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Why we should care about Muslim candidates?
10-31-2018
If the Muslim members are to succeed in any election, the BCMA, as one the largest Muslim organizations in North America, must take a leadership role and volunteer their time by going door to door delivering flyers, making phone calls, putting up signs and individual members should be donating funds to assist people in getting elected. Members who are brave enough to put their names forward in any election deserve our respect and complete support. They are doing our community a service by standing for elections. Their victory is a success for our community.
These people will be your voice in government. In order to achieve this goal, the organization must lead its members and guide with a strategy which is both beneficial and advantageous with one target in mind. The BCMA leadership is afraid of getting involved in local, provincial and federal elections because they think that getting involved will impact their charitable status. If we refuse to help our members standing for election, we will remain a community who is helpless and will look to others for assistance. The membership must get the youth of our organization to mobilize and assist with campaigns. We must do more to get youth involved in the election cycles for they are the future leaders of our community.
While both the Muslim brothers and sisters were emphasizing the SOGI (Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity) issue, we unfortunately did not keep in mind the goal of electing our members. Both brothers and sisters were guiding others on how to vote and who to vote for. One sister had sent emails with instructions to vote for certain people in the Richmond election. Of those people, two were proponents of SOGI. The other two were Muslim brothers. Without any thought, the members have incorrectly guided others resulting in our brothers not succeeding in this election cycle and have helped the SOGI supporters win their seats. This election took a very wrong turn with the blame lying solely on the BCMA leadership.
The leaders of our organizations do not comprehend the true value of getting involved in politics. The BCMA, MAC (Muslim Ass'n of Canada), the PCA (Pakistan Canada Association) and other Muslim organizations must engage in a more active and visible role in election campaigns especially when Muslim members are running for election in various government seats. We must actively support in every way to get our members elected. Lip service does not translate into campaign funds and votes. Muslim members did not receive adequate funds from individuals resulting in campaigns that fell short of success.
One sister mentioned that everyone deserves our vote. I tried to inform her that everyone does not deserve your vote. The person who deserves your vote is the one you believe best aligns with your values and beliefs. Meanwhile, such organisations should agree upon a certain policy with regards to voting. It is upon the remainder of the Muslims therefore to accept and follow the decisions of these organisations. The basis for my statement is that unity among Muslims is obligatory. The impact and influence of our vote will be greatly diminished if we fail to vote as one voice, and instead each opts to follow our personal judgement, sometimes judgement that is ill informed regarding candidates and issues facing Muslims today.
This cannot be achieved unless the Muslims agree on one voice or one strategy by which they can influence the elections. Muslims should be sitting at the table where public policy is being initiated and our voice must be present when policies are being formed especially when such policies may impact Muslims such as immigration and discrimination in many forms. Muslims are much spoken about, but very little is heard from them when groups are mentioned regarding the influencers of elections. It is especially distressing and disheartening to see that the Muslim voter turnout is consistently the lowest in Canada since many of us fled from undemocratic, authoritative and corrupt systems of governance where the true value of votes is often threatened and sometime left meaningless. This does not mean that since you are now in Canada that there is no further need to involve yourselves in politics. We must be engaged in Canadian politics so that we can influence future policies which will affect our children.
Look no farther than our neighbors to the south.
You get what you organize for and who you vote for. Keep in mind that anti-Muslim sentiment is slowly moving to Canada from the US which is evidenced by increased harassment and hate crimes against people of color and places of worship in every province. This sentiment will impact how Canadian policies are formed. The record numbers of American Muslims running for office in the midterm elections is in response to Trump's anti- immigration and specifically anti-Muslim policies. So for all of my aforementioned family members, friends, and the general Canadian electorate, my one plea is simply this: Vote for the candidate who has earned your vote not the one who shows up at your masjid during the election season.
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