Speaking of faith from American public media is supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts,

investing in ideas, returning results, PewTrust.com. Additional support is provided

by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the John Templeton Foundation.

This is speaking of faith, conversation about belief, meaning ethics, and ideas.

I'm Krista Tippett.

Today, the other religious America in election 2004.

The role of religion and religious voters has escalated in the final stretch of the 2004

campaign for president. In this remarkably tight race, every constituency has come to matter,

and both Republicans and Democrats have become increasingly attentive to the power of religious

convictions to sway all kinds of voters. This hour, in conversation with an African-American

and an American Muslim, we'll explore the perspectives of two religious communities who defy

the broad stereotypes of this election year. We'll seek to gain a deeper understanding of the way

in which they are thinking through the mix of religious ideas that have come to the forefront

of this campaign. These religious people see complex choices between competing religious

ideals, and they are making their decisions in ways that challenge the intuition of

pollsters and pundits. In accounting for 5 percent of the population,

Muslims have become the third-largest religious group in this country, yet relatively little

attention has been paid to the political direction their faith gives them. We'll speak with

Muslim-American political scientist Mukted Erkhan. With him, we'll explore why Muslims have become

swing voters in this year's election, despite the fact that they voted by a wide margin for George

W. Bush in 2000, in part for religious reasons. When Bush was asked who is your role model,

he had said Jesus Christ, and many Muslims said that how can we not work for a man whose role model

...