According to the Washington Post columnist Petula Dvorak, Presidential GOP candidate Donald Trump has actually inspired tens of thousands of Muslim-Americans to… vote against him, and anticipates as much this Super Tuesday.
“We’re organizing phone banks. We are getting people registered to vote. We’re telling them how important their voices are,” says Abdul Rashid Abdullah, who is helping run a civic-engagement meeting at a Virginia mosque in the city of Sterling.
According to the Council on American Islamic Relations, reports of hate attacks against U.S. mosques tripled last year. Hate crimes are also known to spike during election years. “This rise of Islamophobia [has] inspired our activism,” says Remaz Abdelgader, 22, a George Mason University student and Bernie Sanders’ volunteer.
According to Ms. Dvorak, American Muslims can take back their power and make a difference at the ballot box, especially since “one of their major population centers happens to be in a battleground state — Virginia.” According to PEW, about 2% of Virginia’s population is Muslim, one of the country’s highest states.
“I tell people, some of these wins in the primaries are won by a small margin,” says Mr. Abdullah. “And if all of us Muslims vote, we can be the ones to make that difference.”
