EARBORN, Mich. - The Iraqi-born Muslim cleric paces across the university classroom, his green tunic and black cape sweeping across the floor, as, spicing his adopted English with phrases from his native Arabic, he urges the students to vote.
How else can they persuade the US government to reduce its support for Israel? To halt the alleged singling out of Muslims and Arab-Americans for interrogation at US airports? To stop the use of secret evidence to justify the detention of suspected terrorists?
''We should pursue our rights in a society we choose to live in,'' said Imam Hassan Qazwini. ''If I keep myself excluded, I am not influencing anybody.''
His point seems obvious enough, but some of the students are having none of it. From the back of the male side of the room - the students have separated themselves by gender - several launch an attack, accusing Qazwini of usurping the authority of Allah and proposing an un-Islamic action that cannot be justified by the Koran.
''God forbids any Muslim from participating in the legislation of a non-Islamic state,'' argued Danny Agemy, 25, a marketing major here at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. After the lecture, Agemy stations himself by the door, handing out brochures calling voting ''treason against Islam'' and citing four verses from the Koran as evidence for his contention that voting is a sin.
The Muslim population in the United States is estimated at roughly 6 million - larger than the Jewish population, which many Muslim voters see as having too much sway over US policy on the Middle East. The Muslim community is growing rapidly as a result of conversion, immigration, and a high birth rate.
This is the year that Muslim leaders hope will mark the emergence of American Muslims as a new, and eventually powerful, voting bloc in a nation where identity politics is a time-honored method for effecting change.
But Muslim leaders have faced a number of challenges in fashioning a group of voters that speaks with one voice. Most American Muslims are relatively new to this country and inexperienced in the ways of democracy. Many are frustrated that neither political party seems supportive of their interests. And the community in some parts of the United States is divided along ethnic lines as Arab-Americans, South Asian-Americans, and African-Americans.
''Because Islam, and especially immigrant Muslims, are not part of the dominant Judeo-Christian culture of this country, they very much are challenged here, and some have responded by saying, `To hell with the rest, we're going to keep to our own,''' said Hassan Jaber, deputy director of the the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services in Dearborn. ''You still see mosques here that do not encourage the movement of political activism - they see it as betraying their culture and religion, and as threatening their purity. But these are in the minority.''
Take a walk down Warren Avenue in Dearborn, through the heart of Michigan's 300,000-strong Arab-American community, and you will see a typical picture of the state of Muslims throughout the country: Some can't vote because they aren't citizens yet, some won't vote because they think it's useless or wrong, and the rest are divided among Democrat Al Gore, Republican George W. Bush, and Green Party nominee Ralph Nader, who enjoys relatively high ratings among Muslims because he is Lebanese-American and because he is neither Gore nor Bush.
The avenue is lined with shops selling ''halal'' meat, slaughtered according to Islamic law, and Arab restaurants, bakeries, doctors' offices, and shops. Even the CVS on Warren Avenue has a sign in Arabic.
At the Alsalam Supermarket, a tiny grocery store overflowing with fruits and vegetables, manager Andy Deebaja, a native of Lebanon, said it is important to vote because ''you have to deliver your message to leaders.''
Deebaja plans to vote for Bush, saying, ''I like his policies, especially for the Middle East - I think he'll be less tough on the Middle East. Al Gore appointed a vice president that's Jewish, and that's a big sign. That's why I'm going to vote for Bush.''
Down the street, at a medical office where a soccer game between Lebanon and Thailand is being broadcast in Arabic, Dr. Fadel M. Ali expects to vote for Nader. ''Gore and Bush are both in a race to favor Israel, to affect the Jewish vote,'' he said.
Ali would not consider not voting. ''We have reached a point that, to make any change, you have to go through the system,'' he said. ''America is a multicultural society, and you should take your rights to speak and object. If we put our influence into the media and financial institutions and work hard, we can make change.''
Across town last Tuesday, in the leafy suburb of Dearborn Heights, the local sheriff, the mayor, a candidate for county commission, and a Gore campaign surrogate stopped at a debate-watching party for Arab-American movers and shakers hosted by Jumana Judeh, a Palestinian-born Christian who is a member of the Dearborn Heights City Council.
But the debate watchers were not impressed by the candidates, neither of whom spoke about issues of concern to Muslims.
American Muslims have not found an ideological home in either the Democratic or the Republican party, and in 1996 the Muslim vote was split evenly between the parties, said Yvonne Y. Haddad, a professor of the history of Islam at Georgetown University.
With an eye toward the likely future clout of this group, both parties are reaching out to Muslim voters, as well as Arab-American Christians. This year President Clinton spoke at a Ramadan celebration at the White House. Muslim clerics have delivered prayers at Congress and the national political conventions. And Gore and Bush have both met with Muslim leaders.
Today the American Muslim Political Coordinating Council Political Action Committee plans to endorse a candidate for president, although it is not clear how many Muslim voters will take their cue from such an endorsement. Many Muslims expect the national group to endorse Bush, who scored points among some Muslims by saying that he was concerned about potentially discriminatory antiterrorism practices during the second debate with Gore, and because many Muslims are also skeptical about Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Lieberman's willingness to be helpful to Palestinians because he is Jewish.
Evidence of increasing Muslim political involvement is widespread. Many mosques have held voter registration drives. Muslims are running for a raft of local offices. They have sent delegates to both presidential conventions this year, and affluent ones are contributing to political parties and candidates.
''The debate here is not over, but it is slowly and steadily tilting in favor of the notion that Muslims are here, they are citizens, and voting is part of their responsibility for the welfare of the society,'' said Zahid H. Bukhari, director of the Pew Charitable Trust's Muslims in the American Public Square research project. ''And this election is much more important than any previous election for Muslims. Because it is a close election, Muslims feel they have more strength and that they are in a better position to get recognition that they should have some say.''
Ihsan A. Bagby of Shaw University in North Carolina, a scholar who researches Islam in America, recently surveyed American mosque leaders and found that 89 percent say Muslims should participate in US elections.
''That's much higher than many Muslims would assume,'' Bagby said. ''There's a reluctance to get involved because politics are dirty overseas and they're perceived as being dirty here, and there is the issue of whether it's Islamically approved for Muslims to get involved. But this shows Muslim leaders are not as isolationist or separatist or conservative as many would think.''
But the minority of Muslims who disapprove of voting are doing so vociferously. In addition to citing what they say are Koranic prohibitions against voting, some Muslims voice more practical concerns: They are unwilling to vote for candidates who support Israel, support abortion rights, or support an embargo against Iraq that they contend is leading to the deaths of Iraqi civilians.
A newsletter being circulated in Muslim cafes in Michigan blasts mainstream Muslim organizations; it reports on the decision of a Muslim cleric to deliver a prayer at the Republican National Convention under the headline, ''Muslims bless child-killers'' - a reference to GOP support for the embargo against Iraq.
And an electronic bulletin board maintained by the Muslim Students Association (www.msadearborn.org) is hosting a debate over voting. One critic of voting wrote, ''Once you enter the process, you agree to play by their rules, and from here on in, you become another begging minority.''
Qazwini, the cleric in the classroom, expressed envy, admiration, and hostility toward Jews, as did many other Muslims interviewed for this report. Qazwini repeatedly referred to the influence of the ''Jewish lobby'' in the United States. ''We don't like to admit it, but the success of Jewish people has inspired us,'' he said. ''We learn from them lobbying, how to be organized, how to flood newspapers with letters, how to approach politicians. But we are not matching them in our influence. They have more experience.''
Qazwini dismissed many of the students' concerns as the exuberance of youth. He insisted that the Koran does not prohibit voting and that practical concerns require it. ''There are some young, heated, vigilant boys and girls who are very upset about what's going on in the Middle East,'' he said. ''I am angry, too, but to be passive and negative is not the way. When you participate, you will force them to listen to you.''
