US elections 2024: Muslims, Arabs face baseless attacks on social media over Harris election loss

Despite the Democrats losing the popular vote in the election to the Republicans for the first time since 2004 - and by more than five million votes - many pro-Kamala Harris social media users aimed their frustrations at pro-Palestine voters, specifically Arabs and Muslims, on Wednesday.

Although many Arab and Muslim Americans voted for the Green Party’s Jill Stein, she received only 0.4 percent of the national total, amounting to 628,525 votes. This is less than half of what Stein received in 2016 when she received 1,449,370 votes. 

Former President Donald Trump overperformed across the electorate. The Financial Times reported that Trump gained ground in all but two states, specifically among those in the working class who care most about the economy and immigration.

Even if Harris had managed to win Michigan in the electoral college, which is home to a significant Muslim and Arab voting bloc, she would have still lost the election.

"Asian, Black, Hispanic and white voters all moved towards Trump. "Harris only increased her vote share among the over-65s and with white college-educated women," the FT report said. 

A lot of the liberal critique of the outcome has fallen on the shoulders of those who abandoned the Democrats for Trump or third-party candidates, in response to the party's ongoing military and financial support for Israel and refusal to engage in any conversation on an arms embargo.
 

hope yalls third party voting was worth my rights! i’m sure that twitter activism was so worth it!

— skye (@shesgotawy) November 6, 2024

One X account user posted: "Fuck Gaza at this point! And I mean that from the bottom of my ass! They at harris rally screaming every time she speak and never at a trump rally! Good! Let Israel run wild on them." 

Many have posted that they hope Gaza is made into a parking lot as punishment. 

Libs are bringing back the joy tonight pic.twitter.com/CxGrczwjFe

— Wyatt Reed (@wyattreed13) November 6, 2024

One post that has over 200 thousand likes on X, says: "if you voted third party, fuck you." 

if you didn’t vote, fuck you
if you voted third party, fuck you
if you voted trump, fuck you

— ali ☆ (@follksongs) November 6, 2024

In response to this, many Arab and Muslim social media users have pointed out that the amount of votes for third parties was minuscule in comparison to Trump's nearly five million lead in the popular vote.   

Democrats are more mad at third party voters than they are the 68+ million that voted for trump and thats why we keep failing. theyre blaming every single minority even though trump is ahead by 5 million. even if we had every vote from third party it wouldnt make a dent

— ZAYNA🇵🇸 FREE PALESTINE (@HorrorHijabi) November 6, 2024

Others online pointed out other voter demographics that increased and supported Trump, like young white men.  

no matter what happens, may this election be the death nail in the self-congratulatory “gen z will change the world” shit. gen z white men vote like every other generation of white men, and in some cases are further to the right

— matt (@mattxiv) November 6, 2024

Arab social media users also recounted the times that the Harris campaign belittled their asks of the Democratic Party and insulted many in the community. 

Sending Bill Clinton to say arabs deserve to die then sending in Liz Cheney whose father literally orchestrated the murder of 1.5 million arabs to Michigan probably wasn’t the best strategy

— Adam 🇵🇸🇱🇧 (@sad_pali) November 6, 2024

Others highlighted other potential downfalls in the Harris-Walz campaign for the American public in general, like their lack of focus on inflation and the economy. 

"In the last four years, American food prices have gone up by 22%," a post with over 10 thousand likes on X reads. "I'm sorry, but running a campaign on the threat to democracy when people are unable to afford staple groceries was completely bonkers." 

Just in: Democrats shocked to learn women buy milk and eggs more often than they get abortions.

— Storm (@stormrobinson) November 6, 2024

In contrast to those who have pointed out that Arab and Muslim "protest votes" made little impact on the outcome of the election, other pro-Palestine social media users see Harris's loss as a direct link to her role in Israel's ongoing war on Gaza. 

US regime media will not acknowledge what we all know: @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris’s insistence on perpetrating genocide of the Palestinian people sank them. This is a rare and historic moment of accountability. Genocide can never be rewarded or excused. It had to be punished.

— Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) November 6, 2024

In the city of Dearborn, Michigan, for example (which is home to the most prominent Arab-American population in the country) Harris lost to a voting population that has always been historically blue. This year, Trump won 55 percent of the city's vote compared to Harris's 42.48 percent. Stein also received a large share of the votes, with more than 18 percent. 

Despite the Democratic loss there, Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib won her fourth term without endorsing Harris as the presidential candidate. Academic Eman Abdelhadi took to X to say that this was a testament to the fact that Arabs do have electoral power but were "actively lost by the Democrats who chose to ignore and patronize them". 

Many echoed this sentiment, saying that the Democrats have no one to blame but themselves for the loss. 

Next time try winning people's votes instead of threatening them with worse if they don't vote for you.

— Ubaka Ogbogu (@UbakaOgbogu) November 6, 2024