American Muslims face political homelessness after election

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The election of President-elect Donald Trump has some groups worried, including Muslims and Arab Americans who say they are facing uncertainty.

Muslims have been considered a reliable portion of the Democrat base for a long time, but the recent war between Israel and Palestine has resulted in less overall support for the party from members of Arab descent. Pro-Palestine demonstrations haven’t just been aimed at Republican supporters of Israel, but Democrats who refuse to adopt radical rhetoric surrounding the conflict. Those who refused to call the war a “genocide” have been condemned by protesters, who have even gone so far as to dub President Joe Biden “Genocide Joe.”

Voters engaging in these purity tests likely feel like they have no friends on the right or the left, which leaves many in a state of anxiety.

Vice president of policy and programming for the Muslim Public Affairs Council Haris Tarin addressed the political homelessness being experienced by Muslims in America, many of whom are worried not only about themselves but the future of conflicts in the Middle East.

“That home is not as solid anymore,” he said of the Democrat Party. “Post-9/11 it was quite solid in many ways, specifically because of civil rights issues, but I think that vote is no longer as solid as many thought.”

Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s sister spoke out about Vice President Kamala Harris’s failure to secure the Arab American vote by not capitulating to their demands.

“There’s been many ways in which Harris chose the path of Liz Cheney and the donor class on a range of issues, and abandoning working families in places like Dearborn, who make up the people Democrats claim to be fighting for,” said Layla Elabed, co-founded the Uncommitted movement, which showed its disapproval for Biden’s unwillingness to demand a Gaza ceasefire.

“We provided Democrats with a pathway for victory and a way to unite the party and they spent 10 months ignoring us and berating us,” she added.

Elabed noted that Harris never traveled to Dearborn, Michigan, which boasts a majority Muslim population.

“She never came to Dearborn. She never came to speak to families that were first-hand impacted by our U.S. policy decisions that ultimately killed their family members.”

Instead, Harris attempted to appear more to the center than her party’s fringe, which was repeatedly undermined by past policy positions that she refused to explain. Having never discussed any political evolution that led to a good faith change of heart on issues like fracking and firearm bans, voters were left to make their own assumptions.

Now left-leaning Muslims feel like they’ve been left high and dry by the same people they’ve supported for decades. Critics say that movements such as “Uncommitted” and the “Abandon” movement, which urged supporters to reject the Democrat ticket altogether, are giving Muslims exactly what they asked for.