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On 28 August 2000, the American Muslim Council (AMC) and the polling firm Zogby International released a poll of "502 American Muslim likely voters". According to Zogby International's press release: "77.2% [of probable American Muslim voters] say that the current economic sanctions against Iraq should be lifted". Below is a Financial Times article about the poll. The FT's article cites the 77.2% figure. Note also that the FT article and AMC and Zogby press releases report that 56% of probable American Muslim voters plan to vote for Vice-President Al Gore. The American Muslim Council's press release: <http://www.amconline.org/cgi-bin/release/viewnews.cgi?newsid967485003,56509,> Zogby International's press release: <http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=255> Copyright 2000 The Financial Times Limited Financial Times (London) August 29, 2000, Tuesday London Edition 1 SECTION: WORLD NEWS: THE AMERICAS; Pg. 9 LENGTH: 400 words HEADLINE: WORLD NEWS: THE AMERICAS: Survey shows Gore ahead with Muslims BYLINE: By ARAVIND ADIGA DATELINE: WASHINGTON BODY: Vice-President Al Gore has clearly emerged as the preferred presidential candidate for America's growing population of Muslim voters, a new poll suggests. Nearly 56 per cent of 502 American Muslim voters surveyed by the American Muslim Council and the pollster Zogby International said they would back the Democratic nominee in the November polls. Only 24.1 per cent intended to vote for George W. Bush. the Republican contender. However, a big block - 20 per cent - had not made up their minds. Just how much of a boost Mr Gore's campaign will receive from Muslim-American voters is hard to determine, because the precise number of US Muslims is not known. The US Census Bureau is prohibited by law from requiring respondents to state their religion, leaving experts to guess the size of the Muslim population by extrapolating from data such as mosque attendance figures. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington DC-based advocacy group, believes there could be as many as 6m American Muslims. If this figure is correct, it would make Muslims the second largest religious group in the US, ahead of Jewish-Americans. California is believed to be the state with the largest number of Muslims. Detroit, New York, and other urban centres also have significant populations. On the whole, the new survey suggests that American Muslims tend to hold liberal political positions, favouring stricter gun laws, extension of healthcare for the underprivileged and further rises in the minimum wage. Of those surveyed, 92.6 per cent also said that the protection of their civil rights was an important issue for them. Some US Muslims have protested that a 1996 law passed by Congress permitting immigrants to be detained on the basis of evidence filed in secret against them has been used by US authorities to violate the constitutional rights of Arab-Americans. However, a solid majority of the respondents believed that US society showed respect towards the Islamic faith. Ibrahim Hooper of the council said most Muslims believed in the essential fairness of the US political system: "Domestic policy towards the Muslim community is quite good." But many American Muslims are dissatisfied with US foreign policy, the survey suggests. Of those asked 88.7 per cent supported an independent Palestinian state, and 77.2 per cent wanted sanctions against Iraq to be lifted. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: August 28, 2000 ----------------------------------------------- FREE! The World's Best Email Address @email.com Reserve your name now at http://www.email.com -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq For removal from list, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk Full details of CASI's various lists can be found on the CASI website: http://welcome.to/casi