As the Michigan Co-Director of the Mike Gravel for President campaign, I am writing to take issue with William Fisher’s article, “American Muslim voters left out in the cold,” and his statement, “Among candidates, the single exception appears to be Democrat Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio congressman and former mayor of Cleveland. He has reached out to American Muslims by including mosques in his campaign itinerary.”

Democratic presidential candidate Mike Gravel has appeared numerous times before Muslim groups, in Indiana and in Michigan, and although MPAC, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, invited all candidates from both parties to address its convention in Long Beach, CA in December 2007, only Mike Gravel accepted (unfortunately, he contracted the flu and was put under a doctor’s care, making it impossible for him to fulfill his commitment to deliver the keynote address). Those who attended the Arab American Institute banquet here at the Doubletree Inn at which Mike Gravel was keynote speaker witnessed the enthusiastic response he received. He has spoken to other informal groups of Arab Americans (although not exclusively Muslim) in Dearborn on several visits to this area before the Michigan primary, and he intends to return to Michigan again and again.

The fact that the media and corporate America has written off Mike Gravel should ring loudly with American Muslims, who have also been shunned and misrepresented by the mainstream media. You share a common problem: marginalization and distortion by the media. Perhaps there might be some hope in solidarity; Muslims uniting behind Mike Gravel would give power to his message. It is not always about winning the top post; it’s about changing the dynamics of public thinking.

Mike Gravel, whose leadership credentials far outweigh those of the current (diminishing) front runners, stands on the right side of issues dear to the hearts of Muslims and most other Americans: ending war, becoming a peacemaking nation in the Middle East and elsewhere, strengthening our educational system, and providing quality healthcare for all Americans. In addition, he — and he alone — offers Americans the vehicle to make significant change in governance on the federal level.  The National Initiative for Democracy is a constitutional amendment that would empower Americans to become lawmakers in partnership with their elected officials and provide a vital fourth check to our check-and-balance system.

With Kucinich, Richardson, and Edwards out of the race, with Clinton deep in AIPAC’s pockets and Obama flirting with that position, and with impossible choices on the Republican side, it is time to consider the only real alternative — Mike Gravel.

Please understand and make your readers aware that Mike Gravel is in this race to the end. Keith Olbermann of MSNBC announced after the Iowa caucus that Senators Dodd and Gravel had dropped out of the race; the statement was true about Dodd, but not about Gravel.  Olbermann made a YouTube apology, which is on Mike Gravel’s website, but did not appear on MSNBC, where the damage was done. To see it and learn more about this true American hero, Mike Gravel, go to www.gravel2008.us.

Gravel’s new book, “Citizen Power: A Mandate for Change,” is available at his website, also.