Ahmad Ramadan, a former Biden adviser who is now in charge of coalition building for the Michigan Democratic Party, called the state party chair to express his concern about what he was hearing as President Joe Biden pledged unshakable support for Israel in the days following a terror assault in Israel by Hamas.
One of the greatest Muslim and Arab American communities is found in Michigan, and they claim that by supporting Biden, he was able to win the crucial swing state in 2020. Ramadan and other Democratic leaders in the state, however, were now only hearing complaints about Biden and threats to vote him out of office.
In the two weeks following the Hamas attack on October 7th, Ramadan had more than a dozen roundtable meetings with Muslim community leaders. Ramadan stated that the overall conclusion was that “people are very disappointed.” They claim that they “will not forget what President Biden did and why he lied to them,” he continued.
“President Biden won in 2020 with unprecedented margins. And I was honored to stand in for that, but things have changed significantly over the past two weeks,” Ramadan remarked. I’ve also been receiving phone calls from folks who claim they have blood on their hands for organizing supporters for him throughout that campaign.
Although Muslims still make up a small portion of the population in the United States, their numbers are increasing quickly, and both parties are increasingly competing for their support. Democrats have largely been successful thus far because former President Donald Trump and other Republicans alienated them with policies like a visa restriction that affected nations with a majority of Muslims (which Trump has vowed to re-impose if he is re-elected).
But now, Muslim leaders are cautioning that if Biden and the party do not do more to battle Islamophobia and address the grief that many are experiencing about the war in Gaza, Democrats risk losing their support as well.
“Joe Biden has single-handedly alienated almost every Arab-American and Muslim American voter in Michigan,” claimed state representative Alabas Farhat, a Democrat whose district includes Dearborn, which is home to one of the country’s major Muslim and Arab American communities.
They feel absolutely abandoned by the American government for not doing more to help get them out, get aid in, and pressure Israel for a cease-fire, according to Farhat, who said that he has constituents and neighbors who have family members imprisoned in Gaza, including those who are American citizens.
To regain any level of trust with my community, “the Biden administration and Democrats as a whole are going to have to do a lot of work,” he added. It is never too late to act morally.
Muslim elected officials, activists, and community leaders have come together over the past two weeks in rolling conversations in Michigan and elsewhere to mobilize their constituents to vote next year — but also to encourage them to leave the top of the ballot blank in protest, according to multiple people involved in the discussions.
That is the current plan, Farhat stated. “Do not be surprised if there are consequences for your actions,” said one person. “I think there will be a lot of people who remember when you won Michigan years ago by a razor-thin margin, when you won Georgia with a razor-thin margin, and when you won Arizona by a razor-thin margin.”
Others have heard from voters who intend to support Republicans because they believe that at least Republicans were upfront with them about their unwavering support for Israel, but they believe Democrats have been tricked and exploited.