| No Images? Click here   Prior to the 2020 election, presidential candidates rarely ― if ever ― visited a mosque on the campaign trail. Rowaida Abdelaziz, a reporter who covers civil rights, noticed that has changed. In the lead up to the 2020 election, more and more candidates are courting the Muslim vote.What was the seed for this story?Just last week, I attended a historic gathering of Muslim Americans in politics and yet only 1 candidate attended in person. It made me wonder which of the presidential candidates were even seeking the Muslim vote.I dove deeper and began to compare which candidates were engaging with Muslims and which weren’t when I found out Gov. Jay Inslee from Washington State was visiting a mosque. That’s when I began to make a chart to see who has and who hasn’t. I wanted to understand what this means for a country that’s polarized and demonized Muslims for so long. It’s quite historic if you think about it!How did you go about proving it?Research, emails and more emails. I dug into online archives to compare records of the last presidents and the current candidates. For the past presidents, I double and triple checked by reaching out to former members of the Obama administration. For the current presidential candidates who were running, not only did I reach out to their campaigns but I also reached out to my network of mosques across the country to confirm past visits and see if new ones were on the table.What was most challenging in reporting this story?Capturing the complexities of the story. It’s easy to look at our political system in a binary way and say Republicans are bad and Democrats are good when it comes to embracing marginalized communities, but that’s not always the case.Somehow American Muslims, who have contributed to the growth, progress, and beauty of this country, were associated with the enemy no matter what. Politicians didn’t listen to them -- they only surveilled them, especially after 9/11.But that’s changing now. Politicians are embracing Muslim Americans and taking their voting power seriously. It took a long time to get here, and some Muslims are skeptical, while others are welcoming the change.How did you figure out which experts to reach out to?I knew I had to talk to people who had ties to the White House. They could speak to the larger strategy of Muslim engagement among candidates. It made all the difference in my report. 🔥 More Must Reads 🔥
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