2 weeks Ago By Housnia Shams in Pennsylvania
Like many Muslim-Americans in Pennsylvania who voted for the Democrats in previous presidential elections, Mohammed Jamaluddin has decided not to vote for Kamala Harris when he heads to the polls next week, citing his frustration with the party’s handling of the war in Gaza. Jamaluddin, who has served as the Imam for the Masjid-ar-Rahman mosque in Coatesville for the past two decades, said the Democrats have failed to address the community’s demands for a ceasefire in Gaza . “I am not going to vote for the genocidal regime.
..this war should not have happened and they [the Democrats] had the opportunity to stop the war with a ceasefire, which they could have done one year ago but they did not do it,” he told Daily Express US .
Iran preparing 'definitive and painful' Israel strikes before US elections Trump's Pennsylvania win at stake after Puerto Rico 'garbage' remark While he has chosen not to back Harris, Jamaluddin said he could not support Republican Donald Trump because he had questionable “ethical values and character” and he was still weighing whether to vote for a Third-Party candidate. “I don’t know how trustworthy he [Trump] is going to be..
.he may be making good promises now because it helps him to win the election,” he said. “The Green Party is new, I don’t know much about them.
But as Muslims...
you can use them just to send a message...
we can’t go and stop the war with our own hands, that is beyond our capacity, but we can use the vote to express ourselves.” Jamaluddin’s view is one shared by many of the roughly 300,000 Muslim voters in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania, amid growing anger over US policy on Israel and Gaza. Joe Biden won Pennsylvania by just 80,000 popular votes in 2020, with Muslims largely favoring him.
Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Philadelphia, Ahmet Tekelioglu, said while Muslims in the state have traditionally backed the Democrats, many felt “betrayed” by the party. “Many of these people do not want to see a Trump presidency and are concerned about a potential Trump presidency. But at the same time, they feel like there needs to be a consequence for the utter disregard that the Democratic Party has shown in the face of the genocide in Gaza,” he said.
“The community is feeling very much undervalued overall by the political elite. I think that has created a deep trust gap between the political elite and our community.” Tekelioglu said he expects many Muslims in Pennsylvania will either abstain from voting or back a Third-Party candidate next week.
Earlier this year, pro-Palestinian voters in Michigan and elsewhere launched a protest vote movement in the Democratic primary. It garnered more than 100,000 “uncommitted” votes, with the majority coming from the state’s Muslim-Americans. Among their demands was a commitment to a ceasefire in Gaza and an arms embargo against Israel.
Angry over the Democratic party’s position on the Israel- Hamas war, Philadelphia local Rabiul Chowdhury launched the “Muslims for Trump” group in Pennsylvania to support the Republican’s presidential run. Chowdhury said he felt “optimistic” that Trump would help end the war in Gaza if he won the election. “Trump is speaking the language of peace.
He says he is going to end this war the way he says he will end the war in Ukraine ,” he said. “Multiple opportunities were given to the Democrats to end the war..
.people are frustrated. Trump is showing his willingness to work with the Muslim community.
” “Harris has shown nothing but ironclad support for one side...
she has shown nothing to differentiate herself from Biden.” Earlier this month, 25 imams endorsed Harris in an open letter, saying that she “far outweighs the harms of the other options." “Knowingly enabling someone like Donald Trump to return to office, whether by voting directly for him or for a third-party candidate, is both a moral and a strategic failure.
Particularly in swing states, a vote for a third party could enable Trump to win that state and therefore the elections,” they wrote in the letter. West Philadelphia local and Muslim-American Talib Aswad said while he was initially undecided, he felt Donald Trump was “more qualified” to run the country. “He was president already so we saw what the country was like when he was president for four years,” he said.
“We know who Donald Trump is but we have no idea who Kamala Harris is..and being the first female [US] president.
..I don’t think the world is ready for that.
” The death toll during the yearlong conflict in Gaza has risen to more than 43,000, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Harris has said that Israel has the right to defend itself but has also denounced the killing of Palestinians. She has praised the Biden administration's efforts to broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas .
Meanwhile, Trump has claimed that the October 7 attacks by Hamas would not have happened if he were president. He has criticized Israel’s war in Gaza on public relations grounds, saying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his military need to “get it over with fast.” He has also taken swipes at Harris and Biden for not adequately supporting Israel.
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