Make Yourself the Example

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By Imam Abdullah El-Amin, TMO
 
O YE WHO BELIEVE!  Save yourselves and your families from a fire whose fuel is men and stones, over which are (appointed) angels stern (and) severe who do not hesitate from carrying out the commands they receive from ALLAH, but do (exactly) what they are commanded to do. 

Qur’an 66: 6

Forget rock stars, cartoons, Hanna Montana, and the kid down the block. The one your children are most influenced by is YOU.  It is very important to give your offspring a positive outlook on life in the present, and the future.

Does your child go around sulking all day and feels everything will go against him/her?  Is poor academic performance something your child expects?  (Or worse still, is it something you expect?)  It is not the place you want your family to be.   This is especially true since low self-esteem and a negative attitude put kids at a higher risk for depression and a poor performance in life.  If this case scenario seems to fit your situation, you might take a look at yourself as the main cause of their state of mind.  I don’t mean to put you in a defensive mode and shut you down; I’m merely trying to point out some very real pictures in the sea of life.

As the above sura points out, you must be in position to save your offspring first.  This is impossible if you can’t save yourself.  Kids model your behavior.  If you are gloomy, negative and unsure of yourself in life, guess what?  They will most likely be likewise.

You have a big say in your child’s experiences.  You are the one that decided where they live; where they go to school; where they worship; even what they worship.  For the most part, they have no choice.  This is the time to put those positive thoughts in their mind so they can grow.  This is the time to tell them they can instead of they can’t.  This is the time to teach them to look beyond the brick walls and boulders in their path and either go around it, over it, under it, or knock it down.  Whatever is possible.

It is not the time to fix all their problems for them.  If you do this, they will not be able to learn how to solve problems on their own.  Then what happens when you die?  No one else is going to baby them like you did so they will be at the mercy of the wolves that surely lie in wait.  You know how safe and confidant you feel when you approach something with knowledge and competence?  Whatever it is it is less scary and intimidating.  It’s the same with your offspring.  Let them see you being confident and they will approach their situations with less fear; so they probably will be more successful.

Another way of saving your children from the fire is to be active with them.  Try doing new thing with them.  This takes them out of their comfort zone and gives them new experiences to build strength and character on.  Don’t worry about failing.  Just point out that most great occurrence in the world came after many failures first.  Teach them how to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and start all over again (to use the words of a great song).

As Salaam alaikum
(Al Hajj) Imam Abdullah El-Amin

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Silence and Human Consciousness

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By Karin Friedemann, TMO

One thing that has almost been lost in the modern world is silence. And with it, a large part of human consciousness. I have four children, and almost all of the time when we are together, they are all talking at once. It requires total focus to listen to four streams of thought simultaneously, especially while driving. I have been known to become hysterical, just begging them to please… stop… talking. If a downstairs neighbor falls asleep in front of the TV and leaves it on until morning, you will probably find me cranky tomorrow! As I write this, there has been some kind of verbal showdown between drunk drivers outside my window involving prolonged horn honking. With all that is going on around us, it is hard to complete a sentence even in our own minds. It is comforting that in this day and age there are places like mosques and temples and even prayer rooms in airports, where one could recharge, clear out and refresh the intellect.

Noise pollution affects all of our lives. Obviously, we need and want social interaction but we also need some time of the day when nobody is asking us about anything. Our mental files need to be sorted alphabetically so that we can recall them at future notice. We need our thoughts, so we can learn from our experiences. We need a time of silence to plan our dreams. Some people have said my home sounds like a grave, but truly I sometimes need a music-free environment to dig deeper, and to be reborn with a fresh point of view.
A lot of radio stations or TV stations seem like they are actually screaming at us to notice them and their advertisements! The constant stream of pseudo-information can become unpleasant within the kitchen situation when family members are trying to help each other and talk at the same time. Sometimes I even wish I could just unplug the refrigerator to escape that infernal humming and groaning. When I go to sleep I have to put on a loud fan to tune out the neighbors.

The Islamic warnings against music are not new to the 21st century, but the effect of canned music, such as from radio or Cd’s, is worth discussing primarily because of the commercialization of art. An average person could be exposed to someone else’s poetry literally 24 hours a day. Studies have shown that people who listen to popular country music radio have noticeably higher suicide rates. When you invite somebody’ else’s song into your house, you invite their heartache, their life story. This can have a profound effect on the personality.

Most Americans are addicted to constant external noise in their homes, broadcast from the satellites. They are completely terrified of being left alone with themselves. Because the second we turn off the TV and there is no one there but the bushes outside our window, we are left alone with God. We are left alone with our own thoughts, which we sometimes cannot even tolerate. The burden of withstanding our own company is so painful that we would fill it with radio commercials to take up the time, but until when? Until it’s time for dinner, until it’s time for the children to go to bed, until the morning when some talk show host will be telling you what to think about at breakfast? Tuning into public broadcast gives us a sense of passing the time, participating in public opinion, and perhaps for some, even doing our public duty to be “informed.”

At this particular moment in writing this article, I became overwhelmed by the silence in my own vicinity and elected to take a walk instead of filling the silence with noise. It was a beautiful night. The walk gave me time to replay scenes from earlier today and wonder what they meant. My cells filled with oxygen as I walked under the trees. The clouds glowed mysteriously in front of the moon. Even though the clouds and moon are always there, noticing their beauty can invigorate an entire evening.

When I was in fifth grade, I got elected to sing in the Ann Arbor All-City Choir, and the song we sang was “the Sound of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel. My parents being immigrants, I had never heard it though my classmates were already familiar with the music. It must have spoken to me though because I went on amazon last month and bought a $3 used cassette tape of Simon and Garfunkel’s greatest hits to listen to in the car. According to the song, “the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls, and whispered in the sounds of silence.” Without question, the words of the prophets (pbut) were derived in moments of silence.

It is only in moments of silence that we can distinguish truth from falsehood, good ideas from bad ideas. We need to slow down once in a while and tune out so we can tune into our own thoughts and needs and ideas. Really, sometimes we don’t even know what we ourselves are about to do unless we sit down and discuss it with ourselves. Even if the plan is to just sit here for a while and not think.
Looking at the water flow always helps erase the past, but the best way to experience time is to just be. Just be yourself now, because “God don’t make no junk.” Ask yourself why you are here, how you got here, and where you are going. People who don’t do this just react to every event like some amoeba going after food or avoiding pain. We must take a few minutes a day to reflect, in order to stay human.

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London 2012: Islamic Olympians Fast

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Ramadan fasting despite long days

More than 3,000 Muslim sporting stars are expected to fast from sunrise until sunset.

By Jerome Taylor

2012-08-01T202617Z_2085114792_LM2E8811KRM71_RTRMADP_3_OLY-WEIG-WLM77K-WRAP-DAY5

Egypt’s Ibrahim Ramadan Ibrahim lifts on the men’s 77Kg Group A weightlifting competition at the ExCel venue at the London 2012 Olympic Games August 1, 2012.

REUTERS/Grigory Dukor

For the thousands of athletes hoping to win medals at this summer’s Games, nutrition is of paramount importance.

Competitors are renowned for painstakingly watching every calorie, counting each ounce of protein, as they strive for physical perfection at what is the most important time of their lives.

So spare a thought for the more than 3,000 Muslim sporting stars who are competing in the midst of Ramadan, the holy month where all adherents to Islam are expected to fast from sunrise until sunset.

The timing of London 2012, the first Olympics to coincide with Ramadan since 1980, caused so much concern within some Muslim sporting bodies that they asked the International Olympic Committee to consider moving it. One of their key concerns was the length of the daily fast that would have to be done in Britain where the daylight hours in summer are from 5am to 9pm – a gruelling ordeal for those who live closer to the Equator.

The request was declined but organisers have gone to great lengths to try and make sure Muslim athletes are catered for. The canteens at all the sporting venues are open 24 hours a day so athletes can fill up on halal food once the sun goes down.

For Ahmed Habash, Egypt’s first ever Olympic sailor, the fast in Britain is a considerably longer one than he is used to. “In Egypt sunset is at 19:00 and here in England it is 21:00,” he said. “During the actual races I am not going to fast by using the license. It does mean when I return home I’ll have to re-fast, but only for the five days I miss.”

But others relish Ramadan. “It’s a blessing month,” said Mohamed Mohamed, Somalia’s 1500m runner. “I have been waiting for this month for the past 11 months, it’s a month we are very happy to welcome. As an athlete it can get difficult, but I am ready to fast and train and to get through this difficult month.”

Most athletes have been helped by the fact that their religious leaders have allowed them to avoid fasting using various religious get-out clauses. Islamic law is often flexible. Traditionally the ill, pregnant women, travellers and those who would have their only source of income affected can fast at another time or pay money to charity instead.
There is no central religious authority in Islam so each country makes their own decision. Nonetheless Egypt, the UAE, Algeria, Morocco, Malaysia – and even highly conservative Saudi Arabia – have all allowed their athletes to put off fasting.

Yunus Dhudwala is an imam who normally works as chaplain in Newham hospital. Over the next two weeks he is one of the specially designated imams in the athlete’s village. “Most of the athletes I’ve met are either delaying fasting for a later date. But some are fasting on all the days except on the day they have to compete.”

Nonetheless there are those who still chose to go ahead with depriving themselves of food throughout the Games. Many of Morocco’s football team have insisted on fasting even though their muftis have given them permission not to. At their first game against Japan over the weekend they lost 1-0 and were forced to defend themselves against the suggestion that Ramadan might be to blame.
Moroccan forward Noureddin Amrabat was substituted after 70 minutes. “Ramadan has little effect,” he insisted. “I have less power. It’s my religion and for me the only way is that you do Ramadan. It’s not an excuse to play a match. I have my religion and I do 30 days Ramadan”.

The team’s Dutch coach Pim Verbeek added: “Of course [Ramadan’s] difficult. Physically they cannot be 100% fit, but mentally they have to be a little bit better than they are.”
Many of the scientific studies commissioned to look into the effects of fasting and sport have found little evidence to suggest it has a detrimental impact on performance.
“People often assume it will affect an athlete’s performance but it’s not as simple as that,” says Professor Ron Maughan, an expert of sporting nutrition who has studied  fasting. “Many athletes say they actually play better when they fast, they feel more focused, more in tune with their bodies.”

Somali 400m runner Zamzam Moahmed Farah would agree. “Ramadan is something we have to perform,” she said. “I’m just as fast and I will run and I don’t think it will affect me as an athlete.”

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Monir Ahmed Lauded for Services to Students

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MonirAhmedMERCED,CA–Monir Ahmed, assistant vice-chancellor for Business and Financial services at YC-Merced, was profiled in the Sacramento Bee newspaper for going out of his way to help and guide students.  He helps the students in a variety of ways including helping them with finding accomadation, organizing events, among several other things. He also works in the larger community by start Family and Community Circle, a local social serv- ices nonprofit geared toward establishing relationships between immigrant families and the local community.

That is not all. He also serves as an advisor to the Muslim Students Association as well as other student groups on campus, including one that’s trying to set up a free clinic in South Merced to serve the uninsured. Monir Ahmed is a true inspiration of a life full of service to humanity.

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Fasting Ramadan

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By Mahesh Bhatt

The Famous Film maker and Human Rights activist MAHESH BHATT observes daily fast (Roza) during Ramadan ? Why?

maheshbhatt_RamadanExclusive.RamzanOn the 14th day of Ramadan, as I drove back home to break my daily fast (Roza), a beep on my cell phone alerted me to an incoming message. This is what the message said: Hello, Mr. Bhatt, I understand through your utterances and writings that you are not a religious man and you do not believe in the efficacy of prayer. But I have now learned that you maintain Roza in the month of Ramadan. Your actions, Mr. Bhatt, bewilder the Hindus and shock the Muslims as well. May I ask why you keep Roza? This question from a stranger made me smile but since the query was an innocent one I instinctively punched in my response, which was, Islam is a part of my heritage. I was born to a Brahmin Hindu father and a Shia Dawoodi Bohra Muslim mother. When I was a child my mother would ensure that I fasted for at least one day in the month of Ramadan. I remember her telling me that during the month of Ramadan the Muslims say that the gates of heaven are open. This is the month when Muhammad (s) received his first revelation. After my mother died six years ago I realized that the only way to keep her alive within me was to fast for every single day in the month of Ramadan.

That evening when the distant Azaan was heard and the clock announced that the day’s fast had come to an end, my parched body welcomed the first sip of water that I had taken in 14 hours like a desert would welcome rain. As I bit into an overripe date I discovered that at this particular moment I was a part of this collective release which bound me together with millions of people in my country and all over the world with such unnatural force that I experienced a sense of exhilaration like I had never experienced before. And it was then that for the first time I realized what the spirit of Ramadan is really all about.

When so many people together wholeheartedly share a common purpose, they are united in a way that one has to experience to truly comprehend. And the exhilaration comes from the fact that it’s not about the individual alone but about all of us, together, doing something so completely. And it is perhaps this feeling of brotherhood that makes fasting in Ramadan such a unique and joyous experience. In this buy, consume and junk age where one’s consciousness is being bombarded by all kinds of pleasure peddlers who market their mouth-watering food and drink on the hour by the hour, it is such a relief to shut the door to them and their wares and protect your body from an overdose of pleasure. In the month of Ramadan one takes a break from the hedonistic way of life. One gets off the treadmill of constant pleasure seeking and lives a life of austerity and simplicity. This rejuvenates the physical organism and fills one with unusual vigor. As days turn into weeks you being to realize that the human organism spends too much energy in trying to process excess food intake. The maxim that man is killed by too much food begins to make sense.

In the first few days of Ramadan, when the pangs of hunger gnaw at your insides leaving you to constantly stare at the clock, you suddenly feel as if there is an invisible umbilical cord connecting you to the sea of otherwise faceless people all over the world that often go for days without a square meal. Your apathy and indifference slowly begin to fade away and your heart begins to wake up to the all-pervasive suffering of your fellow human beings.

Another thing that makes this Ramadan even more special for me is that my 13 year old daughter Alia has for some strange and unknown reason spontaneously decided to fast along with me. Like you fast for your mother, I fast for you, she said simply after I asked her what prompted this unexpected decision. No wonder a wise man once said, “What you teach your children, you also teach your grand-children.” I wonder whether years ago while my mother was shaking me awake in the hush of the morning light and whispering, “Beta, time for Sehri”, she knew she was also awakening her future grand-children. Isn’t this at the end of it all what culture is all about?

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Manaf Tlass: Being Groomed as the Syrian Ahmed Chalabi?

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Manaf Tlas, a defector from the Assad regime, has it all: money, foreign friends, and a secular outlook. Now he’s being pushed forward by foreign groups as Syria’s strongman in waiting.

By Dan Murphy

tlass

Syrian Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlass walks with Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, unseen, before a Ramadan fast-breaking dinner at Davutoglu’s residence in Ankara, Turkey, Thursday, July 26. The general, who defected from Syria, made a surprise visit to Turkey.

Burhan Ozbilici/AP

One of the problems of supporting revolutions in sharply divided societies, riven by sectarian tension and with much of the population furious after decades of abuse by their central government, is it’s hard to put a strong stable government in place once the head has been cut off of the ancient regime.

One popular method for trying to deal with this problem (rarely successful) is to promote an exile who promises to be BFFs to take control of the nation. For the US, in the case of Iraq, that was Ahmed Chalabi, a man who turned out to have very little popularity in Iraq and ended up aligning his political fortunes with Iran and being blacklisted by the US intelligence establishment that once hung on his every word (oops).

Influential supporters of the Iraq war are already calling for round 2 in Syria.

And today, a lonely foreign policy establishment is turning its eyes to Manaf Tlass, a recent defector from the Syrian regime. Mr. Tlass was a brigadier general in Bashar al-Assad’s republican guard, and yet a member of the country’s Sunni Arab majority (his father had served Assad’s father Hafez as minister of defense). His family has profited handsomely from sweetheart business deals under Assad, yet this week he’s promised to help usher in a new democratic era. And even better, the former regime henchman has a penchant for red wine and Cuban cigars; no Muslim Brotherhood supporter here! (He also has ties to some far-right groups in France.)

In the past few days after weeks of quiet in France, where he fled three weeks ago, he’s been giving interviews and making videotaped statements. Today he traveled to Turkey, where he met with the foreign minister and promised to try to unite Syria’s opposition.

Yesterday the Wall Street Journal cited unnamed US officials as saying they were “discussing ways to place Syria’s highest-ranking military defector at the center of a political transition in the Arab state… the officials said Gen. Tlass is one of the few figures in opposition to the regime who could potentially help restore order in Damascus and secure Syria’s vast chemical-weapons stockpile.”

Most people who follow Syria doubt the rebels who have been fighting since early last year against the Assad regime will have much time for Tlass. But those interested in the man and what he stands for should have a look at this essay by researcher Bassam Haddad, who met the man a few years ago.

“That night, I was introduced to Tala’s husband, Manaf Tlass, as a “Syria researcher” working on the “Syrian economy.” At the time, Manaf was one of the regime’s top strongmen, working side by side with Mahir al-Asad (the president’s younger brother) as a commander of elite units in the Republican Guard. It was too dark to make out his features. Most of what I saw was the big round flame at the tip of the cigar that seemed surgically attached to his fingers, if not his lips. He asked a few questions. I answered politely. I knew who he was, and thought it was odd that he mingled so freely… On a subsequent trip, at a birthday party in another of those restaurants, I met Manaf again. This time, he asked someone to ask me to come to his table. Usually, that is not a good thing… Manaf was quite candid and seemed more interested in conversation than surveillance. Still, I hesitated for some time before friends advised me not to skip out on the meeting. At the time, Manaf was a rising star, quite close to the Asad family. Regime strongmen had regained their swagger after several years of “consolidation” that took place after the succession of Bashar to the presidency. It was a day to begin making Syria anew, with a younger and more contemplative, though less seasoned, leadership. The theme was less “reform” than “modernization,” less “change” than “continuity.”

To be sure, some argue (like Joshua Landis, who lived in Syria for years and has good regime contacts) that he fled Syria after he favored more velvet glove, and less iron fist, in dealing with the uprising.

But in the end, Tlass is a child of wealth and privilege, closely associated with the abuses of the Assad regime, who only recently jumped ship. His star is unlikely to rise as quickly among Syria’s rebels as it did among the Baath regime he served for so long.

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Why a Dallas UM pastor is Observing the Muslim Fast of Ramadan

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By Dina Malki

UM Pastor shares the Muslim fast experience with local Dallas Muslims.

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UM Dallas Rev. Wess Magruder is observing a month long Muslim fast during Ramadan. Photo credit:  www.unitedmethodistreporter.com.

United Methodist Rev. Wess Magruder has not only decided to observe the Ramadan fast this year with his Muslim friends, blog about his experience, but break his fast with Muslims as well. Last night, Magruder accepted the invitation of a local Muslim to eat “iftar,” the fast-breaking meal at the McKinney Islamic Association. Having succeeded in fasting from sunrise till sunset for eight consecutive days, the pastor appreciated God’s grace in this communal meal. Most importantly, this celebration reminded him of the main reason why he had decided to fast: neighborly love.

Magruder writes on his blog how he has been feeling spiritually stale lately and how he was yearning to the old Christian fast that he believes Americans are not big fans of. Therefore, Magruder turned to the Muslim faith for inspiration since he knew that Muslims have successfully been fasting for 30 days each year during Ramadan for over fourteen hundred years. The Muslim fast is a total abstention from eating and drinking during the daylight hours. Furthermore, the fast goes beyond the stomach to include the eyes, the tongue, the ears, and all limbs which are expected to be trained to submit to the pleasure of God by refraining from ill manners and moral vice. A few Muslims succeed in attaining a heart-fast where they become spiritually submissive to the divine as well.

Thus, Magruder’s blog includes a lot of comparative religion as well as spiritual efforts for a quest for the Divine. “I feel a constant “buzz” [during the fast] in my head,” he wrote. “This buzz serves a useful purpose, by the way. It keeps me conscious of God, of God’s presence, of God’s will that is bursting to become real in the world. And so when something else isn’t going on in front of me, the buzz reminds me to speak to God.”

Another main reason that the pastor took on the Muslim fast is his Christian ethics of loving God and loving neighbors. “But there’s another reason that I have chosen to ‘act like a Muslim’ over the next thirty days. I truly want to stand in solidarity with my friend, [Imam Sheikh] Yaseen, and his congregation in Plano. I want them to know that I do not resent their presence in my community and country. In fact, I am very glad that they are here.”

Not realizing what his blogging experience might trigger, Rev. Magruder woke up on July 26, the seventh day of Ramadan, to a flooded email inbox with comments from his blog. His blog posts have been picked up by local Muslims and Christians as well as by nation-wide readers who sent words of encouragement, advice, and support. The Huffington Post Ramadan Liveblog even included his posts. “I am overwhelmed by the response,” Magruder wrote.

Most Muslim commentators gave the pastor “high fives,” advice on surviving the fast, and thank you notes for sharing the experience online. One particular reader, Osman, invited Magruder to the break-fasting meal at the McKinney mosque mentioned earlier. Thus, this individual initiative on the part of a loving Christian neighbor was received with outpouring love and compassion and resulted in more friendships.

However, not all blog readers are Muslim. A few are Christian fellows who appreciated Magruder’s initiative in building bridges within the Abrahamic faith and in sharing the Muslim experience. Others were not quite impressed as they believed that this fast is a tough one and meaningless. Some non-Muslim readers also expressed their critical views about Islam and Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia as far as tolerance and the status of women. In a nut shell, the blog turned out to be an interfaith dialog where people from every faith contribute a thought or two and carry on a civilized conversation.

The DFW Muslim community has always been blessed with friendships, alliances, and bridges it shares with the larger American community. But this year, as more non-Muslims like Rev. Magruder are choosing to observe the Ramadan fast with Muslims as signs of compassion and solidarity, American Muslims locally and nationally are appreciative of such initiatives to close gaps between faith traditions and bring more understanding to our nation. American Muslims know that they are not alone in fasting this year because they are home.

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Obama’s Religion?

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USA-CAMPAIGN/OBAMA

U.S. President Barack Obama waves before he speaks at a campaign event at the John S. Knight Center in Akron, Ohio, August 1, 2012. REUTERS/Larry Downing

Three and a half years into President Obama’s first term as president, half of Americans cannot accurately say what religion he is, according to a poll released this week.

Only 49 percent of respondents said that Obama was Christian while 17 percent inaccurately said he was Muslim.  Nearly one-third of respondents said they did not know the president’s religion, according to the poll released Thursday by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life.

More people – 60 percent – knew that Romney, who has not held elected office in a decade, was Mormon than knew which religion the sitting president subscribes to.

And while only 9 percent of respondents said Romney was a religion that he is not, more than twice that amount said Obama adheres to a religion other than Christianity. The vast majority of those claiming Obama is not a Christian said he was a Muslim.

Nearly one in three Republicans said Obama was Muslim, twice as many as in 2008, the Pew study shows.

“Unfortunately there has been a development of a bizarre echo chamber within right wing of the political spectrum that truth and reality have failed to penetrate,” said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director at Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based Muslim civil rights and advocacy group. “It’s a self-perpetuating, self-reinforcing delusion.”

But this seemingly large lack of basic knowledge about the president may have more to do with people’s opinion of Obama than how much they know about religious beliefs, said Alan Cooperman, associate director for research at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

“It’s entirely possible that what people are telling us isn’t exactly what they know but they are expressing an opinion,” Cooperman said. “We suspect — it’s hard to prove it– that some of the people who tell us that the president is a Muslim are using the question as a way to express their distrust or dislike for the president.”

Only 8 percent of Democrats said Obama was Muslim. Because there is such a wide divide between the parties’ responses, Cooperman said the results do not “just show whether people are ignorant on the president’s religion but more that they have an opinion on his religion.”

The percentage of people who said Obama was Muslim has stayed fairly steady since August 2010, when firestorm erupted over plans to build an Islamic community center two blocks from Ground Zero in New York City.

Hooper said that while the tension between Muslims and Christians has not been as public since the “Ground Zero Mosque” controversy, he has seen “a steady erosion of tolerance and mutual understanding based on this relentless campaign of Islamophobia” since Obama was elected.

“It is visceral hatred for President Obama and to justify it they have to come up with these reasons: he is the other, he’s Muslim, he’s foreign born.”

But as of now, a candidate’s religion will not likely be the driving factor for whether people pick Obama or Romney in November.

Even though 65 percent of those who think Obama is Muslim said they were uncomfortable with his religion, most of them also said they already planned to vote for Romney. And among voters who knew Romney was Mormon, 80 percent either said his faith did not make them uncomfortable or that it did not matter.

“I’m not going to say it doesn’t matter at all,” Cooperman said, but it “doesn’t seem to have a lot of impact on their voting preference.”

ABCNews

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