American Muslims cross racial and ethnic lines — from Asian-American to Arab-American to African-American and so on. Support for Bush and Republicans in general is eroding now for some of the same reasons Latinos have turned away from Bush: Iraq and immigration.

Muslims also feel Bush has failed to protect them from the post-9/11 backlash:

CAIR research director Mohamed Nimer said the survey showed American Muslims were most concerned about civil liberties — an issue that has dominated the community since the September 11 attacks carried out by Muslim extremists — and education.

Foreign policy issues followed closely behind, it showed.

“There is a tremendous opposition to the Bush administration policies,” Nimer said, citing the 55 percent of respondents who felt the war on terror has become a war on Islam.

Eighty-eight percent believed the Iraq war was not worthwhile for the United States and 90 percent were against using military means to spread democracy around the world.

The survey also showed about 43 percent of those questioned felt they had been discriminated against or been the subject of racial profiling. (Source: Washington Post)

According to WaPo: “Estimates of the number of Muslim Americans vary between 3 million and 7 million. Eighty-nine percent of those surveyed said they vote regularly”. That’s a lot of people. If you believe the wiki on the subject, there are about 6 million Jews in America today by contrast. The day could come soon when Muslims represent a similarly powerful voter constituency.

This is a huge opportunity for Democrats and progressives. Hope they don’t blow it as badly as Bush and his ilk. You can read the study here.

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