Poll shows Muslims in U.S. lean to Democrats - Yahoo! News
Poll shows Muslims in U.S. lean to Democrats - Yahoo! News: "Tue Oct 24, 2:42 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More American Muslims are now supporting the Democratic Party but their votes should not be taken for granted, an Islamic civil rights group said on Tuesday.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, released a poll of 1,000 registered Muslim voters in the United States it said showed the community has changed a great deal since supporting Republicans in 2000.
The poll found 42 percent of respondents were Democrats and 17 percent Republican, while some 28 percent had no party affiliation, said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad.
'It shows that Muslim community votes should not be taken for granted,' said Awad, adding: 'There's a shift in their political orientation.'
The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Estimates of the number of Muslim Americans vary between 3 million and 7 million. Eighty-nine percent of those surveyed said they vote regularly.
In 2000, American Muslims endorsed and voted for Republican candidate George W. Bush, but they switched to support the Democrats in 2004 to protest what was seen as anti-Muslim policies by the Bush administration."
