In the lead-up to the 2024 US election, presidential candidate Donald Trump has made notable efforts to garner the support of Arab and Muslim voters in the crucial swing state of Michigan. Several Muslim community leaders in the city of Novi, Michigan joined Trump on stage at his October 26th campaign rally to offer their endorsement. One of the leaders, Imam Belal Alzuhairi, said: “We, as Muslims, stand with President Trump because he promises peace, not war. We are supporting Donald Trump because he promised to end war in the Middle East and Ukraine.”
Given Trump’s notoriously anti-Muslim stance in his first term as president, his recent appeal for the Muslim community’s support feels as though it has fallen out of a coconut tree, so to speak. Can Muslim voters really believe in the promises that Alzuhairi mentions? And, more broadly, what does this endorsement mean in the context of Arab and Muslim voters’ overall priorities?
While Trump previously won Michigan in his first term, the state voted overwhelmingly for Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Michigan is not only a swing state, but also home to the US’s first Arab-majority city (Dearborn) and its only Muslim-majority city (Hamtramck). For Arab and Muslim voters, both within Michigan and across the US, the incumbent government’s policy on the war in Gaza has been a persistent concern over the past year – one that will now shape which candidate these communities cast their vote for.
Kamala Harris, current Vice President and the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, has focused her campaign more on gaining moderate voters and increasing turnout in traditional Democrat strongholds than appealing to Muslim and Arab Americans. She has also been instrumental in supporting Biden’s policy towards Israel.
Harris’s pledge to maintain this approach should she come into office has left Muslim and Arab voters widely disillusioned with the Democratic party. Yemeni-American activist Samraa Luqman, speaking to Al Jazeera, feels that for these voters, supporting Trump may have less to do with Trump himself, and more to do with holding Harris responsible for her complicity in Israeli genocide.
Trump’s campaign, beyond his recent appeal to Muslim communities, has targeted pro-Palestinian voters with his claims to support peace, and pro-Israeli voters with his suggestions that Harris and the Democratic Party don’t care about them. Though he consistently supported Israel during his first term as president, his recent stance on the war in Gaza is, as ever, contradictory.
Trump has criticised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decisions, saying he needs to “get [the war] over with fast“, yet he has also accused Biden of “trying to hold [Netanyahu] back”, despite the Biden administration’s largely unwavering support for Israel. He has vowed to bring about peace in the Middle East, but has provided very little detail on his plan to do so. Notably, his victory this year could mean the return of his infamous “Muslim ban”, an executive order that temporarily prevented citizens of several Muslim-majority countries from entering the US. If his inconsistent claims are anything to go by, Trump’s appeal to Arab and Muslim voters indicates little genuine concern for their interests – rather, it exploits voter disillusionment with the Democrats to work in his favour.
The final election poll by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), published on November 1st, finds that 41% of Muslim American voters across the US plan to vote for Harris, and 42% for Green Party nominee Jill Stein. Only 10% of Muslim Americans are projected to vote for Trump, compared to around 47% of American voters overall. These figures are starkly different from the 2020 poll, which saw 69% of Muslim Americans vote for Biden.
According to CAIR, the reduction in Muslim voters’ support for major presidential candidates this year is “almost certainly a result of community concerns regarding the genocide in Gaza”. Though this hasn’t translated to a drastic statistical increase in American Muslims planning to vote for Trump, even minor waves of support from these voters are an unexpected and consequential development in the wake of Trump’s 2016 presidency. The final result remains to be seen, but when it comes to policies on Gaza, Trump and Harris may well represent two sides of the same coin.
“Donald Trump” by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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Trumps Appeal to Arab Americans
In the lead-up to the 2024 US election, presidential candidate Donald Trump has made notable efforts to garner the support of Arab and Muslim voters in the crucial swing state of Michigan. Several Muslim community leaders in the city of Novi, Michigan joined Trump on stage at his October 26th campaign rally to offer their endorsement. One of the leaders, Imam Belal Alzuhairi, said: “We, as Muslims, stand with President Trump because he promises peace, not war. We are supporting Donald Trump because he promised to end war in the Middle East and Ukraine.”
Given Trump’s notoriously anti-Muslim stance in his first term as president, his recent appeal for the Muslim community’s support feels as though it has fallen out of a coconut tree, so to speak. Can Muslim voters really believe in the promises that Alzuhairi mentions? And, more broadly, what does this endorsement mean in the context of Arab and Muslim voters’ overall priorities?
While Trump previously won Michigan in his first term, the state voted overwhelmingly for Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Michigan is not only a swing state, but also home to the US’s first Arab-majority city (Dearborn) and its only Muslim-majority city (Hamtramck). For Arab and Muslim voters, both within Michigan and across the US, the incumbent government’s policy on the war in Gaza has been a persistent concern over the past year – one that will now shape which candidate these communities cast their vote for.
Kamala Harris, current Vice President and the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, has focused her campaign more on gaining moderate voters and increasing turnout in traditional Democrat strongholds than appealing to Muslim and Arab Americans. She has also been instrumental in supporting Biden’s policy towards Israel.
Harris’s pledge to maintain this approach should she come into office has left Muslim and Arab voters widely disillusioned with the Democratic party. Yemeni-American activist Samraa Luqman, speaking to Al Jazeera, feels that for these voters, supporting Trump may have less to do with Trump himself, and more to do with holding Harris responsible for her complicity in Israeli genocide.
Trump’s campaign, beyond his recent appeal to Muslim communities, has targeted pro-Palestinian voters with his claims to support peace, and pro-Israeli voters with his suggestions that Harris and the Democratic Party don’t care about them. Though he consistently supported Israel during his first term as president, his recent stance on the war in Gaza is, as ever, contradictory.
Trump has criticised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decisions, saying he needs to “get [the war] over with fast“, yet he has also accused Biden of “trying to hold [Netanyahu] back”, despite the Biden administration’s largely unwavering support for Israel. He has vowed to bring about peace in the Middle East, but has provided very little detail on his plan to do so. Notably, his victory this year could mean the return of his infamous “Muslim ban”, an executive order that temporarily prevented citizens of several Muslim-majority countries from entering the US. If his inconsistent claims are anything to go by, Trump’s appeal to Arab and Muslim voters indicates little genuine concern for their interests – rather, it exploits voter disillusionment with the Democrats to work in his favour.
The stars are not aligning, Swinney
The final election poll by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), published on November 1st, finds that 41% of Muslim American voters across the US plan to vote for Harris, and 42% for Green Party nominee Jill Stein. Only 10% of Muslim Americans are projected to vote for Trump, compared to around 47% of American voters overall. These figures are starkly different from the 2020 poll, which saw 69% of Muslim Americans vote for Biden.
According to CAIR, the reduction in Muslim voters’ support for major presidential candidates this year is “almost certainly a result of community concerns regarding the genocide in Gaza”. Though this hasn’t translated to a drastic statistical increase in American Muslims planning to vote for Trump, even minor waves of support from these voters are an unexpected and consequential development in the wake of Trump’s 2016 presidency. The final result remains to be seen, but when it comes to policies on Gaza, Trump and Harris may well represent two sides of the same coin.
“Donald Trump” by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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