Here is an unintended consequence of Donald Trump’s (R-NY) never ending vitriol against Muslims: voter registration amongst Muslim-Americans has jumped significantly. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) reported that over 300,000 Muslims have registered to vote since the last presidential election.
That is a roughly 60-percent increase since 2012. Not surprising since CAIR is one of the country’s largest Muslim advocacy organizations.
Every action, after all, has an equal and opposite reaction.
Robert McCaw is the council’s director of government affairs and theorized that the increase is mostly to do with policy proposals aimed at Muslims by Trump. This includes his desire to temporarily ban all Muslims from the United States and allow the government to profile them. McCaw said that:
“This is going to drive Muslims to assert themselves as American citizens the best way they know how and that’s to register to vote.”
And it might be safe to assume that they are not going to be voting for Donald Trump.
The actual number of Muslims registering to vote may be much higher than CAIR estimates. They arrived at the 60-percent increase by working with community experts and consulting baby name websites.
They looked for names that are common in the Arabic and Turkish language, as well as in South Asian and Central European countries. This excludes people who converted to Islam but kept their birth names.
CAIR is hoping to register thousands more Muslim-Americans to vote in the coming months. In June the group launched a program called “Muslims Vote,” an initiative aimed at increasing voter registration and generally getting Muslims more involved in their country’s election process.
Looks like it is working so far. After all, Donald Trump has practically done half their job for them. Hispanics, women, Muslims — Trump is steadily whittling down his voter base group by group. If he keeps this up, there won’t be many left.
So keep talking, Donald. It has served you well so far.
Watch a video sounding the call to civic action below.
