Muslims charge they are being scapegoated

Both candidates in the New York Senate contest have refused to meet with Arabs. Is that really the way to court the Jewish vote?

By Anthony York

Nov 2, 2000 | In a move likely to send shock waves through New York's Senate race, a local chapter of the American Muslim Alliance is expected to endorse Hillary Clinton on Friday, according to a source close to the group. The alliance has already endorsed Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush.

"This is the first that we're hearing of this and we would not accept such an endorsement if it were offered," said Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson. "This is an organization that has made statements counter to the things that Hillary believes in. If you look at the AMA's Web site, there is a statement on there indicating the belief that armed violence is an acceptable political tool."

Last week, Clinton returned a $50,000 donation from the group, in addition to a $1,000 donation from Abdurahaman Alamoudi, former executive director of the American Muslim Council. Alamoudi has made recent statements voicing support of the Arab terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. But the AMA is considered a more mainstream political group. That hasn't stopped her opponent Rick Lazio from calling the alliance's contribution "blood money."

Contributing to the appearance of hypocrisy on this issue is a letter discovered online by Salon, sent by Clinton to open the American Muslim Alliance's 1998 convention.

"As I have traveled throughout this country and around the world, I have learned that in too many places individuals are blocked from participating fully in the political lives of their countries," Clinton wrote in the letter. "We choose not to hear the voices of many; and in too many places, there are those who never learn to project their voices. I commend you for your efforts to encourage others to work to make their voices heard in the present and for the future. Please accept my best wishes for a wonderful convention."

But this year, rather than criticizing Lazio for baiting and stereotyping Arab-Americans, candidate Clinton has been complicit in the complete isolation of Arab voters in New York.

"Since the 1950s in Alabama, we haven't seen a situation where an entire group of voters become disenfranchised during a campaign," said Jim Zogby, director of the Arab-American Institute in Washington. "In an election as close as this, where everyone else is being courted, [Arab voters] are being told, 'We don't care how close it is, we don't need or want your support.'"

Zogby saved some of his harshest criticism for the New York Republican Party for making 500,000 phone calls last weekend linking Arab and Muslim political groups to the terrorist attack on the USS Cole. He also lambasted Lazio for refusing to criticize the phone calls. "They've done this phone calling stuff which is really dangerous, because it amounts to the act of incitement," Zogby said.

But he added that Clinton has simply played into Lazio's hands by returning the donation from the alliance, at the expense of isolating New York's Arabs. "I would say when it first happened I was very offended by her decision to do this. The problem is not the response of giving the money back. The problem is that throughout the campaign, she has not met once with Arab-Americans in the state."

Leaders in the Jewish community have also been eerily silent as this outrageous scapegoating of Arabs continues. When asked to comment on the story, a spokesman for the Anti Defamation League refused, saying they did not involve themselves in political issues. When reminded that the group had voluntarily knuckle-rapped Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Lieberman for talking too much God on the stump, the spokesman still demurred.

Next Page: No apologies from Lazio

• View blog reactions