in all states -- only in the states where race is very tight, such as Arizona, Oregon, Colorado, Minnesota, and Florida."

The Electorate Council, which, cross referencing between mosques and county registration lists, estimates that there are two million Muslims eligible to vote in the United States but only 57 percent of them are registered voters.

The total is divided more or less equally among African-American Muslims, Muslims with

Arab roots, and Muslims with South Asian roots.

Abdullah sees Muslim influence making itself felt only if 85 percent of eligible voters are

registered and at least 70 percent of those eligible come out to vote.

He sees 37 congressional races and five senate races where Muslims could make the

difference, should they vote in a block.

Whether Muslims come out to vote, he says, will be influenced by hard-to-measure factors. "If

Democratic candidates involve and include Muslims in their campaign, many will come out and vote. A lot of Muslims feel intimidated in light of the Patriot Act and (use of) of secret evidence, where anything could happen."

In Michigan, where the race could potentially be close, Arab Americans make up about 100,000 of the state's 4 million voters. Their vote could swing local races as well as the state's presidential vote, but there are also a well established and relatively well-to-do immigrant constituency that could influence the outcome in other ways.

"The Arab vote is important and it is important to get them involved because they are willing to contribute financially and contribute workers for campaign," says Ed Sarpolous, vice president

EPIC-MIRA, an independent polling firm in Lansing, Michigan.

"It is a perfect opportunity for people to exercise their responsibility and become more

politically aware," says Hassan Mansouri, a government affairs co-ordinator for the Council on

American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), one of the national groups running the registration drive. "Never before have the stakes seemed so high for Muslim Americans," he asserted.

"There is a sense of crisis in the Muslim community," says Jamal Gabobe, a US citizen born in

Somaliland. Gabobe, who teaches comparative literature at the University of Washington, has been in the country for decades, but says he is registered to vote for the first time in 2004.

"There are lot of issues coalescing, with the Iraq war and war on terrorism. Being a Muslim, even if you are not interested in politics, you have to react to be heard."

A survey commissioned by the Arab American institute and conducted by Zogby International showed that among the electorate, Bush's favourability rating declined to 38 percent in January 2004 from 83 percent in October 2001 (though now it is up in the forties).

Anecdotally, at least, the trend is the same among Muslim Americans. But in absolute terms ,

the Muslim community is small and their ability to affect the outcome in this year's elections depends on influence in states and local elections where voters are quite evenly divided.

In Florida, where the presidential vote was bitterly fought and contested down to the last vote in

2000, there is a large Muslim population, which could bump the state into the Democratic camp. On the flip-side, say some analysts, many Jewish voters may switch their vote to Republican, cancelling out this effect.

The opportunity of garnering Muslim and Arab American votes has not been lost on the Democratic candidates. Let us see if this has any effect on the election.