Georgia Muslim voters mark National Voter Registration Day with outreach

Friday was National Muslim Voter Registration Day, and the Georgia Muslim Voter Project showed up at the West Cobb Islamic Center in Marietta to make sure people were registered to vote.

Urooj Ali with the Georgia Muslim Voter Project said that they estimate that there are around 100,000 registered Muslim voters in Georgia with most of them being in Atlanta.

“We’ve spoken to Muslim voters who lean right or lean left, but our goal is to make sure that they have the resources to make the decision they feel represents them best,” she said.

Ali said many of the issues that concern Muslim voters are the same that concern all voters in Georgia.

“They’re Georgians, so they care about the same issues that any other Georgia voter cares about,” she said.

Dr. S. Rashid Naim, a political scientist at Georgia State University, said foreign policy is an issue in which Muslim voters find some common ground.

“Foreign policy issues are one of them,” Naim said. “But where you do see a more coalescing, if you will, of Muslims from different backgrounds and different socioeconomic status, generally speaking, on local political issues — you’ll find the same diversity of opinion that you find in any other section of the community in Georgia.”

The Georgia Muslim Voter Project works to increase political participation among Georgia Muslims through voter registration, education and turnout and has connected with more than 50 mosques across the state.