Endgame: Election 2024
Endgame: Election 2024
The state of play one week out from the general election.
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The Latest on the Muslim & Arab American Votes
Building on the list I published last week of who the Muslim American community is supporting for President in next week’s election, here are the latest updates on both Muslim and Arab American support (notably, all the updates below are from swing states):
For Kamala Harris
Arizona Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and Progressive community leaders
Palestinian American Georgia State Representative Ruwa Romman, the speaker who was rejected from speaking at the DNC in Chicago in August.
For Donald Trump
Dearborn Heights, Michigan Mayor Bill Bazzi
Michigan Muslim community leaders
Vote Your Conscience (No Endorsement)
Mayor of Dearborn, Michigan Abdullah Hammoud
What’s driving these endorsements? Obviously, the genocide in Gaza, invasion of Lebanon, and bombing of other West Asian countries. Additionally, Trump’s campaign has engaged in over 100 meetings with Arab Americans, led by Tiffany Trump’s Lebanese father-in-law whereas the Harris campaign has only engaged in a handful of meetings over the course of the last year, and those meetings are only with people who are friendly with and not publicly critical of the Biden Harris administration. For example, the Michigan Muslim community leaders ended up endorsing Trump after meeting with Trump while their request for a meeting with Vice President Harris was denied.
And given the Harris campaign’s missteps with the Muslim community and their role on Israel’s genocide in Gaza, it is incredibly annoying (and rich) for Barack Obama of all people to be lecturing Muslim Americans on voting for Harris by using the scare tactic of the Muslim ban. Genocide > Bans.
A reminder that there are estimated to be one million voters who are Muslim American, and 2.3 million voters who are Arab American. Check out this post for an estimated breakdown of Arab and Muslim American voters by swing state.
State of Play: Michigan
Michigan is a key swing state in the presidential election. From the list above, it’s clear that Arab and Muslim leaders seem to be splitting their support amongst Harris and Trump, some seemingly going for the “lesser of two evils” (Harris) and others supporting the candidate who hasn’t had complicity in the last year of the Gaza genocide, but has a bad track record with the Muslim community, including instituting the Muslim ban in one of his first acts as President and disparaging the religion and Muslims (Trump).
Here’s where Michigan voters are at:
Politico published a great summary of how the Arab American community is split on Harris vs. Trump, and how some in the community view voting for Trump as punishing Harris for the Biden Harris administration’s role in the Gaza genocide.
This The Times piece does a great job of bringing first-hand accounts of the split within the Arab American community to life.
Harris has spent a lot of her time in Michigan campaigning with Liz Cheney, a supporter of Trump’s Muslim ban, and highly unpopular former Congresswoman.
Additionally, Harris was recently booed by anti-war protestors in Kalamazoo.
Update: The Normalization of Anti-Muslim & Anti-Arab Hatred in the United States
Following up to my piece last month, we’ve seen many more examples of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate emerge over the course of the last week alone.
Donald Trump hosted a MAGA rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City over the weekend which was effectively a Klan rally. Disgraced former Mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani employed the racist anti-Arab trope that “the Palestinians are taught to kill us at 2 years old,” effectively declaring that all Palestinians are terrorists - a Zionist propaganda talking point.
At the same rally, Howard Lutnick, the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald employed an anti-Muslim and Islamophobic trope by declaring “We must elect Donald J Trump president because we must crush Jihad.”
Notably, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organization that grifts as a civil rights organization but is effectively a Zionist and anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim hate group, did not call Trump out by name when the organization called out the MAGA rally in NYC for bigotry and intolerance. The ADL is headed by Zionist racist Jonathan Greenblatt who equates anti-zionism with antisemitism - which is exactly what the ADL does in its definition of antisemitism. A coalition of progressive and justice-centered organizations have been calling on allies to #DroptheADL for years.
Another instance of anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim hate was when conservative commentator Ryan Girdusky quipped “I hope your beeper doesn’t go off” to Mehdi Hasan after Hasan commented on being accused of being antisemitic because of his support for the Palestinian people. Again, this employs the anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim trope of implying anyone supportive of Palestinians and Palestine and/or Arab and Muslim people are terrorists and/or support terrorism by making a link to Israel’s terror attack in Lebanon in which devices including beepers were weaponized, killing many people, including innocent bystanders, healthcare workers, and children.
There’s a reason why Girdusky felt so comfortable making that joke on air on CNN - as noted in my last piece on the topic of the normalization of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate, CNN has played a central role in normalizing this kind of hate in broadcast media. Although in this case, host Abby Phillips quickly condemned Girdusky’s remarks on air and issued a statement on X/Twitter within a few minutes, she herself is one of the mainstream journalists who parroted Israeli Zionist lies about “beheaded babies” shortly after October 7, 2023 to manufacture consent for war and genocide. Phillips has never apologized publicly for reporting this lie as the truth, or for the lives lost or the hate here in the U.S. that resulted from this specific lie
Racist and Zionist member of Congress Brian Mast was quick to jump on X/Twitter to call Hasan antisemitic following this incident, and make his own beeper joke at the expense of CNN. Mast volunteered in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
It seems that making quips about the terrorist Israeli beeper attack in Lebanon is a common thread among Zionists, as U.S. State Department Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt made a joke employing it at a recent event. I cannot stress how damaging and demoralizing it is for a high-level U.S. official whose charge is to combat a specific form of hate to make light of the death of children and civilians because of their own political ideology.
All the instances above happened in the past week alone. Please note who made all of these hateful claims and parroted these dangerous and false tropes - current and former elected leaders, talking heads in mainstream media, U.S. officials, leaders of industry and important institutions and organizations. This is not only how racism and Islamophobia becomes mainstream, but also how this kind of bias, hate, and racism become structural and a part of our systems within the United States.
Removing structural racism and Islamophobia means rooting out these biased and racist people from the roles they’re in throughout U.S. systems and creating consequences and liabilities for the hate they irresponsibly spew.
P.S. I can’t close without noting Zionist Sacha Baron Cohen’s Islamophobic and dehumanizing depiction of the character Borat on Jimmy Fallon’s late night show last week. Donald Trump makes false and hateful claims that Haitian immigrants in Ohio eat pets, and Cohen makes false and hateful claims that people in Kazakhstan eat cats.
Election Endorsements: It’s Time to Vote!
You must vote in the general election. Even if you’re not thrilled with the options on the ballot, your vote will ensure that we elect better candidates at the local level, elections which typically come down to dozens or hundreds of votes.
In these elections, your vote could be the deciding factor between a pro-war candidate and an anti-war candidate. It could be the deciding factor between a genocide apologist and a candidate who supports Palestinian human rights.
Please make your vote count.
My personal endorsements written with a SWANA focus for the election are here (San Francisco).
For endorsements from the Arab community, please check out AROC Action (Bay Area).
Find anti-war and anti-genocide candidates to vote for via Vote For Peace (National).
For endorsements from the Muslim community, please check out CAIR Action (National).
Whatever you do - PLEASE VOTE!
Noteworthy
Numbers + Stats
The U.S. has funded 70% of Israel’s genocide, ethnic cleansing & military occupation in Palestine since October 2023.
Poll: 18-29 year voters in the U.S. support an arms embargo against Israel by a 26 point margin; including 52% of young Republicans. Full poll results are here.
Four out of give genocide scholars believe that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Election 2024
Both the Washington Post and the L.A. Times refused to endorse a presidential candidate in the election - decision made by their billionaire owners.
As they head towards unavoidable justice and consequences in the longer term, Zionists are getting more unhinged and losing their shit in the short term, as evidenced in the re-election of Mondaire Jones. - getting more unhinged.
A pro-genocide Kamala Harris supporter verbally abused a child at a Houston campaign rally.
AOC’s campaign made a big error with Arabic speaking communities.
Suppression of Palestinian Human Rights Advocacy
The ACLU, a champion in civil liberties, refused staff demands to condemn the United States’ role in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Harvard suspended 25 professors for peacefully protesting silently in a library.
Microsoft fired an employee for organizing a vigil for Gaza.
International Community
The Israeli Knesset voted to ban UNRWA, the Palestinian refugee agency, a move that was quickly rebuked by Cindy McCain, World Food Programme Chief.
The Crowne Prince of Saudi Arabia officially called for both Netanyahu to be criminally prosecuted for his crimes, and called for a Palestinian state per the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital.
The Israel lobby’s influence with the U.S. Congress threatens the United Nations and post-World War II international order as evidenced by this letter signed by 105 members of Congress.
Everything Else
President Joe Biden formally apologized for the genocide of the Native Americans while actively funding and arming the genocide of the Palestinians.
Hundreds of authors pledge mass boycott of Israeli cultural institutions.
Journalist Sana Saeed wrote an epic thread on structural Zionism within U.S. media.
Photo: Click on the image for video of this child waiting to be rescued from the rubble in Gaza.
Up Next
Less than one week to go until election day! My goal is to share another pre-election update ahead of Tuesday, and then check in a day or two after election day with pertinent news and information. Stay tuned and happy voting!
Additionally, I author a newsletter that is a round up of weekly SWANA community events in San Francisco and the wider Bay Area — sign up here.