US: Muslim groups urge voters to back Jill Stein, Cornel West or other pro-Palestine candidates
A coalition of Muslim-American groups angry at US support for Israel's devastating war on Gaza is asking Muslim voters to shun Democratic Party candidate Kamala Harris in November's presidential race and back either Jill Stein, Cornel West or other pro-Palestine candidates.
"After extensive consultation, discussion, and deliberation, the American Muslim 2024 Election Task Force has decided to encourage American Muslims to vote for any presidential candidate of their choosing who supports a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and a US arms embargo on the Israeli government, such as candidates Dr Jill Stein, Dr Cornel West or Chase Oliver," read the statement, obtained by Middle East Eye.
The statement was written by the American Muslim 2024 Election Task Force, an umbrella group formed this year that consists of a number of prominent Muslim organisations including the political arms of Americans for Justice in Palestine (AJP), Cair, and the US Council of Muslim Organizations.
In addition to calling on Muslim Americans to vote for a pro-Palestine candidate at the presidential level, the task force's statement emphasises the need to vote for down-ballot candidates who are also advocating for a ceasefire in Gaza and arms embargo on Israel.
The statement falls short of endorsing a specific candidate in the presidential election and comes after long deliberations between the leaders of these prominent Muslim organisations.
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But the decision to officially call on members of the faith community to vote against either the Democratic or Republican Party marks a major and historic shift in Muslim American voting patterns.
It also shows a possible turning point for Muslim Americans and their large-scale support for the Democratic Party, with US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ fervent support for Israel’s war on Gaza as the main factor behind this shift.
"We cannot endorse Vice President Kamala Harris’ candidacy because of her refusal to even consider imposing the arms embargo on the Israeli government required by US laws and her failure to promise any other changes whatsoever to President Biden's failed policy of steadfast financial, diplomatic and military support for Israel's genocide in Gaza," the statement read.
While Muslim-Americans only make up one percent of the US population, the 2.5 million strong voter bloc has sizeable populations in key swing states like Michigan, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.
Muslim-American leaders are hoping that their get-out-the-vote call will show the country, and its two main political parties, that the community will not remain silent over the US's unrelenting bipartisan support for Israel's war efforts against the Palestinian people.
"The American Muslim community has experienced rapid political growth and maturity in recent years," the statement said.
"We hope and pray that the 2024 presidential election, regardless of the outcome, is a turning point towards a stronger American Muslim community and a better country for all Americans and people around the world impacted by American policy, including in Gaza."
Jill Stein and the Muslim vote
The task force’s statement came as a result of intense debate amongst different segments of the faith community.
A source told Middle East Eye that originally the task force had planned to officially endorsement Stein. However, in the eleventh hour, a majority of the organisations backed out of the decision.
Stein herself is unlikely to win the presidential election come November, according to many polls that have her taking only one percent of the total vote. However, with former President Donald Trump and Harris currently battling over a slim margin of victory, a sizeable vote for Stein could sway the election.
Stein's opposition to Israel's ongoing war on Gaza - she has referred to the war as a genocide against Palestinians perpetrated by Israel and said she would end the war in her first day of office - and the fact that she has the most ballot access of any third party candidate made her a viable choice for a possible endorsement.
Stein is also tied with Vice President Kamala Harris amongst Muslim voters, according to a poll conducted by Cair.
Another Cair poll found Stein leading among all presidential candidates amidst Muslim voters in a number of swing states - Michigan, Arizona and Wisconsin.
However, one long-standing issue that many Muslims had with Stein's current and previous runs for president was her perceived stance regarding the Syrian civil war and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In 2011, civil war broke out in Syria following a wave of anti-government protests - and the repression of these protests by the Assad government - in the wake of the larger Arab Spring revolution that swept the Middle East.
The war has killed more than 507,000 Syrians since it began, while an additional 12 million Syrians have been displaced, resulting in what the UN says is one of the largest displacement crises in the world.
In 2016, Stein's campaign issued a statement calling on the US to allow the Assad government to regain control of the country.
“Stein said the US should be working with Syria, Russia, and Iran to restore all of Syria to control by the government rather than Jihadi rebels,” the statement read, according to a 2016 report by The Hill.
“Collaboration could lead to real success against [the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria]. And it would stop the flow of refugees that is reaching crisis proportions in Europe.”
The statement was later deleted by the campaign, with Stein calling it an error.
Stein told MEE that she denies having ever supported Assad.
“We have never taken a position in support of Bashar al-Assad. We are against intervention because intervention has all sorts of unintended consequences, which are very long-lasting and tend to make things worse,” she said in a video interview.
"[Assad is] a dictator with a long record of human rights abuses. And we very strongly support the sovereignty, the autonomy and the human rights of the Syrian people and their right to determine their future."
Stein's 2024 campaign released a statement on 12 September offering a clarification and apology about the previous statement on Syria that was deleted.
"I want to apologise for this error and state unequivocally that I fully support the Syrian people's right to self-determination in their pursuit of dignity, integrity, and liberty," Stein said in the statement.
In another statement released by her campaign on Thursday, Stein called Assad a “war criminal”.
Shifting away from the Democrats
The political differences between segments of the broader Muslim-American community are representative of a growing shift in the community's approach to electoral politics.
In the decades following the post-9/11 "war on terror", which was led by the Republican administration of George W Bush, the majority of Muslims in the US began casting votes for the Democratic Party.
In the past several years, Muslims began to shift away from the Democrats, with some voting for Republican Donald Trump despite his openly Islamophobic rhetoric.
Now, after 11 months of Israel's war on Gaza, and the Democratic administration of Joe Biden fully supporting the Israeli war efforts with weapons and diplomatic cover, large swathes of Muslims are beginning to abandon the Democrats.
A 2020 poll by Cair found that 69 percent of Muslims voted for Joe Biden in the previous presidential election.
Another survey conducted before Biden dropped out of the election this year found that only 26 percent of respondents planned to vote for the Democratic Party. Meanwhile, 60 percent plan to vote for either a third-party or independent candidate.
This widespread anger at the Democratic Party has led to movements like the Abandon Harris campaign (formerly Abandon Biden), a movement of Muslim and Arab Americans dedicated to making sure Harris and the Democrats lose this presidential election over their support for Israel's war.
Israeli forces have so far killed more than 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza, which is the official death toll determined by the Palestinian health ministry and deemed a highly conservative underestimate of the actual number of Palestinian deaths.
Still, some Muslims, and Arab Americans, continue to stick with the Democratic Party, believing it is the only political camp that can provide positive change for the range of Muslim and Arab issues, chief among them in this election cycle being the Israel-Palestine conflict and war on Gaza.
The Uncommitted Movement released a carefully worded statement on Thursday saying they could not officially endorse Kamala Harris but urged voters against voting for the alternatives.
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