Muslims in the U.S. have proved to be a highly-educated, family-oriented, and diverse group of voters. The results of a national survey, commissioned by the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), show that most Muslim voters identify themselves as either Democrat or Independent.
The CAIR survey indicates that the Muslim voters are:
• Young: More than three-fourths (78 percent) of respondents said they are between the ages of 30 and 54.
• Highly Educated: A majority (65 percent) said they have a bachelor's degree or higher.
• Middle Class: Almost half of respondents (43 percent) said they have a household income of $50,000 or higher.
• Family Oriented: More than three-fourths of (77 percent) said they are married.
• Religiously Diverse: More than half (52 percent) of respondents said they attend a mosque at least once a month, but than one-fifth (21 percent) said they seldom or never attend a mosque. While 46 percent of the respondents said they consider themselves "Sunni," 38 percent said they view themselves as "just Muslims." Ten percent said they are "Shia," while two percent said they are "Sufi," a more mystical interpretation of the faith.
• Involved in Civic Life: The vast majority of Muslim respondents (87 percent) said they regularly go to the polls on Election Day and almost half (45 percent) said they volunteer for an institution serving the public.
• Democratic or Independent: Forty-nine percent of respondents said they consider themselves Democrats and 36 percent said they are politically independent. Only 8 percent of respondents said they are Republicans. When asked about their preferred presidential candidate, almost half of respondents (45 percent) said they "don't know or haven't decided."
According to the Muslim American Society Center for Electoral Empowerment, more than 2.2 million Muslims are eligible to vote in November. That number accounts for a fraction of the voting population but these voters could swing any number of races from local to national. There are approximately 6-7 million Muslims in the U.S. with large and affluent populations in the battle states of Virginia, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania. This population is divided almost evenly between African Americans (24%), Arab Americans (26%), Asian Americans (26%) and others (24%).
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