Yalla, Vote: Registering Muslim and Arab Americans

[Renew Deal]

Ez-Zohra Baidouri, 73, emigrated from Morocco in 1986, settled with her family in Northeast Philadelphia, and embraced U.S. citizenship 15 years ago. On a recent afternoon, after prayers at Masjid Al Furqan mosque on Roosevelt Boulevard near Cottman Avenue, she purposefully signed a voter registration form - a first for her. "Trump, not," she said, making no secret of her motivation.

Zakir Ullah, 37, born in Pakistan and naturalized in 2007, stopped by the volunteers' table outside the mosque to grab a form for his wife, 30-year-old Husna. "I'm registered, she is not," said Ullah, a taxi driver. "We have to pick the person who will be better for the country. I prefer Hillary."

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump's call to halt Muslim immigration and his swipes at Arab countries as incubators of terrorism have offended some Arab American and Muslim American groups. They are pushing back with new-voter drives ahead of the registration deadlines - Oct. 11 in Pennsylvania, Oct. 18 in New Jersey - to be eligible to cast a ballot in the Nov. 8 election.

Yalla Vote - roughly translated as "Come on, vote" - is a national initiative of the nonprofit Arab American Institute (AAI), which is targeting the 12 states with the highest concentrations of Arab Americans. They include 10th-ranked Pennsylvania, with an estimated 182,000, and sixth-place New Jersey, with 258,000.
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http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20161006_Yalla__Vote__Registering_Muslim_and_Arab_Americans.html

http://www.aaiusa.org/yalla_vote

They are active in OH, MI, VA, FL, TX, NY, MA, DC, NJ, MD, IL, CA

The Arab American Institute has detailed candidate profiles

http://www.aaiusa.org/clinton_2016
http://www.aaiusa.org/trump_2016

"Where do Arab Americans live?"

1. California - 324,609
2. Michigan - 223,075
3. New York - 152,675
4. Texas - 124,117
5. Florida - 112,300
6. Illinois - 111,484
7. New Jersey - 108,455
8. Ohio - 98,460
9. Massachusetts - 75,147
10. Pennsylvania - 69,422

http://www.aaiusa.org/demographics

[geek tragedy]

1. Democrats want to register them as voters, Republicans want to register them as Arabs and Muslims nt