New Immigrants in Jackson Heights Rally for Obama

QUEENS, Nov. 4 — Running circles outside his elementary school Tuesday, 6-year-old Jayed Islam stopped to flash a huge Obama button, the same shade of navy blue as the passport his mother, Naim Islam, clutched as she waited to vote in her first American election. 

Islam was among the thousands of new, mostly Muslim voters who cast ballots in Jackson Heights on Election Day.  Some shouted. Others fasted and prayed. But everyone from biochemists to bartenders, taxi drivers and substitute teachers, some in burkas and beards, others in sweaters and jeans came out in force to vote in a moment that demonstrated the great faith new immigrants still have in the power and possibilities of America. 

During the 2000 Census, there were 2,890 Bangladeshis living in Jackson Heights. But nearly all of those interviewed at the polls Tuesday said they had arrived after 2000.

Ironically, the greatest excitement all day came from an immigrant group that is considered to be one of Queens’ quietest. The normally introverted and deeply religious Bangladeshi community prickled with anticipation under the school’s blue awnings. New voters who wouldn’t say where they live or what they do shouted out the name on their secret ballots with pride.

Without exception, they shouted “Obama.” 

“My voice is done,” said Sawor Khan, who campaigned on the street about two hours before the polls closed, “I scream a lot.” 

Jackson Heights is split fairly in half between new immigrants from Latin America and those from South Asia. On 74th Street, just three blocks from the Public .School. 69 polling station, a bejeweled enamel statue of Ganesh, the elephant-headed Hindu deity and remover of obstacles, faced stalls selling velvet pillows embroidered in gold with verses from the Quran.  

Just last week, lines stretched out the door and around the corner at sweet shops like Al-Naimat, a Muslim-owned restaurant selling gifts for the central Hindu festival of Diwali.

“This is a South Asian area,” said Giash Ahmed, a registered Repubbulican who ran on his party’s ticket for the New York State Assembly in 2006 but voted for Barack Obama. “They are participating for the first time.”

Young families arrived at the polls, many with their older children who would act as interpreters. Some, like restaurant worker Mohammad Rashid, who has been an American citizen for one year, cast their first ballot with the help of a Bengali-speaking poll worker. Others, like LILA and Mohammad Uddin, shared their first vote as a family. They brought their 3-year-old son Akif to the polls once the lines died down that morning, after Uddin finished his night shift as a cab driver in Manhattan.

 One man, a Pakistani taxi driver who would take his citizenship test in two weeks, sang Obama’s name in a lullaby to his infant son while his wife cast her ballot inside.

“You’re a good boy, vote for Obama,” he cooed. “You want to grow up big so you vote for Obama.”

Biochemist Mohammed Sarker and his daughter 5-year-old daughter Rubina stopped to absorb some of the energy at P.S. 69 at about the same time Rubina’s kindergarten class normally lets out. 

“She was actually directing me here,” Sarker said, his hand resting lightly on the little girl’s purple hood. “This election has been a very changing election. I can’t wait to hear the result.”

Even as they participated in the most theoretically secular of American traditions, religion played a role for at least a few of Jackson Heights’ Bangladeshi immigrants.

Manzur Ahmed is in his 40’s, but he dyes his beard to look younger. He waited at the polls with his wife, Masuma Sultan, a petite woman with wire-rimmed glasses who wears a hijab in public, and their three children. Ahmed said the “Obama-is-a-secret-Muslim” controversy had troubled him. Although the president-elect is a practicing Christian, Ahmed and others interviewed said they had their doubts.   

“If he is a Muslim and he denies it for votes, he is a very weak person,” Ahmed said. “Muslims have suffered here for a lot of wrong reasons.”

But he said he would definitely vote for Obama anyway. 

“Obama, for sure,” he said. “He’s the president of all people, all races, all religions.”

Ash Tuckher prayed two nafl, or supplements to Islam’s regiment of five daily prayers, for Obama’s success. After Obama’s landslide victory that night, Tuckher promised to do many more. His friend Sawor Khan, the man who had screamed himself hoarse, said he hadn’t eaten anything since the night before.

 “I never ever campaign in my life, but this is a time for a campaign,” he half-shouted. “I haven’t eaten anything today. I don’t even take water until I see victory. You could say I’m fasting for Obama.”