-MERIP Media Resource List, August 27, 2004

AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS on the following topics:

- Arab-American and Muslim disillusionment with Bush
- Evangelical Christian influence on Bush’s Middle East policies
- Middle East policy at the Republican Convention

LOUISE CAINKAR
http://www.merip.org/mer/mer224/224_cainkar.html
Louise Cainkar is a sociologist and senior research fellow at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Great Cities Institute. Recent publications include "The Impact of 9/11 on Muslims and Arabs in the United States," in John Tirman, ed., The Maze of Fear: Security and Migration After September 11th (New York: The New Press, 2004). She is regarded as a national expert on Arab immigrants, Arab Americans and immigrant Muslim communities. Commenting on the Arab-American and Muslim vote, Cainkar said today: “Muslims and Arabs overwhelmingly voted for Bush in 2000, believing his Middle East policies would be more even-handed than the Democrats. In a spectacular fall from grace, he has lost nearly all of this support because of the programs and policies he implemented after the 9/11 attacks, which showed little intelligence and were based largely on profiling, stereotypes and pursuing a pro-Israeli right agenda.”

REV. DONALD WAGNER
Donald Wagner is affiliated with North Park University in Chicago, where he is professor of religion and Middle Eastern studies, executive director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and director of the Institute for Christianity, Faith and Culture. Commenting on evangelical support for Bush, Wagner said: “A substantial portion of George W. Bush’s support has come from evangelical Christians, who are poised to play an important role in this year’s election. With Bush courting the most extreme evangelicals, combined with the influence of the neo-conservatives and the pro-Israel lobby, it is no surprise that his foreign policy on the Middle East caters to the right-wing agendas of Israeli Prime Minister Sharon and Congressmen Tom DeLay and Dick Armey.”

CHRIS TOENSING
Chris Toensing is executive director of the Middle East Research and Information Project and editor of Middle East Report. Commenting on the Bush administration’s use of the 9/11 report, Toensing said: "Bush administration officials have been citing the 9/11 commission report as backing for their preferred approach to the 'war on terrorism' -- a line we can expect to hear repeated at the convention. Yet the report, subtly, broke the post-September 11 taboo partly enforced by the Bush administration on discussing the political roots of terrorism. The problem is that the political remedies the commission recommends, like the ones Bush has pursued, have already proven ineffective at best."

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