Press Room

AAI in the News

Campaign Urges Arabs to Vote

By Sharmila Devi
The National
Posted on Thursday July 3, 2008

NEW YORK – On a hot June day in Steinway Street in the New York borough of Queens, Matt Ellias was canvassing Arab shopkeepers and passers-by about politics.

“Excuse me sir, do you have a minute,” he asked Mustafa Eid, a waiter in the Jaambiya Middle Eastern cafe, who nodded. “I’m from the Arab American Institute and we’re asking businesses in the area to put up this poster.”

Mr Eid, who is 21 and a Palestinian American, declined to put up a “Yallah Vote!” (Go Vote!) campaign poster without his manager’s permission. “Are you registered to vote?” Mr Ellias then asked.

“Yes, and I will vote because it’s more important this time. We don’t want McCain, that warmonger, to get in,” Mr Eid said. “All my friends are voting, too.”

Mr Ellias was heartened by the waiter’s intention. So many of the young Arabs he has spoken with are either holders of green cards, which bestow residency but not citizenship nor the right to vote, or are simply not interested in the political process.

The Yallah Vote campaign by the Arab American Institute is its biggest push yet to get Arab Americans to register to vote in November’s presidential elections and become more integrated in civic life. The campaign includes placing field organisers in key states, including New York, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio – where Arab Americans are a sizeable voting bloc; holding town hall debates and hosting events at the Democratic and Republican national conventions in August and September.

The campaign and institute are strictly bipartisan and do not endorse any candidate or party. Rather they seek to reach out to an estimated 3.5 million Arab Americans to get their diverse voices heard. Precise figures are hard to come by because the US census does not specify Arab as an ethnicity.

Arab Americans, along with much of the rest of the country, appear galvanised by this year’s contest between the presumed nominees – the Democrat, Barack Obama, and John McCain, the Republican. Many Arab Americans tell Mr Ellias they will vote for Mr Obama although traditionally they have voted Republican.

“We have the opportunity, as a nation, to change the course of things, to turn the tide,” said Christina Zola, communications director at the Arab American Institute. “Instead of shunning us, our leadership should be reaching out to the Arab American community and using our knowledge and wisdom to chart a clear course to peace, here at home and abroad.”

Yallah Vote is also collecting signatures for a national petition to be presented to the candidates this year. The petition calls for leadership that promotes “respect for all faiths and ethnicities” and foreign policy that “addresses the root causes of extremism rather than fuelling it”.

The petition was endorsed by about 50 Arab American organisations across the United States ranging from the Bint Jbeil Cultural Center in Dearborn, Michigan, to the Association for Patriotic Arab Americans in the Military, which represents the estimated 3,500 Arab Americans serving in the US armed forces.

Mr Ellias, 21, is working as the New York field organiser for the summer before returning to Fordham University, where he is studying political science and communications. He then wants to go to law school.

“It’s supposed to be a part-time job, but I won’t be taking any vacations,” he said. “When you believe in what you do, you’re prepared to work hard.”

He had planned to spend the summer in Syria and Lebanon – his father is a Syrian Orthodox priest – but he was deterred by political instability. Instead, he will spend most of his time in Queens and Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where he grew up, trying to persuade other Arab Americans of the virtues of voting.

In Queens, Mr Ellias shares an office with Rami Nuseir of the American Mideast Leadership Network, which brings together professionals in the United States and Middle East through educational programmes and exchanges.

“People in the Middle East think we live in cages,” said Mr Nuseir, who is a Palestinian American from Nazareth, in what is now Israel. “We don’t live in cages, but as a community we aren’t very visible and 9/11 made things worse for us.

“What Yallah Vote does is go to the grassroots level and educate people about their constitutional rights. Many Arabs have never voted; it is a foreign concept to them and it is very important to educate them about how they can make a difference.”

Mr Ellias said most of the strangers he meets are polite and willing to talk.

But one of his colleagues was reprimanded by a woman angry that the “Yallah Vote” logo on a T-shirt was too close to Allah and might be worn by someone who did something disrespectful.

Another colleague was told by a woman that voting was haram because the vote could endorse someone who in turn engaged in forbidden activities.

Other Arab Americans are cautious when Mr Ellias approaches them because they think he is from the FBI or tax service. “This is why we need more education,” he said. “The reluctance to sign anything is an indication of fear.”

A leaflet listing luminary Arab Americans is published by the Arab American Institute Foundation. Included are Ralph Nader, a presidential candidate, John Abizaid, former head of US Central Command in Iraq, and Helen Thomas, a veteran White House reporter.

“The only Arab Americans involved in public life used to come from the elite, not the grassroots, but that’s changing slowly,” said Ghassan Elcheikhali, head teacher of the Razi School in Queens.

He said many Arab Americans are more inclined to vote this year because of concerns over US foreign policy in the Middle East, but he would like to see more engagement on domestic issues as well.

“How can someone complain about how they are treated here if they don’t get involved? Surveys show that some Arab families have lived in the US for 20 years but never registered to vote,” he said.

“They often come from a place where the police or authorities are not on their side. But here people need to be integrated in the political process, at the local, state and national levels.”

In this election year, the Middle East and foreign policy are of concern to many US voters, not just those of Arab descent, and Yallah Vote hopes its perspectives will influence debate.

“Part of the reason 2008 was chosen for Yallah Vote is because many of the issues at the forefront of the American consciousness – oil, Iraq and so on – are those felt acutely by Arab Americans,” Mr Ellias said.

“Many Arab issues have become American issues and we’ve got to make sure our voices are heard.”