Getting On The Bus: Mosques Take An Idea From Black Churches To Encourage Voter Turnout​

Friday afternoon prayers have just ended at the Islamic Center of Nashville, and Tamanna Qureshi is working the voting table.

A crowd, mostly men, gathers round. Sample ballots sit on a table next to a book of Islamic scripture. She tells them about a website where they can find out more about their district, as well as find candidates’ answers to surveys.

Qureshi, 41, grew up in Nashville, the daughter of Bangladeshi immigrants, and has attended this mosque since she was a girl. Now, she’s a volunteer with the League of Women Voters.

Voter outreach groups have been working mosques for years, trying to overcome a bias against voting among many Muslims and immigrants. A common excuse is one Qureshi heard from her own parents.

“There was this feeling of, ‘Are we meddling in something that’s not our business?’,” Qureshi says. “And, of course, my response is, ‘It’s absolutely your business. You’re living here. You’re paying taxes. You’re a citizen. And this is what you need to do to participate fully in the community.'”

The voting table and guides aren’t new. But outside the mosque is something that is.

A long white school bus.

It’s a technique African-American churches have been using for years to get voters excited: congregations going to the ballot box together, often in their Sunday best.

These so-called ”
Souls to the Polls” efforts drew
widespread attention in 2008, when African-American turnout surged.

Fridays are when Muslims come together to worship, and it’s also a time when the polls are open for early voting. So it made sense to combine the two, says Eben Cathey, co-director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.

“I think we’re going to be able to get hundreds of folks at mosques to the polls over the next couple of weeks,” he says.

But the bus is mainly an attention-getter, a way to remind Muslims as they left Friday prayers of their civic duty. Organizers expect most people to drive themselves to the polls at a time that’s convenient.

In fact on the first Friday of early voting, only about a dozen voters actually board the bus.

One of them is Sahar Fakhruddin, a 20-year-old college student. She says with a laugh that she got on the bus mainly because her aunt, a mosque elder, asked her to.

“But then also because … I think it’s important to show that we’re coming in as a group.”

She’s voted before, but beside her is her 18-year-old cousin, Maryam Fakhruddin, a first-time voter.

“I’m excited. I think it’s really important, just as a female, American, Muslim citizen to be part of this election, to be part of this process, to voice our opinions.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations predicts Muslim voting will be up this year. In a national poll,
three-quarters said they plan to vote.

But organizers of this bus ride say that hasn’t always been the case. They say even some Muslims born in the United States believe voting is a secular practice that’s best avoided. Others say they’re simply too busy to take the time.

Sahar Fakhruddin says she’s heard those excuses from her grandparents, who immigrated from South Asia and tend to avoid politics.

“I feel like with this presidential election, people are finally able to see why it’s more important — more so than other years.”

This election year in particular, many Muslims say they feel like they’ve become pawns in a political game. Candidates score points by blaming them for violence perpetrated by other people.

Against that backdrop, Alana Raybon says Muslims can’t afford to skip voting.

“As a Muslim, it’s my duty to stand up against injustice and wrong, and speaking out against the horrible actions of ISIS. But also, making sure to take a stand and not allowing politicians who are trying to marginalize us be in office is really, really important.”

Raybon brings her three young children with her as she goes to the voting booth. Things go smoothly, and afterward, Raybon and the other voters pose in front of the polls for a group picture. The group then gets back on the bus and returns to the mosque.

Organizers plan to take it to two other local mosques during the early voting period.

A big bus, they say, is a good way to show Muslims they have no excuse for not voting.