Last month, Mohammad Hassan, a longtime councilman in Hamtramck, Michigan, the country's only Muslim-majority city, received a call from someone on Kamala Harris' presidential campaign asking him what he needed to do to bring disaffected Muslims back to Michigan.
“I screamed at them. I screamed, seriously, I said: 'You're not doing anything! You're not doing anything! You have to do more,” Hasan said. “I made a big noise.”
That message, which Hasan was not the only one to deliver, appears to have finally reached the Harris campaign, which has spent the last two weeks dramatically trying to win over a group of voters that could be critical in Michigan and other swing states. States
But Harris faces the risk of encountering Muslim and Arab community leaders willing to accept him publicly and resistance from his own constituencies, angered by continued U.S. support for Israel's war in Gaza and southern Lebanon.
Most Muslims have been reliable Democratic voters in recent years. But supporting Harris now could provoke a bitter and personal rebuke from some sectors of the community.
“They are traumatized. They are being threatened. They are being cursed and spat upon: 'You traitors. How can you support a genocidal candidate?'” Osama Siblani, editor of Dearborn, Michigan-based Arab American News, said of Harris’ supporters.
Dearborn, with its large Palestinian and Lebanese-American communities, has been the epicenter of the shock, with many families directly affected by the war.
The Arab America PAC, which typically supports Democrats at the polls, will meet at Siblani's office on Saturday to virtually make a final decision on his presidential endorsement. Siblani plans to personally suggest leaving the top of the ticket blank and supporting only the candidates in the last vote.
Meanwhile, Muslim voters have expressed their moral and religious concerns about supporting an administration they consider complicit in genocide, even if they don't know whether they can explain their vote for Harris on Judgment Day.
“No one from this select community has stood up to him so far because they know they will lose their seats if they are Arab-American or Muslim-American,” Siblani added, with only some hyperbole.
A group called Muslim Women for Harris was disbanded after a request for a Palestinian speaker at the Democratic National Convention was rejected, only to Reform later.
Pro-Harris organizers talk about creating a “consent framework” so that voters who otherwise agree with them on most issues and have a history of voting Democratic feel comfortable supporting Harris.
And they have had greater success in other parts of the vast Muslim community, which has roots on at least four continents outside the Levant, where Harris has recently gained support. Somali, South Asian, and African-American Muslims.
This difference is also reflected in the leaders, with Harris enjoying the support of prominent Muslim Democrats such as Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, but Rep. Rashida Talib, a Palestinian-Democrat. American representing Dearborn. .
For example, in neighboring Hamtram, which has a large Bengali and Yemeni population, Hasan said he is now confident that both communities will overwhelmingly support Harris — especially after Trump said this month that “a lot” of Yemeni refugees are arriving in the United States. United States. Known terrorists“
“Our people are not so concerned about what is happening in Gaza now. Our people are worried about what will happen after Donald Trump is elected,” said Hasan, who has been on the City Council for 16 years.
But the righteous anger of Harris and anyone who supports him is also palpable.
Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Roman, who is Palestinian-American and a vocal leader of the No Limits movement, formed to protest President Joe Biden's support for Israel, hiccup on stage at the Arab American National Convention in Dearborn last month.
As the audience applauded them, one audience member accused Roman of “continuing to advocate genocide,” and another said it was “disgusting” that Roman was willing to speak at the Democratic National Convention.
“How do you plan to maintain trust and credibility among the Palestinian, Muslim and Arab communities when there is a perception that your support for Harris is at odds with advocating an end to the genocide in Gaza?” A woman in a hijab asked, pointing at Roman.
Roman did not support Harris.
Recalling the moment a few weeks later, Roman said he was “completely surprised” by the animosity, and while it wasn’t representative, it wasn’t unusual.
“We try to warn people. I think people thought we were just inventing attention,” Roman said of Muslim and Arab voters' resentment toward Democrats over Gaza. “This is not the number one issue for most voters. But it is the number one issue for enough voters to influence the election.”
Animosity was particularly strong among supporters of Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who has cultivated an unusually strong reputation among disillusioned Muslim and Arab voters in Michigan and beyond.
In a rare move, the DNC released a statement endorsed by Harris on Friday. Television advertising In what directly attacks Stein as a Trump spoiler candidate, a spokeswoman said the bulk of the six-figure ad buy will focus on Michigan.
Stein's vice presidential running mate, Butch Ware, is a left-wing Muslim professor who celebrated the October 7 terrorist attack carried out by Hamas, Muslims who support Harris said they would burn in hell for it.
“The 'Muslims' who supported Harith engraved their names on the Tablet of Eternity alongside the names of Nimrod, Pharaoh, Caesar and Yazid. Every dead soul in Gaza has a claim against it on Judgment Day. They are better dressed, very hot,” he said in x.
Abdon Harris campaign spokeswoman Hudaifah Ahmad, who emerged from previous efforts to politically punish Biden over Gaza, dismissed groups supporting Harris as simply “claiming to represent the Muslim-American community.”
Harris' supporters, however, expressed their discomfort.
In a call last week from the largest Muslim group supporting him, MGAZ, all speakers said they felt conflicted and understood the decision would be “unpopular.” Representative. Representative Roe Khanna, Democrat of California, praised the group for “having the courage to make this difficult choice to support Kamala Harris.”
“We're struggling because the candidate hasn't given us anything to work with, 'I really care and I'm done,'” said Jim Zoghbi, founder of the Arab American Institute and longtime member of the Democratic National Committee who organized a panel on rights Palestinians at the Democratic convention. “They desperately need to do something that those of us who want to see Democrats win something to get this back to our people.”
Some of Harris's supporters, both public and private, say they understand that the vice president cannot change foreign policy, realize that Jewish voters are larger and better organized, and appreciate the efforts he is making now.
But they say he didn't seize the opportunity to differentiate himself from Biden and wasted crucial time in the months between his rise to the top of the ticket and now, when his engagement with Muslim and Arab voters has been big news. the decision A Palestinian speaker is not allowed At the conference
Zogby said he still hopes Harris will sever ties with Biden on Israel, as Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey did in 1968 during the unpopular Vietnam War in the final days of Lyndon Johnson's presidency.
“There is an opportunity for him to build some distance with the government,” he said. “It will be easier for him to push people away.”
Arab Americans by Harris-WalzA new group of Washington officials who were previously unaccountable to Harris have also tried to draw a distinction between Harris and Biden — although some of them currently work for her administration — but say their real focus is Trump.
This week, Trump not only talked about turning Gaza into a glitzy resort “better than Monaco,” but his campaign said that Gaza is part of Israel, which Israel does not claim.
“We cannot allow Donald Trump, who is undoubtedly not our ally, to exploit our pain today to return to the White House – where he will further fuel violence and war in Gaza and across the Middle East,” the group said in a message. statement Announced its launch last week.
Meanwhile, Harris' campaign said it recognizes the anger and thinks it has a good story to tell. They Point to Harris Support for a Gaza Ceasefire During a civil rights march in Selma, Alabama, in May, Trump spoke out against his so-called Muslim ban and his harsh rhetoric against Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Throughout her career, Vice President Harris has been unwavering in her support of our nation’s diverse Muslim community,” said Nasrina Bergzi, campaign director for Muslim and Arab American Outreach. “He will continue to work to end the war in Gaza, so that Israel is safe, the hostages are freed, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination. Solve it.”
