By Matt Sepic, KWMU
St. Louis, Mo. – The St. Louis Council on American-Islamic Relations hopes to get more Muslim voters to the polls in the next Presidential election.
Today they're launching a voter registration drive at area mosques. Council Director Jim Hacking says Muslims generally do not vote in a block.
Muslims are socially conservative I think, and in the 2000 election, the George Bush campaign had a lot of appeal for Muslims, and I think now, after 9-11, a lot of people just really opened themselves to figuring out who best represents their interests," Hacking said.
Hacking says American Muslims' low voter turnout reflects the population at large. The group hopes to register a thousand new voters by November 2004.