In the days following a terror incident in Israel by Hamas, President Joe Biden proclaimed his steadfast support for Israel. Ahmad Ramadan, a former Biden adviser who is now in charge of Michigan’s Democratic Party’s coalition-building efforts, called the state party chair to express his concern about what he was hearing.
One of the greatest Muslim and Arab American communities is found in Michigan, and they claim that by supporting Biden, he was able to win the crucial swing state in 2020. Ramadan and other Democratic leaders in the state, however, were now only hearing complaints about Biden and threats to vote him out of office.
In the two weeks following the Hamas attack on October 7th, Ramadan had more than a dozen roundtable meetings with Muslim community leaders. Ramadan stated that the overall conclusion was that “people are very disappointed.” They claim that they “will not forget what President Biden accomplished and why he lied to them,” he continued.
“President Biden won in 2020 with unprecedented margins. And I was honored to stand in for that, but things have changed significantly over the past two weeks,” Ramadan remarked. I’ve also been receiving phone calls from folks who claim they have blood on their hands for organizing supporters for him throughout that campaign.
Although Muslims still make up a small portion of the population in the United States, their numbers are increasing quickly, and both parties are increasingly competing for their support. Democrats have largely been successful thus far because former President Donald Trump and other Republicans alienated them with policies like a visa restriction that affected nations with a majority of Muslims (which Trump has vowed to re-impose if he is re-elected).
But now, Muslim leaders are cautioning that if Biden and the party do not do more to battle Islamophobia and address the grief that many are experiencing about the war in Gaza, Democrats risk losing their support as well.
Joe Biden has “almost single-handedly alienated every Arab-American & Muslim American voter in Michigan,” claimed state representative Alabas Farhat, a Democrat, whose district includes Dearborn, that is home to one of the country’s major Muslim and Arab American communities.
According to Farhat, he has neighbors and constituents who have family members stranded in Gaza, some of whom are American citizens. They feel absolutely abandoned by the American government since it hasn’t done more to help get people out, get aid in, and put pressure on Israel for a cease-fire, he added.
To restore some degree of trust with my community, the Biden administration as well as Democrats as a whole will need to put in a lot of effort, he said. Trying to do the right thing is never too late.
According to several people involved in the discussions, Muslim elected officials, activists, and community leaders have come together over the past two weeks in rolling conversations in Michigan and elsewhere to develop a plan to encourage their supporters to vote in the upcoming election while also leaving the top of the ballot blank in protest.
That is the current plan, Farhat stated. “Do not be surprised if there are consequences for your actions,” said one person. “I think there will be a lot of people who remember when you won Michigan years back by a razor-thin margin, while you won Georgia with a razor-thin margin, and when you won Arizona by a razor-thin margin.”
Others have heard from voters who intend to support Republicans because they believe that at least Republicans were upfront with them about their unwavering support for Israel, but they believe Democrats have been tricked and exploited.
At a demonstration asking for a cease-fire on Wednesday, Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib said, “President Biden, you need to wake up and understand that not all of America is with you on this one.” “We’ll keep this in mind.”
The White House and Biden’s campaign claim they are aware of the worries and are attempting to allay them. They cite Biden’s remarks in his Oval Office address on Thursday night where he called for aid for Palestinian civilians, pleaded with Israel “not to be blinded by rage,” and directly addressed Muslim Americans by saying, “I see you. You are yours.
Speaking on behalf of the Biden campaign, Ammar Moussa stated, “The President and this administration have been clear: there is no place for Islamophobia, Xenophobia, or any of the disgusting racism we have witnessed in recent weeks. The stakes of the election in 2018 could not be higher given that MAGA Republicans are still running on an overtly anti-Islamic platform, including increased support for Donald Trump’s Muslim ban. In order to listen to them, defend them, and fight back against hatred, President Biden continues to engage closely and proudly with leaders in the American Muslim and Palestinian communities.
Biden called the family of Wadea Al-Fayoume, a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy killed in Illinois in what authorities are calling an anti-Muslim hate crime, right after he finished speaking in the Oval Office on Thursday night. Leaders of the Arab and Muslim communities in America have met with senior authorities to discuss battling Islamophobia, including national security advisor Jake Sullivan.
The highest-ranking American Muslim in the Biden administration, Dilawar Syed, was further sent by the White House to deliver a eulogy at an Al-Fayoume memorial. In an incident that went viral, the audience booed him as he began to speak, but they later applauded him as he emphasized that Biden will “do everything in his power to fight Islamophobia” as he concluded his remarks.
The deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration, Syed, promised that the effort would continue until every American was free to live their lives without fear or interference.
Prior to the incident, Biden restored the White House’s Eid celebration for the conclusion of Ramadan and took explicit steps to better integrate federal efforts to prevent Islamophobia.
Although they were praised, some Muslim American leaders claim that Biden’s remarks in the address fell short.
Dr. Mahmoud Hadidi, the chairman of the Michigan Muslim Community Council, stated, “I believe that he made a good case about what he believes in, but in no way does he come close to addressing the human disaster.” President Biden, who enjoyed strong community support, “could have said and done much more to express concern for the civilians caught in this unfortunate situation” in Gaza.
Muslims only make up 1.3% of the population in the United States, which is roughly half the size of the Jewish community, but supporters claim that their votes are crucial in swing states like Michigan, Minnesota, Georgia, and Arizona where elections may be won or lost by a small margin.
In Michigan, where Biden won the state in 2020 by 150,000 votes, there are thought to be 240,000 Muslims. In 2016, Trump won Michigan by a margin of just over 10,700 votes.
Nada Al-Hanooti, executive director of Emgage Michigan, the state affiliate of a nationwide charity that strives to engage Muslims politically, declared that the president “cannot win without the Muslim vote, plain and simple.”
Al-Hanooti, a Palestinian American, claimed that she has heard numerous people declare that they will either not vote for president in 2024 or will cast a third-party ballot.
Many groups can and do claim responsibility for swaying elections in recent elections in states like Michigan because the margins were so close. Representatives of each group competed for few resources and worked to advance their agendas up the White House’s priority ladder.
Additionally, Biden is probably unlikely to agree to some of the requests made by American Muslims, as he would have been even before the assault.
However, everyone acknowledges that in areas like Michigan, Biden will need every vote he can get.
“Michigan is a competitive state that is already purple. It will become one of the most difficult states in the nation because of these complex dynamics, according to Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., who spent 40 years living in Dearborn.
The mayor of Dearborn has been blasting Biden and other officials on social media for being “silently complicit in some of the worst war crimes our eyes have seen, and which are funded by our tax dollars.” This fury is especially felt in that city.
President of the Dearborn Democratic Club Sami Khaldi declared that she will continue to support the Democratic Party but added, “I would like to tell my president to reconsider about his strategy, his ideas, and his foreign policies.
“What I’m hearing now is people being completely betrayed by Joe Biden,” said Amer Zahr, head of New Generation for Palestine, a Dearborn-based network made up primarily of young Palestinian Americans. People believe that, with a few notable exceptions, the Democratic Party unconditionally supports Israel while failing to see the humanity in the Palestinians.
Beyond Muslims, the political left as a whole, especially among younger people, also feels this discontent. According to a recent Quinnipiac University poll, while 42% of all registered voters and a majority of Democrats, 68%, approve of how Biden has handled Israel, only 21% of voters between the ages of 18 and 34 do, with 50% disapproving.
Let it be known that come [next] November, Mr. President, we will remember, said Osama Siblani, publisher of the Dearborn-based The Arab American News, at a protest there this week in favor of Palestinians.
Siblani responded that it was too late when asked in an interview what Biden’s campaign could do to win back his vote.
If Biden stands on his head, I’ll never vote for him again, he declared. Because they misled us, the Biden or Kamala Harris campaigns will not be invited to a meeting. They misled us. They promised that they would have a seat at the table when they arrived in 2020.
Concerns about the rise in Islamophobia, according to Jasmine Rivera, co-executive director of Rising Voices, a progressive NGO that aims to turn out Asian American women and young voters.
“A lot of our canvassers are American Muslims. And now there is anxiety over people going door to door wearing hijabs because of the prospect of anti-Muslim hate crimes, she said. Additionally, it makes it harder for groups that support voting rights, like ours, to engage with these communities.
Many Muslims and Arabs in America voted for Republicans like President George W. Bush, who spoke out against anti-Muslim prejudice after the 9/11 attacks and said: “The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam…. Islam is peace.” Six days later, Bush visited a mosque.
However, as Islamophobic language became more prevalent in the GOP and culminated in Trump’s promise to prohibit all Muslims from entering the country, Muslim and Arab Americans turned to the Democratic Party.
However, Republicans have attempted to forge new ties with religiously and culturally conservative Muslim voters. Tudor Dixon, the Republican candidate for governor of Michigan in 2022, supported a drive by some Muslim leaders in Dearborn and other communities to ban LGBTQ-themed materials from public libraries.
Biden’s attitude on Israel, according to Democratic pollster Mark Mellman, presents more electoral opportunities than risks, particularly in the context of a potential rematch between Biden and Trump.
We’re in the midst of a heated debate right now, but as election day approaches, he said that it would become evident that voting against Biden by staying home would be equivalent to supporting Donald Trump. “It would be odd to see people support a racist, anti-Muslim candidate like Donald Trump just because they disagree, possibly very strongly, on this one issue,” said one voter.