Over at Commentary, Lisa Schiffren raises an interesting question: At what point does a particular minority group become large enough to be a significant domestic political constituency? She notes that the oft-cited figure of “eight million Muslims in the US” may, in fact, be only three million and then adds:
Moreover, of these, only a minuscule 4,761 are dues-paying members of CAIR, which presents itself as the community’s authoritative voice.
And yet everybody (including some of my wobblier editors around the map) jumps when CAIR complains about this or that. 4,761 members of the Ladies’ Aid Society can’t command that kind of instant deference. So why do 4,761 members of CAIR have a prominence out of all proportion to their numbers?
In June 2006, it was announced that Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal — supposedly a friend of America who built his multibillion-dollar fortune partly through owning Citibank and Apple stocks — will fund a $50 million CAIR project “to create a better understanding of Islam and Muslims” in America.
That’s the difference. Fifty million dollars can big up even the most footling and irrelevant group. And, given the way everybody from the media to the Transport Security Administration are so anxious to prostrate themselves before CAIR, it’s quite a bang for what to Prince Alwaleed is a modest number of bucks.