Insiders say the Obama Administration’s honeymoon with the Muslim-American community will eventually expire.
Polling data isn’t clear but civic groups and experts say the vast majority of Muslim- Americans voted for Obama, as many were fed up with the Republican Party’s handling of civil liberties cases and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, among other issues. But they want to see results, both in terms of issues Muslim-Americans care about (domestically and overseas) but also giving them more access to the White House - a place largely shut to Muslims during the Bush years, they say.
So far, it’s not clear which Muslim-Americans have the president’s ear, whether on domestic terrorism surveillance or foreign policy in places like Turkey or the Palestinian territories. Obama named two Muslims to the advisory council that’s part of the White House’s Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, but community leaders note that while both are well-liked, neither are community-based, neither have a constituency. Eboo Patel, an “On Faith” panelist, comes from the minority Ismaili community (as opposed to the much larger Sunni or Shia groups) and is known as an interfaith activist, not a Muslim activist. Dahlia Mogahed is executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies.
The White House also is said to seek input from the two Muslim members of Congress - U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and U.S. Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.). But so far there’s no Muslim staffer in the White House liaison’s office, which traditionally reaches out to the Jewish, Catholic and African-American communities, for example. President Bush did at one time have a Muslim liaison.
This whole subject - access, influence - is the source of a lot of debate among Muslim Americans. Some blame themselves, saying they need to build up their own institutions more, such as think tanks, civic groups and schools so they can produce more top-level leaders who will be able to influence policy and politics.
Others blame Obama, whose campaign distanced itself from several Muslim Americans for alleged distant links to terrorist groups. Several knowledgeable Muslim activists say the administration can’t make decisions about prominent Muslim advisers because of the Holy Land terrorism financing case, which has drawn in several large, respected Muslim groups who have been labeled with the ambiguous “unindicted co-conspirator” label for the time being.
The honeymoon isn’t over, insiders say, but eventually it will be. Muslim Americans want to see action on civil liberties issues, they want to see groups in the Holy Land case cleared and they want to see Obama make himself - or high-ranking officials - present at a major Muslim center, for example, or other events such as this summer’s conference in Washington of the Islamic Society of North America.