DEARBORN, Mich.—A week from the election, many Muslim Americans in Dearborn, Michigan, say they are unsure how they will cast their vote.
Some proudly said they voted for former President Donald Trump, while others said hope to make a statement on the Israel-Hamas conflict by voting for Green Party candidate and avid Palestine supporter Jill Stein.
The Daily Signal spoke to members of the Muslim community in Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit with the largest per capita Muslim population in the U.S., at an early voting breakfast Sunday at the Islamic Center of America and at the polls on the second day of early voting.
Ibrahim Serhan Elamely, an imam at the Islamic Center of America, declined to share who he is voting for, but he said he is “pro-woman” and “wants a change,” hinting at support for Jill Stein. Elamely said it is important for good citizens to vote.
Stein’s website contains a “Pledge to Stop Genocide,” which states, “We the undersigned demand the U.S. government stop supporting the ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. We therefore pledge to withhold all support from candidates supporting the genocidal war on Gaza.”
“I do encourage people to go vote, because as a Muslim, you belong to a process of improvement and searching for better solutions, and the best way to practice that in our system is to show your concerns through voting,” the imam said.
Trump clenched the endorsement of Muslim American leaders including Dearborn Heights Mayor Bill Bazzi and Imam Bilal Alzuhiry on Saturday at his rally in Novi, Michigan. Amer Ghalib, the mayor of nearby Hamtramck, endorsed Trump as well.
But several Muslim American leaders, including James Zogby, co-founder of the Arab American Institute, announced an endorsement for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, on Sunday. Detroit Imam Mika’il Stewart Saadiq also has endorsed Harris.
Joe Biden won 68.12% of the vote in Wayne County, which includes Dearborn, in 2020. Michigan is the swing state with the largest concentration of Muslim voters, a demographic that usually elects Democrats. But Democrats have lost some of their Islamic backing due to Biden’s support for Israel, the poor state of the economy, and the Biden-Harris’ administration’s opposition to traditional family values.
One of the most hotly contested swing states, Michigan may determine the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.
While most Americans will be focusing on Trump and Harris, eight candidates will be on the ballot for president in Michigan. The most recent polls show the Republican and Democrat are in a dead heat when all eight candidates have been factored in. In a two-way race, which isn’t what is on the Michigan ballot, Trump has a one-point lead over Harris, according to an Oct. 16 poll from Mitchell Research & Communications.
As the leader of a nonprofit, Elamely said it is against the law for him to endorse a candidate on behalf of the mosque. He said the majority of the mosque’s members will be voting for a woman, as well.
“The majority, I can tell you, maybe they are going pro-woman,” he said, again hinting at Stein. “They want a change, especially when the country goes through problems. People want something different.”
In a charge to attendees of the early voting breakfast, he encouraged everyone to vote to “make America first” and “make America great again,” but he clarified to The Daily Signal that he was not encouraging people to vote for Trump, as that motto existed long before he said it.
He said Muslims can use their vote to teach politicians to respect their concerns.
“This is a very constructive, important tool to tell people, ‘Hey, we are here. We can challenge you, if not in this election, the next election, you better listen to us and better respect our concerns,'” he told The Daily Signal.
The imam warned his congregation that “when we say every vote counts, that means every vote is accountable.” He said Islam is a message of love and peace, not hate.
He said Muslim voters are more concerned about foreign affairs than abortion or gender ideology.
A Muslim woman stood up after the talk and emotionally asked how she can vote for either candidate when both support Israel. Other attendees of the breakfast encouraged her that she has a third option, Jill Stein.
“When you pay taxes, and then you go buy a house that you pay taxes on, then you pay taxes to fund a war and that will destroy your house, [that] might make some people emotional,” Elamely said to explain the outburst.
One Muslim lady at the breakfast, who spoke to The Daily Signal on condition of anonymity, said she was deciding between Trump and Jill Stein. She likes Jill Stein but recognized Trump is more likely to win. She knows she wants a change.
On the other hand, Dearborn resident Ghassan Alsaedi said he and a lot of Muslims he knows are voting for Trump.
Alsaedi, a Muslim-American who spoke to The Daily Signal at an early voting location in Dearborn, said that after voting for Biden in 2020, he is now voting for Trump because “we need to make America better.”
“The economy and the war and everything, that’s why everybody changed their mind,” he said. “And I think this time, it’s gonna go for Trump.”
Another Muslim man who asked to remain anonymous said at the polls that he was voting for Trump “because he’s serious.”
“He promised he will stop the war,” he said. “We want to stop the war.”
“I think what happened in the Middle East, it makes everybody hurt,” the man continued. “For both sides, thousands of people die. A lot of people die, innocent people. They live in the streets. They’re hungry.”
Mohammed Bader, another Dearborn resident at the polls, said he voted for Jill Stein because Trump and Harris both have “unconscionable” support for Israel. Many in his community are doing the same, he told The Daily Signal.
“We wanted to make, raise a point that we will punish people that supported the genocide, and we voted against the administration that’s in office,” Bader said.
“In this community, we think that’s the best bet,” he said of Stein. “We know she’s not going anywhere, but we know we will raise our voices, and we’ll make a point for the next election.”
A man named Mohammed, who declined to share his last name, said he thinks Democrats are doing a good job on the economy. As a data person, he doesn’t think the economy was better under Trump than under the Biden-Harris administration.
A Muslim-American who spoke to The Daily Signal on condition of anonymity said the most important issues to him in this election are the economy, peace, and family values. After voting for Biden in 2020 due to “listening to the leaders,” he said he plans to “listen to himself” this year and vote for Trump.
Though he doesn’t follow politics closely, he decided to pick the candidate he believes is more likely to support his community in Dearborn.
Zayn Khazaali, an Arab-American from Dearborn, confirmed that many Muslims are undecided about for which candidate they will vote on Nov. 5, but he said his family is leaning toward Trump.
Khazaali voted for President Joe Biden in 2020. But after years of record-high inflation, Khazaali is voting for Trump, he told The Daily Signal at the Trump rally in Novi, Michigan.
“While the country before with Trump was doing really good economically, we are now in bad shape, and we cannot continue another four years with Democrats,” Khazaali said.
