America's Muslims are looking to expand their political influence with a national voter registration drive, an effort that could have its first test on Saturday in Michigan, home to the largest concentration of Muslims and Arabs outside the Middle East. Thousands of Muslim Americans across the US have signed up ahead of the presidential election, the first time the community of up to seven million has formally organised. "I'm an American and a citizen," said Shazia Chughtai, 34, adding that in her view, "everything that goes wrong here is blamed on Muslims." According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which is helping to lead the effort, more than 3,000 new voters registered over the weekend in 13 states and the District of Columbia. Many more still had to be processed and counted, said Hasan Mansori, CAIR's governmental affairs co-coordinator. Further voter drives are planned for the coming weeks. In Michigan, which on Saturday selects delegates to the Democratic presidential nominating convention, the local CAIR chapter said community interest in the contest was high. "People really seem to be motivated and mobilised at this point," said Celena Khatib, a local CAIR official. "At the mosques, people have been asking me, how do I vote in this caucus? What do I do?" she said by telephone. "It gives me an optimistic feeling about the community now, that they're really excited about being politically involved and making a difference." Activists and scholars say the new emphasis on electoral politics in the once-insular American Muslim community follows naturally from increased organising to combat what many see as rising discrimination and bias in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Washington mosque.