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With the US handling of the Israel-Hamas war and conflict in the Middle East looming over the White House race, many American Muslim voters – most of whom backed President Joe Biden four years ago – have been wrestling with voting decisions.
After US support for Israel left many of them feeling outraged and ignored, some seek a rebuff of the Democrats, including by favouring third-party options for president. Others grapple with how to express their anger through the ballot box amid warnings by some against another Donald Trump presidency.
For voters in swing states like Georgia, which Biden won in 2020 by fewer than 12,000 votes, the weight of such decisions can be amplified.
When it comes to voting, “the responses are all over the place and it’s not really aligned to one political party as it has in the past,” said Shafina Khabani, executive director at Georgia Muslim Voter Project. “Our communities, they’re sad; they’re mourning; they’re grieving; they’re angry and they’re confused.”
Burhani, a Malaysian American, ended up voting for Kamala Harris – but it was a vote against Trump, rather than in support of the Democratic vice president, she said. “It was very difficult. It was very painful. It was very sad.” Burhani had become a spokesperson for a recently launched campaign, “No Peace No Peach,” that urged withholding votes from Harris unless demands, including halting arms shipments to Israel, were met. The group ultimately encouraged voters to “keep Palestine in mind at the ballot box, and vote with their conscience.” Some others, she said, “can’t bring themselves” to vote for Harris and will instead back the Green Party’s Jill Stein.
They include Latifa Awad, who has relatives in Gaza and said she wants her vote for Stein to send a message: our voices matter.
“People are like, ‘well, if you don’t vote for Kamala, then you’re voting for Trump,” she said. But, she added, “they both support Israel.”
Jahanzeb Jabbar said he voted for Trump in 2020 and supports him this year.
“If Trump was in office and this was going on, I would have not voted for him,” he said. “Had the Democrats come out with a very strong stance on a ceasefire and stopping military aid to Israel, my vote was ready to be had.”
He sees Trump as “the better option” for peace, saying the Republican nominee is a good deal maker. Jabbar rejects warnings by some that things would be worse under Trump, questioning how it can get worse after Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has already killed over 43,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
The war was sparked by the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel in which Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages.
In 2020, among Muslim voters nationally, about two-thirds supported Biden and about one-third supported Trump, according to AP VoteCast. That Biden support has left many feeling betrayed or even guilty.
“They’re seeing these elected officials that they voted for essentially, to them, funding a war that’s killing their own family and friends,” Khabani said. At the same time, community members warn against another Trump presidency, she said, recalling Trump’s ban while in office that affected travelers from several Muslim-majority countries. Biden rescinded the ban.
Some Muslims, Khabani said, are also concerned about such issues as the maternal mortality rate in Georgia’s Black communities, health-care affordability and gun safety.
Many, she said, are unsure if they want to vote. She and others have urged them to not overlook down-ballot races.
Nationally, some religious leaders have backed various sides of the debate.
One letter signed by a group of imams and other leaders urged US Muslims to reject what they said was a “false binary” and to make a statement by voting third party in the presidential election.
“We will not taint our hands by voting for or supporting an administration that has brought so much bloodshed upon our brothers and sisters,” it said, emphasizing that this was no endorsement of Trump, whom it also criticized.
A different group of imams said that the benefit of backing Harris “far outweighs the harms of the other options.”
“Knowingly enabling someone like Donald Trump to return to office, whether by voting directly for him or for a third-party candidate, is both a moral and a strategic failure,” that letter stated.
In swing state Michigan, Trump has secured a number of endorsements from Muslims, including two mayors, even as many other leaders remained negative toward him.
Harris and Trump have jostled for an edge among Arab and Muslim American voters and Jewish voters, especially in tight races in Michigan and Pennsylvania. US Muslims, who are racially and ethnically diverse, make up a tiny sliver of overall voters, but community activists hope that energizing more of them, especially in key swing states with notable Muslim populations, makes a difference in close races.