VOLUME No: 65 Issue No:3

Washington, D.C. - Sept. 23, 2004

Islamic Institute Participates in D.C. Bias Crimes Task Force

A representative from the Islamic Free Market Institute Foundation (IFMIF) attended a meeting of the D.C. Bias Crimes Task Force on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 at the United States Attorney’s office in the District of Columbia. The task force is a community and law enforcement organization chaired by the local United States Attorney, Kenneth Wainstein, which targets hate crimes in the area. Its goals are to provide assistance to the victims of hate crimes, bring those responsible for bias-related crimes to justice, and, through education and outreach, strengthen the partnership between law enforcement and the community in preventing and responding to hate crimes.

Other groups in attendance included the Metropolitan Police Department, the FBI, the Anti-Defamation League, SMILE, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service (CRS). All these groups work together on the Task Force with the United States Attorney’s office to establish a communications link between the community and law enforcement. The Task Force concentrates on promoting awareness of hate crimes currently under litigation, training federal and local law enforcement to identify and investigate hate crimes, and encouraging people in the community to report these crimes.

This week, events like a local “Arab, Muslim, & Sikh Protocol Awareness Training Seminar” were discussed. These seminars are designed for law enforcement personnel and take place around D.C. at various times throughout the year. Local police, federal agents, and campus police are typical attendees and they spend the morning at the seminar learning about how to recognize hate crimes and deal with them correctly.

Presidential Candidates Debate Tax Positions

Cutting taxes, tax reform, middle-class provisions, raising taxes… these various issues have floated around the political debate throughout George W. Bush’s presidency. Some debates have sometimes yielded measurable results, like the cherished $1,000 child tax credit and the marriage penalty fix aimed at middle-class America. Other times tax reform, like the President’s large 2001 tax-reducing bill, has encountered bitter resistance from lawmakers and groups. In this election both the incumbent and challenger, Senator Kerry, are facing scrutiny from each other and the media.

The latest attacks have come from Bush, who, in a rally last week in Pennsylvania brought Kerry’s legislative record into question. The President told his supporters about Kerry’s supposed negligence in the arena of middle-class and small business tax relief. At a rally last week Bush said, “If you drive a car, Senator Kerry has voted for higher taxes on you, If you have a job, he’s voted for higher taxes on you. If you’re married, or have children, he’s voted for higher taxes on you.” These allegations are slight embellishments of the truth. For example, in the bill containing the marriage penalty fix and the child tax credit, the two cuts aimed at the middle-class were overshadowed for most Democrats by the other half of the bill. That half contained tax cuts aimed at the wealthiest one percent of Americans. As for small business tax relief, the Senator and the President agreed in 2002 by bringing Bush’s 2002 tax bill into law that small businesses should be taxed less.

Bush was right last week about the lack of secured funding for Senator Kerry’s political agenda if he were to be elected in November. Although the degree of shortfalls is hard to predict, Kerry’s plans for $1 trillion dollars in new spending would undoubtedly result in budget shortfalls.

ELECTION WATCH

Nader’s Presidential Campaign

Presidential candidate Ralph Nader won important victories in Pennsylvania and Maryland this week. In both states, court rulings overturned election official’s rejection of petitions for Nader’s inclusion on the presidential ballot. The petition in Maryland was originally rejected because 542 of the 10,000 plus signatures were registered with the state as living in a county other than the one on the petition. The Maryland Court of Appeals ordered that the disputed signatures be accepted, giving Nader enough votes to get his name on the November ballot.

The victories are overshadowed, however, by the Nader campaign’s continuing legal struggle in seven other states and news today that Nader’s campaign is facing serious financial trouble. Legal fees have siphoned much-needed money from Nader’s campaign funds to the courtroom over the past few months and continued litigation in states like Virginia are only making the situation worse. A net loss over the month of August has effectively drained its coffers to a reserve of $66,000, roughly the same amount Robert DeNiro and Matt Damon have contributed to Kerry-related campaign funds.

ELECTION POLLS – SEPTEMBER 17 TO SEPTEMBER 24, 2004

Rasmussen Reports latest tracking poll shows George W. Bush leading John Kerry 49.0% to 45.4%. Electoral vote projections as of Thursday, September 23, 2004 show Bush with 213 electoral votes while Kerry has 204. Swing votes, of which there are 121, were on the whole slightly more favorable towards the President. Ralph Nader and other Independent party candidates accounted for 2.3% of the remaining voters.

Among Congressional voters, Rasmussen posted a survey of likely voters asking likely voters if they would, as of today, vote for a Democrat or Republican. 43% of likely voters said they would vote Democrat and 41% Republican. According to Rasmussen, Democrats have held a lead in this category for most of 2004

Other polls give the President anywhere from a 14 point lead to a 1 point deficit. These discrepancies can be attributed to the political affiliation of those polled. For instance, those polls with a higher point spread in favor of the President tend to interview a disproportionate number of Republicans over Democrats.

Here are the rest of the latest polls:

Zogby America (likely voters) September 17-19

BUSH-CHENEY: 46% Nader-Camejo: 1%
Kerry-Edwards: 43% Other/Unsure: 9%

NBC News/Wall Street Journal (registered voters) September 17-19

BUSH-CHENEY: 48% Nader-Camejo: 2%
Kerry-Edwards: 45% Other/Unsure: 5%

Investor's Business Daily/Christian Science Monitor/TIPP (likely voters) September 14-18

BUSH-CHENEY: 45% Nader-Camejo: 2%
Kerry-Edwards: 42% Not Sure: 11%

CNN/USA Today/Gallup (likely voters) September 13-15

BUSH-CHENEY: 54% Nader-Camejo: 3%
Kerry-Edwards: 40% Other/Neither: 3%

Zogby Polls American - Muslims

Zogby International and Georgetown University’s Muslims in the American Public Square (Project MAPS) have recently released a poll showing that American Muslims favor Democratic challenger John Kerry in the race for the White House. The poll revealed that of those surveyed 76% favored a Kerry/Edwards ticket while 7% supported Bush/Cheney in a head-to-head contest. When adding Third Party candidates, Kerry’s lead among Muslim-Americans shrank but only to 68% to 7%. Independent contender Ralph Nader ranked third with 11% of the vote.

In the 2000 election, George W. Bush led Al Gore 42% to 31% and Ralph Nader came in third with 12% of the vote.

The poll demonstrates that the Republican Party is losing ground with Muslim-American voters. Since 2001, the percentage of Muslims calling themselves Republican has shrunk from 23% to 12%. In that same time the ranks of Muslim Democrats have increased from 40% to 50%. Independents also increased in proportion from 28% to 31%.