{"id":23446,"date":"2024-02-04T05:01:29","date_gmt":"2024-02-04T11:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=23446"},"modified":"2024-02-04T05:01:34","modified_gmt":"2024-02-04T11:01:34","slug":"it-could-cost-him-the-election-muslim-and-arab-americans-reject-bidens-inept-outreach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=23446","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It could cost him the election\u2019: Muslim and Arab Americans reject Biden\u2019s \u2018inept\u2019 outreach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

L<\/strong>ast week, Muslim and Arab American leaders in Michigan refused an invitation<\/a> to attend a listening session with Joe Biden\u2019s campaign. It was too late, they said, for the president to win their support after ignoring their communities\u2019 pleas for a ceasefire in Gaza for the past four months. Their dissatisfaction with the president could be detrimental to his success in crucial swing states, which he desperately needs to win in order to be reelected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The session was the first time that a delegation was sent to Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit where more than half of the 109,976 residents are of Middle Eastern or North African descent. Still, the Dearborn mayor Abdullah Hammoud, along with some 15 other leaders, declined the meeting, citing the US-backed Israel-Gaza war in which more than 25,000 Palestinans<\/a> \u2013 most of them women and children \u2013 have been killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re approaching the community now to speak about the issues unfolding as if they\u2019re electoral problems or political ones. And for us, that\u2019s not what these are,\u201d Hammoud told the Guardian. \u201cThis is an issue of humanity. Palestinians are not important because of polling numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a similar move on Thursday, several Palestinian Americans rejected<\/a> an invitation to attend a roundtable discussion at the state department with Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, which they called \u201cinsulting and performative\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Hammoud, Dearborn\u2019s first Arab American and Muslim mayor, the Biden-Harris campaign\u2019s outreach strategy for Muslim voters is either nonexistent or insufficient. Other leaders within some Arab American and Muslim communities agreed, saying that they\u2019re in the dark about campaign surrogates and that the administration only consults with people who aren\u2019t outspoken about their disapproval of Biden\u2019s handling of the war.

Meanwhile, White House officials claim<\/a> that they have increased their engagement with Muslim and Arab Americans since the conflict escalated in Gaza on 7 October, citing a nationwide initiative to counter Islamophobia that was launched in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMoving forward, the President, Vice President, and our entire Administration will continue working to ensure every American has the freedom to live their lives in safety and without fear for how they pray, what they believe and who they are,\u201d Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said in a statement<\/a> about the development of the interagency group. The Biden campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But former campaign staffers, voters and leaders within these communities aren\u2019t convinced and the impact of their discontent will likely be a defining moment in Biden\u2019s bid for re-election. A\u00a0survey<\/a>\u00a0from last fall found that 17% of Arab Americans planned to vote for the president, down from 59% who cast a ballot for him in 2020. According to an\u00a0Axios review<\/a>\u00a0of 2020 election results, Biden won Michigan \u2013 where 278,000 Arab Americans live \u2013 by just 154,000 votes. And in Georgia, where at least 57,000 Arab Americans live, Biden won by 11,800 votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hammoud sees the cancelled meeting as an opportunity to push back on an administration that has taken his constituents\u2019 issues for granted. He and other leaders say that no amount of outreach is enough to gain their support and they are steadfast in their demands for an immediate ceasefire and an end to unconditional support of Israel<\/a>. And though an end to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is their immediate concern, the community has long felt ignored by Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to the election, Hammoud said that he voiced concern to Blinken, then a campaign surrogate for Biden, about a leaked 2019 FBI terrorist watchlist. More than 98% of the names were Muslim, according to a report<\/a> by the civil rights organization Council on American-Islamic Relations. The list is sent to airlines, local police and foreign governments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other leaders and organizers criticized the federal government\u2019s decision last September to admit Israel into the Visa Waiver Program<\/a>, which allows the country\u2019s citizens to travel to the US without a tourist or business visa. They felt that the decision ignored outrage about the mistreatment<\/a> that Arab and Muslim Americans have long faced at Israel\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, leaders say they have pushed for the past few years for Biden to fulfill his 2020 campaign commitment to a Palestinian state<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPalestine is central to the identity of Muslims,\u201d said Salam Al-Marayati, president and co-founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. The non-profit created in 1988 advocates for policies that improve Muslim Americans\u2019 lives. He added that the conflict in Gaza<\/a> threatens the legitimacy of every Muslim-majority country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Muslim world sees this as something that is unending,\u201d Al-Marayati said. \u201cThey view this as their disintegration, not just the disintegration of Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Biden campaigners have mixed opinions about his administration\u2019s effectiveness in engaging Muslim and Arab American voters in general. Charlene Wang, who worked as a national events manager and digital volunteer organizer for the 2020 campaign, said that she saw no effort to energize Muslim constituents back then. But Ghada Elnajjar, a Palestinian-American organizer, recalled regular Zoom meetings between campaign advisors, leaders and activists to discuss issues that affected their communities. She described the outreach to Muslim and Arab American voters in 2020 as robust compared to now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe current outreach strategy to Arab American and American Muslim voters has been inept and awkward,\u201d said Elnajjar. \u201cHow do you begin to sell a president who has actively supported the genocide in Gaza?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Elnajjar, the administration\u2019s refusal to call for a ceasefire is personal. The daughter of refugees from Gaza, she said that more than 75 of her family members have died there since 7 October. Two of her first cousins, Tariq and Muhammed Mishaal, were killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit their home last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elnajjar, who\u2019s based in Georgia, campaigned for Biden in 2020 as part of the coalition Arab Americans for Biden. The group worked with the campaign to create a partnership agreement in 2020<\/a> that promised \u201cPalestinians and Israelis enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity, and democracy\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Elnajjar says that the administration has not fulfilled its promises. As a result, Arab Americans for Biden has changed its name to Arab Americans Forward<\/a>, which is now focused on calling for a ceasefire and the disbursement of humanitarian aid to Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elnajjar, along with other organizers, former campaign staff and community leaders, were unaware of any Muslim surrogates for Biden\u2019s reelection. In fact, she said that the administration is selective of the Palestinian Americans that it consults with and has chosen not to meet with politicians such as Ruwa Romman, a Georgia state representative who has publicly called<\/a> for a de-escalation of violence in Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Romman said the White House has not reached out to her or the four other Palestinian American legislators. Conversations that she\u2019s initiated with Democratic National Committee and White House staff also haven\u2019t gone far. \u201cWith the DNC, I\u2019ve tried to engage on why \u2018not Trump\u2019 isn\u2019t effective messaging,\u201d said Romman, whose family was exiled from Palestine in 1948 before settling as refugees in Jordan. \u201cOn [the] White House side I mostly get comments like my perspective is interesting, but that\u2019s about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A movement of Arab Americans and their allies are calling on voters to leave the presidential line blank on the ballot and to only select candidates who support a ceasefire during the Democratic primaries, said Elnajjar. Meanwhile, a nascent #AbandonBiden campaign<\/a> started by Muslim Americans in Minnesota has spread to other battleground states including Arizona and Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the country, protestors demanding a ceasefire have staged demonstrations<\/a> at campaign events, which has led staffers to screen attendees in ways that could be considered profiling. In a recent event, for instance, two women wearing hijabs<\/a> accused the Biden-Harris campaign of Islamophobia for refusing them entry to a weekend event. A campaign staffer said that they were disinvited for disrupting previous functions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

theguardian<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, Muslim and Arab American leaders in Michigan refused an invitation to attend a listening session with Joe Biden\u2019s campaign. It was too late, they said, for the president to win their support after ignoring their communities\u2019 pleas for a ceasefire in Gaza for the past four months. Their dissatisfaction with the president could be detrimental […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":23447,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1341,23566,23964,1613,26375,1278,26376,6398],"class_list":["post-23446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-american","tag-arab","tag-bidden","tag-election","tag-incompetent","tag-lose","tag-muslim-and","tag-reject"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23446"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23448,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23446\/revisions\/23448"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}