This year, some American Muslims say they have felt politically homeless, feeling neither understood nor welcomed by Republicans or Democrats.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
There are about 4 million Muslims in the United States, about 240,000 of whom live in Michigan. In the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden won Michigan by just 155,000 votes, and American Muslims were a major factor in that. This year, some feel politically homeless, not understood or welcomed by either Republicans or Democrats. Reports member station WDET’s Nargis Rahman.
NARGIZ RAHMAN: At Haraz, a Yemeni coffee house in Dearborn, Hamza Ashfaq and his wife chat over lattes. Ashfaq is a recent medical school graduate. He says the presidential race is a tough one because neither candidate fully reflects his values or political priorities.
Hamza Ash FAQ: Everyone will vote for the lesser of two evils. In the end, it won’t turn out well for us either way.
Rahman: Ashfaq says he will vote for Kamala Harris, despite his concerns about the Biden-Harris administration’s stance on Israel’s Gaza war. Michigan was the epicenter of a national neutral movement protesting President Biden during the Democratic primaries. And the idea that neither party reflects their moral values came up multiple times in interviews with Muslims in Detroit. Mahmoud Muheisen, a Palestinian-American, is a recent graduate of Wayne State University. Muheisen, 24, says he has never voted in a U.S. election before. But this year he feels obligated to vote.
Mahmoud Muheisen: They have my faith, they have my name, they have my blood, and I think it’s inhumane, especially as a Palestinian Muslim American, to ignore that.
LAHRMAN: Muheisen says he’s going to vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
YOUSEF CHOUHOOD: American Muslims care about the economy, they care about climate change, they care about access to health care, they care about immigration policy, but I’m sure that for some American Muslims, the Gaza crisis is one of their only, if not their number one, concerns.
Rahman: Yousef Chohoud is an associate professor of political science at Christopher Newport University who studies voting trends among American Muslims.
Chowhood: I think the sense of political homelessness that American Muslims feel is a burden that weighs on them and will likely continue until they get to the voting booth.
RAHMAN: Meanwhile, a Muslim-led organization called Abandon Harris is urging Michigan Muslims to vote for third-party candidates. Farah Khan is co-chair of the Abandon Harris movement in Michigan.
Farah Khan: Please don’t vote for these two despicable candidates running for president. I don’t know what kind of world we’re living in right now when these are the people we should be looking up to as leaders. It’s really sad.
Rahman: About 30 percent of Muslims across the U.S. support Kamala Harris, according to a national survey conducted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Another 30 percent support Stein. Eleven percent say they plan to vote for Donald Trump, and about 17 percent say they’re undecided. Mikhail Stewart Saadiq Imam is a former president of the Michigan Council of Imams and taught at Al-Ikhlas Training Academy for 20 years. A Democrat, he says he’s open to giving Harris a chance.
MIKHAIL STEWART SAADIK: She’s not Trump, she’s not Biden, so in my opinion, I’d like to see what she can do.
Rahman: He says now is the time to move forward and build on the accomplishments of his predecessors’ political work.
Stuart-Sadiq: As we have to fight our way through politics and political revolution, I have no intention of spitting in the face of my ancestors.
RAHMAN: Detroit voter Munira Salim says she still hasn’t decided who she’ll vote for, weeks before the election.
Munira Salim: No one is representing the peace vote, no one is representing the Muslim vote, no one is representing the black vote.
RAHMAN: Like Salim, many Muslims are watching to see if there will be any changes to the Biden-Harris administration’s Gaza policy before the November vote. Nargis Rahman, NPR News, Detroit.
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