Heartache.

Muslims Say They Can’t Guarantee Obama Their 2012 Election Vote — Huffington Post

As President Barack Obama travels across the country to raise funds and court voters, one group that was drawn to his candidacy four years ago has expressed a feeling of being further and further marginalized.

Muslim Americans could play a critical role in several battleground states come November. But while they supported Obama overwhelmingly in 2008, their votes are hardly guaranteed this go around.

Early in the Obama administration there was little reason for complaint. The president openly criticized the Bush administration’s policies of torture, signing of the Patriot Act and excessive surveillance of Muslims, and vowed to shut down Guantanamo Bay within a year. In a 2009 address in Cairo, Obama marked “a new beginning” for the United States, one in which the war on terror would no longer be synonymous with its marginalizing approach to Muslims.

But many of the promises have been left unmet. Nearly four years later, Guantanamo remains open, and just last year the president signed into law a four-year renewal of some of the Patriot Act’s most controversial provisions. And in some instances, administration policy has alienated the Muslim-American community. The continued drone strikes in Pakistan and revelations about Obama’s secret “kill list” of terrorist targets are among the list of policies that have caused some Muslims to re-think whether they will vote for Obama again this fall.

“This year there are many issues that are of great concern, looking at the last four years of President Obama, especially concerning civil rights,” said Naeem Baig, chairman of the American Muslim Taskforce, a coalition representing 13 of the country’s largest Muslim organizations.

“A good number of people are asking, why should we support the president when he did not deliver on many of the promises he made?”

The AMT endorsed Obama in 2008 but has not yet made an endorsement this cycle. Baig says it would be premature to leave any options off the table. “There’s a very strong voice asking about a possible third-party candidate,” he said.