“We are not powerless as American Muslims. We are powerful. We don’t only have the money, but we have the actual votes. And we will use that vote to save this nation from itself,” Hussein said. “Families and children are being wiped out with our tax dollars,” he added. “What we are witnessing today is the tragedy upon tragedy.”

From behind a lectern that read “Abandon Biden, ceasefire now”, leaders from Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona, Wisconsin, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania issued similar warnings that the president could not afford to lose the support of the Arab-American community in states critical to his chances for re-election.

A recent poll showed Biden’s support among Arab Americans has plunged from a comfortable majority in 2020 to 17%.

About 3.45 million Americans identify as Muslim, or 1.1% of the country’s population, and the demographic tends to lean Democratic, according to Pew Research Center. Like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are also home to significant Arab-American populations and critical to Biden’s re-election mathematics.

“The anger in our community is beyond belief,” Hussein, who is Muslim, told the Associated Press. “One of the things that made us even more angry is the fact that most of us actually voted for President Biden. I even had one incident where a religious leader asked me: ‘How do I get my 2020 ballot so I can destroy it?’”

Against a backdrop of pro-Palestinian protest in the US, Muslim leaders gathered in Dearborn said Biden or the likely Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, were not their only choices next year, and they could choose to sit out the election.

  • NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social
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    11 months ago

    Maybe that’s true in general, but losing Muslims in Michigan, for example, would be really bad for Biden. And he’s not doing much to convince them to vote for him.

      • NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        and again, that the muslims think Trump is better

        Nope, they don’t (well the ones who are talking about dropping Biden anyway). The idea is to put pressure on the Democrats by threatening their votes. The “just choose the less bad guy and shut up” logic only works if you’re seeing the whole thing from a bystander position; some of these people have relatives in Gaza and the West Bank.