Unknown to many, evangelical leader Rev. Franklin Graham is not the only one conducting a campaign to encourage Christian Americans to go out and vote for righteous Christian leaders this November.
On the flip side of the religious coin, Muslim leaders in America are also encouraging their followers to engage in politics and vote leaders who will promote their cause in this year's national elections.
Writing for Charisma News, political analyst Bethany Blankley revealed that on Jan. 3 this year, the founder and executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Nihad Awad, encouraged attendants at an Islamic conference to become involved in politics, vote, and establish political action committees.
During the conference, Awad stressed that Muslim voters have the power to change America with their vote. "If pro-Muslim candidates win in this fall's election, America will be a very different country. What American Muslims do and do not can determine not only the future of you here, but the future of America itself – the future relationship between America and the Muslim world," he reportedly said.
Awad said he hopes to register one million Muslim voters in the 2016 election.
"If you don't like Islamophobia, if you don't like what Donald Trump says, what Ben Carson said, get busy in 2016. Get busy in 2016, register to vote, and register other people to vote, if you don't know how to do it, Google it. Turn your centres, Islamic centres, mosques into registration centres for voters, into polling stations during the election time," Awad urged the conference participants. "This is the time to tell our narrative and to show our presence."
He said the Muslim vote "can be the swing vote in major states." He listed down the states that may hold the swing votes: Florida, Virginia, Colorado, Nevada, Iowa, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania.
"The number of Muslims in these states is growing," he noted.
The problem with CAIR's initiative, Blankley said, is that "no one who follows the Quran can honestly claim to follow the Constitution." This is because the Quran "advocates for human rights abuses inherent to Islam, against which the Constitution prohibits," she said.
Blankley said these human rights abuses permissible under Shari'a law include: female genital mutilation, honour killings, child marriage, slavery, wife abuse and domestic violence (where husbands are instructed to beat their wives as a form of punishment and are permitted to rape their wives), and non-legal status for women who are considered mere property.
Moreover, the Quran permits the punishment and even death of non-Islamic subjects who refuse to convert to Islam.
Blankley said about 109 verses in the Quran instruct followers "to wage war with nonbelievers for the sake of Islamic rule."
Even Muslims who don't go along with the goal of Islamic rule are labeled "hypocrites," and killed according to Islamic blasphemy or apostasy laws.
Blankley said CAIR is leading the campaign to influence American voters despite its designation as a "terrorist organisation."
