The mayor of Dearborn, the Michigan city with the largest number of Arab and Muslim Americans in the country, refuses to endorse either Democrat Kamala Harris or Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, 33, urges voters in his city, who Wall Street Journal once labeled the “jihad capital of the United States,” to “vote their moral conscience.”
‘When you get to the top of the list, what I’m advocating is that you vote with your moral conscience, and for each individual that will mean something different. But I leave it in your hands,” Hammoud said. the hill.
“I am not endorsing any candidate for president, as I have not found any candidate willing to deviate from the direction President Biden has taken us on the Gaza genocide and the broader conflict that has now engulfed Lebanon.”
Dearborn, Michigan Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, 33, a Democrat, urges his city’s voters to “vote their moral conscience”
During the February primaries, Hammoud called Biden shortly before casting his “uncommitted” vote instead of his party leader at a Dearborn polling station.
Indeed, Democrat Harris appears to be walking something of a political tightrope when it comes to the war between Israel and Hamas, stating that she is committed to defending Israel while ending Palestinian suffering.
Meanwhile, Trump has offered his full support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “do what you have to do,” in a phone call earlier this month.
‘My wife’s cousin was murdered just a few days ago in Lebanon. I was working as a paramedic. Our county commissioner said the house he grew up in was attacked and blown up. This is civil infrastructure,” Hammoud continued.
Pro-Palestinian protesters rally in support of Palestinians who have died in Gaza outside the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump offered his full “do what you have to do” support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call earlier this month.
Indeed, Democrat Harris appears to be walking something of a political tightrope when it comes to the war between Israel and Hamas, stating that she is committed to defending Israel while ending Palestinian suffering.
‘When you watch scenes of genocide broadcast live, for many these are the faces of strangers from towns with names they have never heard of.
‘To all of us here in the city of Dearborn: the images of the people you see being slaughtered, they are our friends and our family. The towns you see bombed and decimated are our ancestral homes. That’s why I’ve taken the position I’ve taken,” said Mayor Hammoud.
The mayor’s position is shared by many others in his city, with residents fiercely divided over the war in Gaza, as residents refuse to vote for either candidate.
In fact, many Muslims are contemplating denying Harris their vote to punish her administration for its support of Israel.
El-sayed, 37, a Michigan native with Lebanese roots, left her Dearborn Heights deli to raise donations for the situation in Lebanon.
Iman Beydoun El-sayed, 37, suggested she would probably vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
During the February primary, Hammoud, 33, criticized Biden shortly before casting his “uncommitted” vote instead of his party leader at a Dearborn polling station.
Since mid-October, Israel’s escalating campaign against Hezbollah militants has claimed 1,500 lives, including civilians, and displaced more than 800,000 people, according to the United Nations.
“We all have relatives, friends, families of victims at home,” said El-sayed, who was wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with the Lebanese cedar emblem.
“The fact that no candidate is talking about a ceasefire or an arms embargo is pretty discouraging,” he added, suggesting he would probably vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
In 2020, Wayne County, which includes Detroit and its suburbs, voted 68 percent for Joe Biden, helping him win the key state in 2020, but the margin was slim with a majority of just 154,000 votes over Donald Trump.
But this time, The demise of political spirit could be detrimental to Democrats’ ability to hold onto the swing state next month.
Voter turnout in Dearborn was 10 percent higher in 2020 than in the previous election in 2016; Biden also got 10 percent more votes than Hillary.
Statistics suggest voters were energized in 2020, but the word on the streets of Dearborn is that attitudes this year couldn’t be more different.
During the February Democratic primary, 6,400 Dearborn voters chose “uncommitted” in protest of Biden’s support for Israel’s war.
With less than two weeks to go before the Nov. 5 vote, there is palpable anger with the Biden administration, accused of blindly backing Israel with financial and military aid, as well as vetoes at the United Nations against calls for a ceasefire. in Gaza.
Ronald Stockton, a retired political science professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and a Middle East expert, said Americans with roots in Arab countries number about 300,000 in Michigan and were instrumental in Biden’s victory.
Former President Donald Trump’ had angered Arab Americans with his anti-Muslim and pro-Israel policies. And that’s why they voted very strongly for Biden in 2020,” Stockton said.
With less than two weeks to go before the Nov. 5 vote, there is palpable anger with the Biden administration, accused of blindly backing Israel with financial and military aid, as well as vetoes at the United Nations against calls for a ceasefire. in Gaza.
For Marwan Faraj, a 51-year-old businessman who arrived from Lebanon 35 years ago, Democrats have ignored the February primaries, when more than 100,000 voters cast blank ballots to protest Washington’s policy in the Middle East.
“It’s a slap in the face and we should pay it back,” he said while sitting at Qahwah House, a Yemeni cafe chain.
Dearborn Heights Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi Says Voters Are ‘Very Frustrated and Heartbroken’
“They have been supporting this ethnic cleansing and genocide from day one, with our tax dollars, and that is wrong,” Faraj added.
Unlike 2020, when it endorsed Joe Biden, the Arab American Political Action Committee, an influential local political organization, called for a vote “neither for Harris nor for Trump.”
The organization stated that both Harris and Trump ‘blindly support the criminal Israeli government led by far-right extremists, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.’
Stockton said anger over the war goes far beyond the Arab-American community, affecting many young people and making the conflict a “dangerous” issue for Democrats.
However, some in the community have raised the alarm about the dangers of Trump, who instituted a “Muslim ban” on travelers from several Muslim-majority countries and moved Washington’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
“We have no choice but to vote for Kamala Harris,” Ismael Ahmed, a veteran of the Democratic Party and strong supporter of Arab-American issues, wrote in the Detroit Free Press.
“Kamala Harris calls for a ceasefire and a two-state solution,” while Donald Trump “refuses to recognize the occupation of Palestinian lands, opposes an independent Palestinian state, and strongly supports Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” he stated.
Micho Assi met his parents at the Detroit airport after they fled Lebanon
For a Dearborn Heights imam, Mohammad Ali Elahi, voters are “so frustrated and so heartbroken that they’re not thinking about that calculation, they’re thinking ‘what would be worse (than) they already see.'”
Voters are wondering how the situation in Gaza and Lebanon could be worse, said the cleric, originally from Iran.
Democratic community activist Micho Assi, born in Lebanon, said local people have become disillusioned.
‘Normally, I would be mobilizing and knocking on doors and trying to get out the vote. Right now I can’t do the same,” he said.
‘People right now are focused on who is going to stop this genocide. If I tell them ‘go out and vote,’ they say, ‘I don’t care, (their votes) aren’t going to matter when it comes to genocide.'”