Meet the Muslim Americans voting third-party in the US presidential election
In 2016, Saad Husain swallowed a bitter pill and voted for Hillary Clinton, despite her hawkish track record on foreign policy in the Middle East.
This year, Husain says the toxic rhetoric, reels of disinformation, fear-mongering, and crucially, the liberal establishment's insistence on voting for "the lesser of two evils", is giving him flashbacks of that year.
Then in 2020, he begrudgingly voted for a lacklustre Joe Biden to ward off the return of Former President Donald Trump.
The 62-year-old from Canton, a town in Wayne County, Michigan, says he has watched with horror over the past year as Biden, who was referred to by many as the "lesser evil", signed off on the most military aid any US administration has ever sent to Israel as it massacred Palestinians by the tens of thousands in Gaza.
"I've had enough," a resolute Husain told Middle East Eye. "I will be voting for Jill Stein," he said, referring to the Green Party's candidate, considered one of the more prominent third-party candidates on the ballot.
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Husain's decision is not inconsequential.
As a resident of one of seven swing states in the US, considered amongst those where even a handful of votes could determine the election result, his vote for the third-party is being perceived by many Democrats as a gift to Trump.
In 2020, for instance, the Democrats narrowly won Michigan. Four years earlier, Trump won the state by just 10,000 votes.
This will be the first time Husain will have voted for a candidate for commander-in-chief outside the Democratic Party since he cast his first vote 30 years ago.
In doing so, Husain joins a legion of Muslim-American voters across swing states who say that not only are they refusing to be intimidated into voting for Harris, as Democrats hold the spectre of another Trump presidency over their heads, but they are also searching for a new political home outside the two-party system.
'I'm not afraid of a Trump presidency...What I am truly afraid of is answering to my Lord'
- Javeria Farooqi, Florida
In interviews across several swing states, including North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan and Florida, Middle East Eye spoke to several Muslim Americans who say they are voting for third-party candidates, like Jill Stein and Claudia de la Cruz, and they say they are prepared to face the consequences.
"We don't know what Trump would do, and yes, I am worried about him. But it's all still hypothetical. In comparison, I do know what the Democrats have done," Husain told MEE.
"I believe a third voice would be good for democracy and we have to build for the future," Husain added.
Fear of Trump 2.0
According to a Pew Study from 2017, Muslims make up around 3.45 million people in the US, many of whom live in several swing states across the US. The Council on American Islamic Relations (Cair) released data in late August showing there were 2.5 million registered Muslim voters in the country.
Palestine, and by extension, Israel's war on Gaza, is an issue that tops the list of priorities for many Muslims this time around, even beyond domestic concerns.
While it is unclear how Muslim Americans will vote in this year's presidential election, polls suggest that a sizeable number of the community will snub Harris over her support for Israel, with many indicating they are considering voting for a third-party candidate.
In August, a Cair poll showed that in Michigan, 40 percent of Muslim voters backed Stein from the Green Party.
Stein and several other third-party candidates have been vocal critics of US support for the war on Gaza, with Stein pledging to end the war on day one, if she were to become president. Stein also pledged to impose an arms embargo on Israel until it complies with international law.
In that same Cair poll, Republican candidate Trump shows 18 percent of the Muslim vote going to him in Michigan, with Harris trailing at 12 percent.
While several commentators have warned that a Trump 2.0 presidency would be especially dangerous for Muslims, Arab Americans, as well as other minorities, several prominent imams and community leaders have publicly called on the Muslim community to ensure that Harris suffers an electoral defeat.
"We may not know what the future holds, but we know this: we will not taint our hands by voting for or supporting an administration that has brought so much bloodshed upon our brothers and sisters," a group of more than 130 imams from across the country wrote in a letter.
"We want to be absolutely clear: don’t stay home and skip voting. This year, make a statement by voting third-party for the presidential ticket."
None of those interviewed by MEE said they are under the illusion that a third-party candidate can viably win the election.
They said voting for a third-party was either based on principle or a strategic imperative.
In Florida, where Trump won in 2020, Javeria Farooqi, 39, says she would be voting with her conscience.
"I'm not afraid of a Trump presidency. We've already had a Trump presidency ...I'm no better off under the Democrats because you're seeing the political climate right now as to what's happening at Palestinian rallies, at Palestinian protests," Farooqi, told MEE.
"What I am truly afraid of is answering to my Lord, because there will be a day where I have to answer, what did I do when my brothers and sisters and children were being butchered? What did I do in the face of brutal injustice? That is what I'm afraid of, not Donald Trump's presidency," said Farooqi, who hails from Fort Lauderdale in Broward County and previously voted Democrat.
In 2020, Florida became Trump territory.
Others, like Nazia Kazi, pointed to the double standards of the Democratic Party that warns of Trump fascism while it flouts domestic and international law; and while it stands by as academics are fired and students are criminalised and demonised as antisemitic for criticising Israel.
Under the Biden administration, the US government has fudged the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor’s attempt to seek arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
It has also publicly lampooned the case brought against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
"Every four years, we get this predictable hand-wringing from US liberals about a lesser evil, about this being the most important election of our lives, all while the Democratic Party grants key concessions to the right-wing it claims to want to defeat," Kazi, an anthropologist and educator in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, told MEE.
"This year, their refrains have become even more grotesque as we witness US-backed slaughter in Gaza. While there are elements of ‘controlled opposition,’ those highly visible mouthpieces who tell us they oppose that slaughter while they also sheepdog for the Democrats."
Kazi said she believes it is "the duty of people of conscience to use what little currency we have in the electoral system to divest from either of these parties", whether that means voting for the Socialist candidate, De La Cruz, or Stein.
"To paraphrase WEB DuBois, I will not vote for either party - in fact, they are but one party," Kazi added, referring to the Black American civil rights activist from the early 20th century.
Though Philadelphia usually votes Democrat, the state of Pennsylvania is considered one of the main stalemates. In 2020, Biden won by just over 80,500 votes.
Despite the prospect of even greater hostility towards pro-Palestine protesters under a Trump presidency, others note that his return could spur a larger movement against aspects of militarism built into the US political system.
"If Trump is really the crux of the issue, I don't see why they would hesitate to help us in our efforts to end the genocide with President Trump in office, because I have no doubts in my mind that whether it's a red or a blue president in office, it will continue," Zakir Siddiqi, a small business owner and activist based in Phoenix, Arizona, told MEE.
"I am also voting for Jill Stein," the 26-year-old Siddiqi told MEE.
In 2020, Biden narrowly won Arizona by just over 10,400 votes.
'Corpses of our beloved'
In Raleigh, North Carolina, Lebanese-American activist Rania Masri already took part in early voting and cast her ballot for Stein.
"I believe concretely that if you vote for someone you don't want to win, and they win, it then becomes a wasted vote," she told MEE.
"So if I vote for Kamala Harris and she wins, I have truly wasted my vote. What have I done? And it would be horrific. Then I have to actually walk over the corpses of my beloved. I will never forgive, never forgive the Biden-Kamala administration for funding this genocide."
'I hope that the number of votes that we get for Jill Stein will be greater than the number of votes by which Donald Trump beats Kamala Harris'
- Rania Masri, North Carolina
Masri said she believes that no one living in a swing state like hers has a wasted vote, especially those voting for a candidate outside the two main political parties.
"And so when I voted for Jill Stein, I did it for two reasons, one to vote against Kamala Harris, and two to vote in a way that we are building an alternative, and they can count our votes so they can clearly say these are the number of people that did not vote for the Democrats," Masri told MEE.
In 2020, Trump narrowly won North Carolina by 74,481 votes, or less than 1.5 percent.
"I hope that the number of votes that we get for Jill Stein will be greater than the number of votes by which Donald Trump beats Kamala Harris in the state of North Carolina, so that I can gladly take credit for her defeat. I would love that," the Lebanese-American said.
Beyond the militaristic and diplomatic cover the Biden-Harris administration has provided Israel's war on Gaza, Masri says Harris's callous approach to engaging with voters on an issue that has seen Palestinian children shredded and teenagers at make-shift hospitals burnt alive by US-supplied bombs used by Israel, is emblematic of how the administration sees Muslims and Arab-Americans.
While Harris's surrogates have tried to distance her from the decisions of President Biden, Harris herself has made very little distinction on policy herself.
"Kamala Harris has, time and time and time again, said that she would do nothing differently than President Biden. So she is gleeful about it," Masri said.
"She has propagated Zionist rumours and Zionist accusations that have been completely debunked, thereby further justifying the genocide that she herself is proudly funding. So nothing can compare to the support of genocide. Nothing can compare to the active collaboration of a genocide."
For anyone who makes the argument that Trump might cause even worse suffering for Palestinians, Masri said "it's horrific that we are comparing an active crime with a potential crime".
Husain, from Michigan, agrees with the notion that the Democratic Party has feigned engagement while showing it was not interested in a real conversation.
Left behind
While thousands of Muslim Americans have indicated their disdain for both the Republicans and Democrats - and have expressed their discomfort with both parties' support for Israel - much of the mainstream coverage of the community has focused on Muslim Americans still hoping to convince the Democratic political establishment to change track with Israel.
And more recently, the mainstream press has covered the recent endorsements of Trump from a handful of Muslim and Arab leaders in Michigan.
Those in the Muslim community voting third-party have meanwhile been left out of much of the US election coverage, despite hundreds of community leaders across the country urging Muslims to vote third-party.
Movements like Abandon Harris, formerly Abandon Biden, which has vowed to do everything in its power to get voters to turn away from Harris and the Democratic Party for its continued support for the war on Gaza, have received little coverage in national news outlets.
Al Jazeera is hosting a town hall on the Muslim and Arab vote on Wednesday. It will feature representatives from the Democratic and Republican parties.
The network doesn't say whether any group representing the large swathes of Muslims voting third party will be represented at the town hall.
At the same time, the Harris campaign has begun running attack ads against Stein.
Still, many of the Muslim third-party voters say the fact that candidates like Stein are either forced out of the media spotlight or are attacked shows how much Democrats fear the surge in support third-party candidates are receiving this election cycle.
"[Harris] has been aware of this contingent for a lot longer than just this past month, but suddenly now the attacks on Dr Stein, the Green Party, voting third-party, are coming out," said Siddiqi from Arizona.
"And it's very clearly because they're scared of the surge in interest and attention that Muslim Americans and generally people of conscience that are upset about this genocide are now starting to learn about a candidate that speaks to their values and their disappointment in the government funding, aiding abetting, providing cover for genocide."
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