Greens reach out to Muslim-Americans
Discussion among Green and Muslim activists kicks off efforts

By Khurshid Khoja
California Green Party

ALAMEDA COUNTY, CA -- The Green Party of Alameda County (GPAC) recently launched an outreach initiative intended to diversify and broaden the base of the party and build upon popular support for the Green Party among a cross-section of the diverse Muslim-American community. Dubbed the Green Crescent Initiative (GCI), this pioneering effort is a long-term project of the GPAC Outreach Committee. The Green Crescent Initiative held its first event at GPAC's Green Sunday event series, where local Greens met fellow activists from the Muslim-American community to discuss 'The Emerging Green Trend in the Political Landscape of Muslim-America.'

The Green Party enjoys broad support in the Muslim-American community

In a recent survey by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Muslim respondents were asked which political party best represents the interests of American Muslims. A quarter of those polled identified the Green Party. Many affinities also exist between Greens and Muslim-Americans who don't immediately identify with the Green Party. The Green Party has embraced political positions more consistent with the American Muslim viewpoint on civil liberties, U.S. support for the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the war on Iraq. Among a host of other issues of affinity are gender and environmental justice, not often thought of as Muslim issues in today's prevailing Islamophobic climate.

Muslim-American organizations such as the American Muslim Alliance (AMA) have supported Greens running for elected office at the state and local level throughout our country. Green Party candidate Peter Camejo received the endorsement of several Muslim-American community organizations in the 2002 California gubernatorial contest. The AMA recently endorsed Pat Gray and Stuart Bechman in the 2004 Congressional races, and backed Greens Brook Madsen and John Crockford in state senate and state assembly elections, respectively.

The AMA has even awarded the Green Party its prestigious Malcolm X Award, for the work of Jo Chamberlain and other Green activists who have united with the Muslim-American community, as well as activists in the Libertarian Party, under the banner of the California Civil Rights Alliance to fight the USA PATRIOT Act.

Activists meet to discuss the connections between Greens and Muslim-Americans

Among the featured speakers at the Green Sunday GCI kick-off were Professor Agha Saeed, national chair of the American-Muslim Alliance and chair of the American-Muslim Taskforce, an umbrella group of 10 U.S. Muslim-American organizations; Jawad Ali, co-founder of the Blog on MuslimWakeUp.com, an online magazine affiliated with the fledgling Progressive Muslim Union; and Altaf Bhimji, Nader/Camejo campaign volunteer, SEIU steward, independent writer, member of the Network of Progressive Muslims and a registered Green.

The discussion was held on the day after the anniversary of 9/11, which was appropriate given that the political landscape of Muslim-America was drastically altered in response to 9/11, when the so-called War on Terror unleashed a backlash against Muslim communities in the West. Bush Administration policies at home and abroad and Democratic Party acquiescence left Muslim-Americans further alienated from the two-party system and feeling stripped of their constitutional rights to due process, equal protection, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, privacy and other civil liberties, while being taxed to support the destruction and occupation of Muslim populations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine, as well as the preservation of tyrannical rule in U.S. client states throughout the Islamic world.

In organizing the discussion, the GPAC Outreach Committee aspired to provide Greens with a better understanding of the Muslim-American community and a sense of the values and ideals that unite American Greens and American Muslims. The underlying intent was to equip local Greens with the knowledge they needed to talk to their Muslim friends, neighbors and co-workers about the Green Party in terms that resonate throughout the Muslim community and also to lay the foundation for more ambitious outreach efforts in the future.

The speakers discussed the emergence of Green and progressive activism within the Muslim-American community, specifically focusing on the following questions:

To what extent do Muslims identify with Green Party candidates and why? To what values, beliefs and ideals do self-identified progressive Muslims and Greens share a common commitment? How can that common commitment be employed and emphasized in our efforts to swell the ranks of the Green Party with members of the Muslim-American community?

To learn more about the discussion and about the political diversity of the Muslim-American community and its activist organizations, look for the upcoming report from the Green Crescent Initiative, to be published in late December. A copy of the full report will be posted on the GPAC website: http://www.cagreens.org/alameda/county/. For more information about the GCI, please contact the author at khurshid_khoja@hotmail.com.