Incumbent Congressman Greg Stanton (D-Arizona) recently held off a primary challenge from Democratic Socialist Kai Newkirk and will now face physician and former naval officer Dr. Zuhdi Jasser in the general election.
Jasser, who won the Republican primary unopposed, emerged after 9/11 as a national voice for reform within Islam. He founded the American Islamic Forum for Democracy and co-founded the Muslim Reform Movement to counter political Islam, reject religious-based theocracy, and advocate for secular governance, universal human rights, and the separation of mosque and state.
Organizations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) track Muslim candidates and elected officials in the U.S., but there is no official, exact national count tracking the total number of Muslim Republican candidates running for state or federal offices.
Most Muslim politicians align with the Democratic Party and emphasize civil rights or "Islamophobia," but Jasser differs sharply by campaigning as a conservative Republican and an openly pro-Israel Zionist.
Even with that stance, Jihad Watch Director Robert Spencer says Jasser is misleading people about the nature of Islam and the views of most Muslims.
"Because Zuhdi's had a platform for years, they hear him on Mark Levin, or they see him on Beck, and they think, 'Oh, all the Muslims are like him, or the vast majority, and so we really have nothing to worry about,'" Spencer notes. "He makes people think there's not really a problem; there's not really a threat that we've got to deal with, and that is the danger."
But when it comes down on how to vote, he says people "have to vote for Zuhdi."
"The only problem comes in when he starts talking about the nature of Islam, but that's not going to come up all the time in the House," Spencer says.
Spencer thinks most people "are already fooled in that regard," which means the damage Jasser can do in the House is "pretty much the same" as the damage he can do outside it.
"Meanwhile, he would be a good conservative in the House," Spencer adds. "I think it's a tough choice, but you've got to go for him."
