International Desk
President Joe Biden is losing support among Arab-American and Muslim voters due to his staunch anti-Israel stance. Middle Eastern Muslims living in the US are becoming staunchly anti-Biden. They are withdrawing themselves from the Democrat camp. This image has emerged in a report of the news agency AFP.
45-year-old Linda Shavish works in a parlor in Virginia, USA. He is Palestinian American. He brushed off the reporter when asked about President Joe Biden’s decision to unequivocally support Israel’s bombing and ground attack on Gaza.
Linda, a former Democrat voter, said at one point in response to a question, ‘They (the Biden administration) stand for genocide. I will definitely not vote for the Democrats again. If Trump is the Republican candidate, I probably won’t vote at all.’
The 2024 presidential election is one year away. Support from Arab and Muslim American voters is essential for Joe Biden. But Biden is rapidly losing popularity among these voters because of his Middle East policies. Anti-Biden sentiment among Arab-American and Muslim-American voters has raised fears of a landslide in several swing states in the upcoming election.
Muslim and Arab American Democrats are heartbroken, Waleed Shaheed, a Democrat intellectual and former spokesman for Senator Bernie Sanders, told AFP. They don’t want to understand that President Biden sees Palestinians and Israelis as equals.
Waleed Shaheed said, however, a small portion of the US population is Muslim. In terms of numbers that is 45 lakh or 1.3 percent of the population. But according to some private U.S. religious censuses, in some states only a few hundred thousand or even a few thousand votes will decide victory or defeat.
Joe Biden won Michigan, Virginia, Georgia and Arizona in the 2020 election. In these states, victory or defeat is decided by a very small margin of votes. Losing the support of Muslim voters in these states could shorten Joe Biden’s White House tenure.
Somali-American Hadiya Barre. He said that since 9/11, Muslims in the United States have been marginalized in American politics. This discriminatory support for Israel further alienates and alienates Muslim voters.
Hadiya Barre, 52, said she has been a Democrat voter for 30 years. But has started withdrawing from the party based on its stance on transgender issues. Biden’s support for Israel has accelerated this process.
He said Biden’s blind support for Israel has alienated Democrats in a flash. I will not vote Democrat or Republican.
Dar al-Hijrat – One of the main mosques in Northern Virginia. This mosque was built by Mohammad Hadid in 1991. He is the father of Arab-American models Gigi Hadid and Bella Hadid. The mosque’s imam, Naeem Baig, said the Muslim community trusted Biden after years of suffering from Trump.
When it comes to issues of racial and economic justice, Democrats have more to offer, he said. Donald Trump imposed a travel ban on several Muslim countries. He made no attempt to hide his hostility towards Muslims.
An exit poll conducted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations after the 2020 election found that 69 percent of Muslims voted for Joe Biden. 17 percent of Muslims voted for Trump.
But Naeem Baig is feeling depressed and traumatized by all the terrible news and images coming out of Gaza. He said, “At this moment, I will not vote for President Biden.”
Khalid Mekki expressed similar grief. He was born in a Gaza refugee camp. He considers it his duty to speak for his people, the Palestinians. He was unable to contact his family due to Israel’s blockade of Gaza.
52-year-old Khalid Mekki is a businessman. He sells Bawadi Mediterranean Grill in an area of Falls Church, Virginia, famous for its Arab-owned restaurants, bakeries and hookah bars. “We love this country (the United States),” he told AFP. This is our country. But we cannot have blood on our hands. I don’t want it (genocide) to be in my name.
Several interviewees took a similar view. Joe Biden took five days to meet the family of a six-year-old Palestinian-American child who was fatally stabbed due to racial hatred. However, Biden publicly questioned the number of people killed in an Israeli attack on a hospital in Gaza.
Sarabangla/IE
