War is not the only reason some Muslims are ditching the Democrats
APress conferences The hearing, held in a building housing the Arab-American Chamber of Commerce in Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit, on October 27, was uncomfortable. On one side of the boardroom table, facing a crowd of cameras and microphones, sat about a dozen men and women with influence in Arab-American circles. They took turns speaking, each explaining how they had been directly affected by the war in the Middle East; how they felt disappointed and betrayed by President Joe Biden; And how, despite all that, they will still vote for Kamala Harris.
“I’ve heard people in my community say they want to punish Democrats for this war,” said James Zogby, the second speaker and founder of the Arab American Institute. “They’re not going to punish Democrats. They will punish immigrants. They will punish innocent people.” He ended his speech with a plea: “Do not punish the country, the world, your children and grandchildren, because you are angry.”
As they spoke, a small crowd gathered outside raised Palestinian flags, signaling that they would do just that: “There are traitors inside,” was the chant. “Endorsing our genocide.” They later called those present “collaborators with the Zionists.” According to Jenine Yassin, one of the protesters, the only difference between Ms. Harris and Donald Trump is the speed with which each of them accepts the killing of all Palestinians. She said both were appalling, but she thought Trump was at least sincere in his disdain for the Palestinian issue.
Michigan is among the closest swing states, where polls show Ms. Harris has the smallest lead: our model puts her ahead by just 0.4 percentage points. According to the Census Bureau, 310,000 people claim Middle Eastern or North African descent in the state, or about 3% of the total. Winning the votes of Arab voters could lead to Trump winning the elections. On October 26, at a rally in Novi, a suburb of Detroit, the former president appeared on stage with 21 Muslim and Arab leaders (all men), after receiving the endorsement of the mayors of Dearborn Heights, a majority-Arab suburb next to Dearborn. . and Hamtramck, an area of Detroit with an all-Muslim city council. One imam declared that Trump would achieve “peace.”
This seems somewhat implausible. According to Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator, Trump recently told Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, that he is “in awe” of Israeli military operations and supports more of them. The former president also called on Netanyahu to “finish the job.” But this may not prevent some Arab Americans in Michigan from voting for him.
Rania Patrice, a Palestinian-American Democratic activist who worked for Bernie Sanders in 2016 and who reluctantly supports Ms. Harris, says those who support Trump know that his promises of peace are a “big lie.” But she worries that they don’t care, because they are simply too angry with Biden and Ms. Harris. Many were warmer to her at first, but are disappointed that the vice president has not broken up with Biden since becoming the nominee.
There is reason to believe that some Muslims will turn to Trump even without the war, and that the bloodshed in Gaza and Lebanon simply provides an excuse. In a call organized by the Trump campaign on October 21, Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghaleb barely mentioned the war in Gaza at all. One of the imams present noted that if Ms. Harris won, “the boys will turn into girls, and the girls will turn into boys.” Hamtramck resident Melissa Gilchrist says she thinks Ghalib’s support for Trump has more to do with local politics. A year ago, she was at the forefront of a demonstration against Mr. Ghalib after he removed the city’s gay rights rainbow flag from outside City Hall. She says the mayor and his cohorts are “more conservative on social matters than the Democratic Party.” Trump’s endorsement is a blow to his domestic critics.
A poll conducted for the Arab American Institute earlier this month showed that Arab Americans are evenly divided between the candidates. Muslim and Arab voters may turn away from the ballot boxes, or move towards a third-party candidate. A campaign encouraging them to do so, called “Abandon Harris,” has been endorsed by Green Party candidate Jill Stein. Hassan Abdel Salam, its founder, says his hope is that Ms. Harris will narrowly lose the election in Michigan, after which Democrats will react by insisting that their next nominee must adopt a stronger approach toward Israel. “We want it to be written in history, for our great-grandchildren, we want it to be remembered forever,” he says. It’s an idea. ■
Correction (October 31): An earlier version of this story misrepresented the name of the Arab-American Chamber of Commerce and the name of the building in which its offices are located. Sorry.
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