When a group of hopefuls seeking the Republican candidacy for the presidency were asked in December 1999 ‘What political philosopher or thinker do you most identify with and why?’, Governor Bush responded ‘Christ, because he changed my heart’; Bush had become a born-again Christian in the mid-1980s.
In March 2000, George Bush visited the key state of Florida during his campaign to become the Republican candidate for the US presidency. Florida is a state with a large Muslim population, and Bush was an active seeker of Muslim votes. Most Christians – such as Bush – are trinitarians and regard Christ as part of the godhead, the trinity; Muslims regard Christ as a man, as a prophet, but not divine. Republican campaigners in 2000, however – again, such as Bush – did not dwell on theological differences, but rather on the American ‘centre-right’ social values Republicans were said to share with Muslims: pro-family, anti-gay, pro-capital punishment, etc. Meetings between Republicans and Muslim leaders became part of what Republicans called the ‘Muslim Outreach’. In the Republican faith-group strategy, most Christians were seen as conservative rather than liberal, and thus already part of the Republican bloc, as were many Jews. The Jewish vote, however, was seen as mainly tied to the liberal, Zionist-favouring Democrats, thus making the Republicans the best option for the Muslim vote.
One of the local Muslim leaders Bush and his wife Laura met was Professor Sami Al-Arian, and there is a charming group photograph of the Bushes and Al-Arians in Craig Ungers’ study of the Bush/Saudi connections, House of Bush, House of Saud (2004). Unger says that Al-Arian’s wife told Bush, ‘The Muslim people support you’. Bush, whose folksy manner is a finely honed tool, called Al-Arian’s son ‘Big Dude’, and Al-Arian vowed to build support for Bush amongst Florida Muslims – a promise he kept. Al-Arian was a popular figure in the Muslim community, and spoke enthusiastically for Bush, who publicly pledged to end the use of ‘secret evidence’ against those accused of terrorism.
What Happened Next
In the 2000 Presidential election Bush narrowly defeated the Democratic challenger, Al Gore. The Florida vote was decisive, with Bush and Gore separated by a few hundred votes. Much fuss was made over ‘chads’ – what the punches on different pieces of paper on the ballot paper might mean – thus obscuring the fact that a Florida exit poll suggested that Bush had got over 90% of the Muslim vote, and it was that huge percentage which got Bush Florida, and thus the presidency. In the American Spectator, the Republican strategist Grover Norquist said ‘George W. Bush was elected President of the United States of America because of the Muslim vote’. In May 2006, after a trial which remains controversial, Sami Al-Arian was sentenced to 57 months in prison for conspiring to violate federal law relating to a proscribed group called Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The Muslim who made George Bush president was also told he would be deported after completing his sentence (see the wikipedia entry on Sami Al-Arian.)