By Maira Butt
US foreign policy is the decisive issue for American Muslims voting in next week’s election, according to the country’s leading Muslim civil rights and advocacy group.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has said that disillusionment over President Joe Biden’s stance on Gaza has led to an exodus of voters who are reluctant to vote for the Democrat Kamala Harris.
Robert McCaw, CAIR’s government affairs department director, told a Religion Media Centre briefing: “We now have over 2.5 million registered Muslim voters across the country, many of them in key swing states. “There’s not enough Muslims in the US to swing an election, but we can definitely tip over critical races. We have key Muslim populations in [swing states] Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia.”
Mr McCaw reports that a survey conducted on more than 2,000 American Muslims revealed that humanitarian issues were their No 1 priority, followed by religious freedoms, and then kitchen-table topics including the economy or education, which were historically top priority for Muslim voters.
CAIR’s statistics show that support for the Democrats before Biden’s resignation last year, stood at 7 per cent, with support for Donald Trump at 4 per cent. Third party candidates such as Jill Stein (the Green nominee) and her running mate Butch Ware registered the highest approval with about 40 per cent.
However, by August those numbers improved for the Democrats with Muslim support standing at 29 per cent for Harris, neck and neck with Stein. The numbers siding with Trump stand at 12 per cent; 18 per cent of Muslims are undecided.
Mr McCaw warned that undecided voters could be leaning towards Trump. Despite a history of anti-Muslim rhetoric and the “Muslim ban”, Trump has made a desperate attempt to heal those divides in recent days, with an appeal to Arab and Muslim communities.
In Michigan, Muslim leaders were brought onto the stage at the Trump rally, saying they were assured by Republicans that Trump would ensure “peace in the Middle East”.
“I have to tell you, from experience, a lot of Muslims are hesitant to say that they’re actually voting for Trump, so it could be a three-way race between Stein, Trump, and Harris across the nation,” Mr McCaw said. “There has been a lot of heartbreak in the Muslim community about how the Biden administration has handled Gaza. [It] is on the top of every Muslim voter’s mind. They believe what’s happening in Gaza is a genocide.”
For Muslims, the US government’s support for what they consider anti-Muslim foreign policy in predominantly Muslim countries is very much a domestic issue.
More than 69 per cent of Israel’s weapons imports come from the United States, with over $17 billion in military aid being sent to the country to support its campaign. This financial aid, coupled with domestic rhetoric around Islamist extremism and terrorism as the justification for it, has exacerbated distrust among US Muslims.
Nazia Khanzada, a CAIR campaigns manager who lives in Georgia, quoted The Lancet medical journal, which has estimated that deaths in Gaza could be higher than 150,000. She told the briefing: “What we know is here in Georgia, Muslims may be deciding which way things go … What’s happening in Gaza has been a red line. They believe what’s happening in Gaza is a genocide.”
However, Mr McCaw said it was important to remember that Muslims were a complex group with diverse political and social beliefs. “When we look at Muslims as voters, the majority of them continue to say they’re moderate on social issues and fiscal issues,” he said.
“They’re slightly more conservative on social issues and slightly more liberal on fiscal issues. They are a mixed bag when it comes to as a voting constituency. I think when we talk about the health of democracy, no party should take for granted any community.”
