered to vote, according to a 2011 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center. By comparison, that share is closer to 79 percent of the general public that is registered to vote.
Wahid said his organization’s sights are still in the future, but he’s already seeing the shift in his own college-age children today.
“I believe that Muslims are in a state of fighting for their survival,” Wahid said. “My daughter barely recognizes that. From her perspective, the big issues are class warfare and the differences between the haves and the have nots.”