Bismah Mirza
Let’s understand how crucial muslim votes were!
The noise in the Muslim camp has become one VOICE of Force and Resilience, which can be heard loud and clear that Muslims causes cannot be ignored, their votes have to be earned.
Donald J. Trump, the 45th elected U.S president with the slogan, ‘America’s comeback starts now!’ made his comeback to The White House for a second term on November 5, 2024! A lot has been attributed to his win and to the loss of the democrats, their campaigns and there strategies with the conclusion that Trump had all the trump cards in his election campaigns unifying Americans; Economy, Immigration & border issues, overseas War, above all despite projecting the love for Israel his campaign office appealed to the Muslims & Arab American and also to the Khan followers.
For two decades, Muslim and Arab Americans have voted for Democrats, but the lack of seriousness and callous behaviors of the Biden administration’s policy and the weak Harris campaign on safeguarding and protecting Muslim interests played a crucial role in the 2024 elections and the election of Donald J. Trump. Despite both the presidential candidates fighting for who loves Israel most, it was Trump’s campaigners who realized early on that despite all the unifying issues, without a Muslim vote bank shift, they cannot win the elections by a significant margin. They gave Muslims a reason to vote for something rather than against it.
They cashed on Former Vice President Kamla Harris’s response to whether she would have done something different from the Biden Administration, and she said nothing different. The Republicans, in their campaigns and slogans, directly and indirectly, assured the Muslim vote banks that they would serve well than the Democrats. The Muslim & Arab vote bank shift is the most significant blow to democrats, and they have buried their 20-year-old Muslim Arab loyalty over Gaza.
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) conducted a nationwide exit poll of more than 1,300 voters in the United States and found that significantly less than 50% of Muslim voters backed Harris. That compares with an estimated 65% to 70% of those who reportedly voted for President Joe Biden in 2020.
James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, stated in an interview with Voice of America that “Gaza took a toll and caused a great deal of dissatisfaction among demographic groups in the community that I wouldn’t have expected to have that degree of impact; what they saw happening in Gaza impacted them quite profoundly.”
But the voter revolt among Arab and Muslim Americans in Michigan was unmistakable, especially in Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, and Hamtramck. In Dearborn, where more than 55% of the residents are of Middle Eastern descent, Trump won more than 42% of the vote, up from 30% four years ago. Harris received just 36% from a community that gave Biden nearly 70% of its vote. In nearby Hamtramck, the first majority-Muslim city in the U.S., Trump picked up 43% of the vote, up from just 13% in 2020. Harris secured just 46%, down from the 85% that Biden notched four years ago.
The lost Muslim and Arab votes hurt Harris’s bid to win Michigan and its 15 electoral votes. The Muslim voting rights group estimates there are more than 200,000 registered Muslim voters in Michigan; Trump won the state by a margin of about 84,000 votes, according to the latest results.
In the final days of the campaign, Trump courted Michigan’s Arab and Muslim voters, promising to end the Gaza conflict and other foreign wars, a message that resonated with many. Last week before the election campaign, he traveled to Hamtramck, where Mayor Amer Ghalib, who is of Yemeni descent, had endorsed him. Trump’s outreach did not go unnoticed among the Muslim voters. Not just Muslims, Pakistani Americans have voted for Trump for Imran Khan as a Republican, leaving no stone unturned.
Donald Trump is not the messiah of American Muslims, and they are aware of that. Still, for the very first time, the noise in the Muslim camp has become one collective voice of force and resilience, which can be heard loud and clear that Muslims’ causes cannot be ignored; their votes have to be earned. How beneficial newly elected President will be for American & Arab Muslims. Decent time will tell, but just like Israel has presented itself as a solid financial power, so have American Muslim& Arab voters.
The author is Executive Editor of Monthly Interaction.
