With the Democratic and Republican national conventions having concluded this week, the campaigns are entering the final weeks before Election Day. Like our fellow Americans, Muslims are weighing the issues, studying the candidates, and making their decision on which candidates to support.

As a community, we have come a long way. Just two decades ago, a nascent group of Arab and Muslim political activists organized a coalition and offered to endorse then-Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis. Shunning the group’s support, Dukakis added insult to injury by encouraging Arab and Muslim Americans to vote republican. Fastforward to the 2000 election; then-Governor George W. Bush met with Muslim American leaders, actively sought Muslim American support and was the first presidential candidate to invite a Muslim to open a session of a national convention with a prayer. And in the second presidential debate, in response to a question regarding racial profiling by law enforcement, he sought out the opportunity to further condemn the use of “secret” evidence against individuals suspected of supporting terrorism.

Estimates vary, but between 75 and 80 percent of Muslim American voters supported Bush in that election. After his inauguration, President Bush met with prominent Muslim American leaders such as Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi, Shaikh Hamza Yusuf, and Imam W.D. Muhammad and was the first president since President Dwight Eisenhower to visit an American mosque when, just days after 9/11, he visited a mosque in Washington, D.C. and warned Americans against anti-Muslim bigotry and violence. Throughout his term, President Bush has appointed several Muslim Americans to senior positions in his administration.

Now it is 2008, and another generation of Muslim Americans is faced with candidates from both sides of the aisle, as well as the many third-party candidates. And like our fellow Americans, Muslims feel a significant level of anger and frustration towards our elected leaders in Washington. The war in Iraq, excessive spending, the rising cost of gasoline and healthcare, and the urgent need for improvements in infrastructure in places such as New Orleans and Minneapolis, to name a few, have caused many to seek fresh solutions to these and other challenges facing our nation.

For Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin, individual freedom and opportunity shapes their platform. The Republican candidates support lower taxes, including preserving the Bush tax cuts, abolishing the death tax, keeping the capital gains tax at 15% or lower, and reducing the regulatory burden on all of us. The Republicans support reforming the tort laws so trial lawyers do not threaten to bankrupt every doctor and small business owner in America. They stand for individual choice and freedom in healthcare, parental choice in education, religious freedom of expression, practical energy solutions, free trade, limited government and reduced government spending. In facing today’s many challenges, the Republican candidates look to empowering individuals and families, and not expanding the power and reach of the federal government.

Both Senator McCain and Governor Palin have taken on wasteful government spending including earmarks, corruption, and Senator McCain has fought against those calling for the use of torture. Both support appointing judges who apply the law based on the Constitution and not on popular opinion and individual whim.

Regardless of your party affiliation or which candidate you support, it is imperative that American Muslims remain engaged in the political process. Like our fellow Americans, we deserve a seat at the table, and we have earned that seat through hard work, intelligent dialogue, and constructive engagement. In registering to vote, organizing strategic coalitions, and sustained political discourse, we will not only preserve and protect our cherished rights and freedoms, but we will continue to contribute to our country and enrich the lives of freedom-loving people everywhere.