Local Muslim leaders and Palestinian Christians gathered in downtown Detroit on Thursday afternoon, vowing to drive President Joe Biden out of office for failing to support a ceasefire in Gaza that could save thousands of lives.
About 30 people, many holding signs that read, “Abandon Biden,” stood outside the federal courthouse to pledge to make Biden a one-term president.
Mona Mawari, a Dearborn-based activist and community organizer who supported Biden in 2020, said she can no longer re-elect a president who did nothing to stop the slaughter of thousands of Palestinians.
“Our hope in Biden has turned to disappointment over the past 30 days,” Mawari said, referring to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that killed some 1,400 people. “Biden has caused irreparable harm, and its become clear that a vote for Biden is a vote for genocide.”
Losing Muslim and Arab votes could harm Biden’s chances of winning in Michigan, a swing state that Donald Trump won in 2016. Biden won in Michigan by fewer than 150,000 votes, and some polls show Trump is ahead in the state.
Metro Detroit has the largest Muslim population per capita in the U.S.
Imran Salha, imam of the Islamic Center of Detroit, said the decision to vote against Biden is a moral one.
“Sleepy Joe is a murderer, and this is a genocide,” Salha said. “This is ethnic cleansing, and the blood is on his hands. It would have been more appropriate for him to stay asleep rather than bankroll this genocide against innocent civilians of Gaza.”
Asked by Metro Times if he’s concerned that voting against Biden will result in a Republican president like Trump, who continues to espouse Islamophobic rhetoric and recently called for a more robust Muslim travel ban, Salha responded, “I don’t care.”
“It’s irrelevant to the discussion,” Salha said. “I do not think that anybody would be better. Our voices are not just something that we sign on a piece of paper. They’re an expression and an extension of our morality. I cannot sign off on somebody that bankrolled this genocide.”
Imam Imran Salha says the Islamic community in Michigan will drive out Biden from office during the election, regardless of the consequences, because of the blood on the president’s hands. pic.twitter.com/C9FWwnMxgZ
— Steve Neavling (@MCmuckraker) November 9, 2023
Shaykh Mohamed Almasmari, resident scholar for the United Michigan Muslim Association (UMMA), said it’s his duty to ensure Biden isn’t reelected.
“As a Muslim imam, as a resident here in Michigan, we will do whatever it takes to make sure Biden will not be in office in the next election,” Almasmari said. “We will knock on the doors. We will do whatever it takes. We will recruit our youths. We will not allow someone who is power hungry, someone who has blood on his hands, someone who has given Israel the green light to bomb, to kill, and to commit genocide.”
This is not the first time metro Detroit Muslims have spoken out against Democrats. In Hamtramck, where the all-Muslim city council banned the Pride flag from public spaces in June, Islamic leaders have formed a coalition with Republicans against pro-LGBTQ+ rights.
In Dearborn, Dawud Walid, director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, spoke at mosques in support of banning LGBTQ+ books in October 2022. On Thursday, he was urging Muslims to not vote for Biden.
“Unfortunately we were driven to this point to call on our community’s members to not vote for Biden in 2024,” Walid said. “The Muslim community was never thrilled about voting for Mr. Biden to begin with. The vote for Biden last time was really a vote against Donald Trump.”
But not all of the speakers have brushed shoulders with Republicans.
Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian Christian and civil rights lawyer who previously served as a delegate for Democrats, was among those calling for Biden to be ousted.
“I grew up in a union household, my family always voting Democrat, me always voting Democrat because of what the party claimed to stand for,” Arraf said. “I wanted so much to believe in the promise of this country. And although I voted for Biden knowing that he was staunchly pro-Israel, part of his platform also promised to put human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy. Putting human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy means supporting a free Palestine.”
Before 9/11, American Muslims often voted Republican. In November 2000, George W. Bush visited Dearborn and received 72% of the vote in the south end’s two precincts that are heavily Muslim, handily defeating Al Gore. Support shifted for Democrats in subsequent elections in response to the anti-Muslim narratives perpetuated by Republicans.
In the two south end precincts that voted for Bush, Barack Obama defeated the GOP candidates in 2008 and 2012.
In 2022, 46% of Muslims nationwide identified as Democrats and only 10% considered themselves Republican, according to a survey by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU). Notably, however, about four in 10 Muslims identified as independent, a larger percentage than any other religious group.
“The large politically independent segment among Muslims suggests that many in this community make voting decisions based more on changing policy issues and less along fixed partisan lines, opening an opportunity for both parties to win Muslim support,” ISPU wrote. “It also suggests that many Muslims don’t identify with either party’s platform in full.”
Subscribe to Metro Times newsletters.
Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
