Two Weeks Out: An Update on Muslim & Arab American Voters

Plus, Arab & Muslim leaders meet with both Harris & Trump; Mehdi Hasan is annoying; and what's noteworthy in the news.

Muslim American Voters Are Not a Monolith

The Muslim American community is not a monolith and that is clearly reflected in who different parts of the community are championing in the 2024 presidential race:

• CAIR Action and the American Muslim Taskforce did not endorse a specific candidate for the the 2024 election, but recommended that Muslim Americans vote for candidates who support a ceasefire, arms embargo, and related policies, naming specifically Dr. Jill Stein (G), Dr. Cornel West (J), and Chase Oliver (L).

• The Abandon Harris campaign is supporting Dr. Jill Stein. 

• Emgage Action has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. 

  • Abandon Harris trolled Emgage Action on its endorsement of Harris

• The Uncommitted Movement, which is not exclusively Muslim, did not endorse Harris but asked for voters not to vote for Trump. 

  • One of the co-founders of Uncommitted told Meet the Press that she is skipping the presidential race entirely, and organizers within the Uncommitted movement announced support for the “No Votes for Genocide” campaign in which voters will withhold their vote in the presidential campaign if both a permanent ceasefire and arms embargo are not reached by November 5, Election Day (efforts underway in the following swing states: Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, and Pennsylvania).

• Prominent Muslim American men in the national political sphere including Waleed Shahid, Mehdi Hasan, and Wajahat Ali have been making the case to vote for Harris.

• The Muslims for Harris-Walz identity group within the Harris campaign was massively trolled when it announced its community launch event. 

  • Relatedly, the talking points from these Muslim identity groups have been leaked because they are unpopular and demonstrate how Muslim American voters are being manipulated by members of their own community. 

• Hamtramck, Michigan, a Muslim-majority city, Mayor Amer Ghalib endorsed Donald Trump last month, and Trump campaigned in Hamtramck several days ago, meeting Muslim community leaders.

In related Muslim community news, a Muslim leader was ejected from a Harris campaign event in Michigan earlier this week for no specified reason - a huge misstep.

There are estimated to be one million Muslim voters across the United States. For more information on the latest polling and breakdown on estimates of those voters by state, please check out this post. 

The Latest on the Arab American Vote

Recent polling conducted by John Zogby Strategies for the Arab American Institute finds that:

• Trump and Harris are in a dead heat. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are virtually tied with Arab American voters (42% vs. 41% - a slight edge for Trump). And with those likely to vote, Trump leads Harris 46% to 42%.

• Harris had much lower support than Biden did in 2020. Harris’ support among Arab American voters is currently 18 points lower than it was for Biden in 2020.

• Gaza is a top issue among all party affiliations. 81% of Arab Americans view Gaza as either “very important” or “somewhat important” to determine their vote in the 2024 presidential race.

• Gaza is THE top issue for Democrats. The crisis in Gaza is the #1 issue among Arab American Democrats.

• These voters have indicated that they’re open to voting for Harris. The majority of voters are willing to vote for Harris if she demands a ceasefire in Gaza (54%) and she suspends diplomatic support and arms shipments to Israel (56%).

It’s important to note that this poll was run September 9 - 20, 2024; prior to the escalation of war into Lebanon and Israel’s invasion of the country which has likely impacted Arab American voter sentiment. 

In related news, two prominent Arab American organizations - the Arab American PAC and The Arab American News will not be endorsing either Harris or Trump in the presidential election. 

Meanwhile, both Harris and Trump are campaigning heavily in Michigan. The Harris campaign has made a number of missteps with the Arab American community in just the last week, further eroding support and generating negative posts across news outlets and social media.

Arab & Muslim Leaders Meet with Harris in Michigan as Lebanon is Invaded by Israel

Earlier this month, Vice President Harris met with Arab American and Muslim “leaders” in Michigan. Specifically, Harris met with Emgage Action, a group that has endorsed her, the American Task Force on Lebanon, and a personal friend. 

As the White House has done since the genocide started, the Harris campaign chose to meet with groups and people who have not been publicly critical of the Biden Harris administration’s policies and, in this case, have mostly already committed to supporting her presidential campaign. This is important to note because the Harris campaign is not willing to entertain its critics or be pushed; it is only willing to listen to and entertain sycophants and supporters; all in order to be able to check a box to say that it did engage in some manner with Muslim and Arab communities, even if that engagement was not in good faith or with any intention to do anything besides shift optics. 

This meeting took place in the immediate context of the brutal bombardment of Lebanon which included massive bombings in the capital city of Beirut, the Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon, and the deaths of over 1,000 Lebanese civilians. A large share of the Arab Americans living in Michigan are of Lebanese descent and have relatives in Lebanon. 

Two days later, ADC, a leading Arab American organization, issued an unequivocal condemnation of the people and organizations that participated in that meeting with Harris and her campaign, accusing them of “putting party over community” and “overlooking a genocide for access.” 

Rant: Mehdi Hasan is Annoying & Needs to Do Better

Although he sometimes makes some points that I agree with and I am a fan of Zeteo, Mehdi Hasan is annoying as hell. 

Is it his smugness in his not-so-humblebragging? Yes. 

Is it the way he frequently leans into playing the role of the “good” Muslim to create inroads with liberal political influencers and powerbrokers? Yes.  

And it is most definitely how he thinks of himself as the smartest guy in the room. 

Yes, he makes strong arguments and has a lot of receipts, but his arguments often lack the vision of how things can change because his over indexes on historical precedent without sufficiently considering why and how this moment is different from the past. Simply put, Mehdu doesn’t realize the role he plays in doing the Empire’s bidding because he cannot see a future in which imperialism is ending and on its way out. 

Read Muhammad Jalal’s rebuttal to Mehdi Hasan’s recent arrogant and fearful arguments about the 2024 election. 

To his credit, something I do agree with Mehdi on are the arguments he made several days ago that the only one to blame if Democrats lose the presidential race is Kamala Harris herself for the path she has chosen during this campaign. 

Relatedly, it’s not just Muslims and Arabs in Michigan that Harris needs to be worried about: a recent poll indicates that 25% of Democrats and Independent voters in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania reported that Gaza is an important issue to them and may impact their votes.

Back to the point: Mehdi is one of the most prominent Muslim Americans in American media. He has global reach. I am grateful for the representation that he brings and his vision for Zeteo. However, there is room for improvement when it comes to authentically voicing his perspective as a Muslim American without pandering to power. And I want to see him do better on that front.  

Election Endorsements: It’s Time to Vote!

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 local 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!

Photo: Dropping off my ballot in the mail earlier today. Can’t wait to stop receiving election mail!

Noteworthy

• Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar Assassinated by Israel. Discovered by accident by an Israeli trainee squad, Sinwar was killed above ground and in combat. The contrast of the conditions of how the leader of Hamas was found are in direct contrast to the claims Israel regularly makes in order to justify its indiscriminate targeting, bombardment, and killing of civilians: 

  • Sinwar was not in the tunnels, he was not under civilian infrastructure, and he was not using Palestinians or the Israeli hostages as “human shields.” 

  • The Israeli regime kills Palestinian civilians because it wants to kill Palestinian civilians although the excuse that it consistently uses is that it is because of Hamas’ tactics. 

• Say His Name: Sha’ban Al Dalou. The young man engulfed by flames and killed in his tent by an Israeli airstrike last week was identified as 19 year old Sha’ban Al Dalou. Sha’ban’s mother was killed in the bombings alongside him. Sha’ban’s father, injured from the airstrike, spoke to journalists about the loss of his son and wife. 

• Healthcare Workers Document Israeli War Crimes in Gaza. A recent op-ed that ran in the New York Times detailed the accounts of 65 doctors, nurses, and paramedics. The piece included x-rays of children who had been targeted and shot in the head by Israeli soldiers - 44 healthcare workers saw multiple cases of children and pre-teens shot in the head or chest. In response, influential pro-Israel voices accused the NYT of fabricating the x-rays and bias against Israel. The newspaper issued a statement rebutting the false claims made by those pro-Israel critics.  

• This is Not Normal - War Crimes in Gaza Targeting Children. An Israeli drone shot a child in Gaza, blowing off the child’s arms. When people rushed in to help the child, the drone dropped a missile on the rescuers, killing and injuring several people. 

• Elon Musk, the Colonialist: Divide & Rule Tactics. A PAC funded by Elon Musk is targeting both Muslim and Jewish voters with ads about Israel and Palestine to cost Harris votes. For Muslims, the ads depict Harris as pro-Israel and specifically notes her Jewish husband, Doug. In the ads targeted to Jewish voters, Harris is depicted as pro-Palestinian. 

• Where Does Your Member of Congress Stand on Palestinian Rights? Just in time for the election, IMEU Policy released a voting scorecard for members of the House and Senate and their record on their votes for and against Palestinian rights. 

• Israelis Favor Trump Over Harris in Election. Much of the horror this month specifically has been attributed to Netanyahu wanting Trump to win the election. It turns out that a majority of Israelis polled agree with Netanyahu on wanting a Trump presidency. 

Up Next

We’re officially less than two weeks out from the election. I’ll likely be sending updates via Substack more frequently than once per week to keep up with the pace of the news until the winner of the election is determined. If it’s a close election, as it is expected to be, that could be a week or longer post-November 5th.