The city of Hamtramck maintains a special symbolism for the Muslim political community in America, after it became in 2021 the first city in American history whose government council and mayor consist entirely of Muslims.
Hamtramck is located in… Michigan (Northeastern United States) is inhabited by about 28 thousand people, 25% of its population are Muslims of Arab origins, most of whom are from Yemen, and 27% of the city’s residents are also Muslims of Asian origins, most of whom are from Bangladesh.
Amer Ghaleb is the only Muslim mayor in the United States. He is of Yemeni origins and a member of the Democratic Party. However, he represents an example of the changing political mood in American society over the past four years, and the displacement that the Arab and Muslim communities have witnessed in their oscillating positions between the Democratic and Republican parties. .
Although Ghalib belonged to the Democratic Party, he decided to rebel and support the former Republican president Donald Trump In the elections held yesterday, Tuesday, he said last September on the X platform, “I declare my support for former President Donald Trump, and I hope that he will be the next president of the United States.”
Voting trends
Last August, a poll conducted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations showed (Care) 18% of Muslim voters in Michigan support Trump, compared to only 12% who support the Democratic Party candidate. Kamala HarrisWhile most Muslims decided to distance themselves from both candidates and give their votes to other candidates.
This is what Abdul Rahman Youssef, a journalist specializing in American affairs, said, as he saw that the orientations of the Arab and Muslim communities were divided in these elections as follows:
- There are those who decided to boycott and not vote for Harris or Trump at all without paying attention to the electoral process at all because its results do not represent a turning point for many of them, and they must focus on local issues such as abortion, education, and gender.
- The second team said we have to choose Jill Stein So that we can show our strength and influence behind a particular candidate.
- The third team decided to punish the Democratic Party for its position on Middle East issues such as Gaza.
Youssef added – in an interview with Al Jazeera Net – that “many Arabs and Muslims do not want to vote for both groups, or they do not want to give the Democrats this minimal success.” That is, the majority of them do not support Trump, but simply decided to abandon Harris and the Democratic Party.
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The influence of the Muslim voter
The number of Muslims in the United States is 4 million, out of a population of 336 million in the country, and their voting bloc represents about 2.5 million voters, who are distributed over many states.
Therefore, Abdul Hamid Siam, professor of Middle Eastern studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey, believes that the Arab and Islamic community’s vote is not very effective, and they do not have much electoral weight except in some states such as Michigan, Illinois, and Pennsylvania.
Siam added – in an interview with Al Jazeera Net – that 16 Arab and Islamic organizations agreed to commit not to vote for Harris to punish her for her role and the Biden administration in supporting the war of genocide against… Gaza StripHowever, recent days have witnessed shifts in the election campaign by the Republican candidate.
Trump visited the state of Michigan 4 times, and promised to be a “president of peace” in the Middle East region, which disturbed this consensus on the part of the Muslim community, and voices began calling for support for Jill Stein, and there were those who rejected that so that the votes would not be wasted, so we witnessed a shift in The Palestinian and Arab community in the Michigan area, according to Siam.
Policy official at the American Coalition for Syria, Muhammad Alaa Ghanem, believes that the influence of the Muslim voter in these elections is very different from the 2020 elections, which Biden won, especially in swing states such as Michigan, where Trump lost by a narrow margin as a result of the preference for Muslims and Arabs there.
Ghanem pointed out – in an interview with Al Jazeera Net – that the current elections witnessed a major division regarding the candidate chosen by Muslims, and the reason is due to the position of Biden and the Democratic Party on the war on Gaza and the American support provided to Israel, so Harris lost in states that Biden had previously won over Trump, even by a small margin.
New phenomenon
The policy official in the American Coalition for Syria adds that these elections were distinguished by a new phenomenon that was not present in previous elections, which is the promotion of the Arab and Muslim voice.
Ghanem explained his idea that for the first time in the history of American politics, attention is being given to the Arab and Muslim voice in this way. In the past, it did not receive this amount of attention, nor was it mentioned in the media at the same level that we witnessed in these elections.
In Ghanem’s opinion, this is a new and excellent development for the Arab and Muslim community, which has become part of American political life in greater numbers and effectively, and therefore “this is a lesson for the Democrats, and they must learn from it, and pay better attention to everyone, including Arabs and Muslims.”
The local and national dimensions
Among the points that were also raised about the recent American elections related to the voters’ position on issues of domestic American concern or those related to American foreign policy, and the issues of the Middle East region were the focus of choice and differentiation among the Arab and Muslim communities.
The journalist specializing in American affairs believes that since 2022, many Muslim families have gone to vote for Republican Party candidates in local state elections, as a reaction to the Democratic Party’s expansion in teaching sexual content, homosexuality, abortion, and education.
Youssef gave the example of the state of Virginia, where Muslim and even Christian families voted for the Republican Party candidate, after the state of Fairfax provided educational content for primary school children that included the freedom to change gender and homosexuality.
With regard to foreign policy, the professor of Middle Eastern studies at Rutgers University says that the Democratic Party is often less harsh and ferocious. “The previous Trump administration was accustomed to not giving any importance to Arab and Islamic countries, and one of its first decisions in the recent period was to ban citizens from 5 countries.” Islamic and Arab countries from entering the United States.
The American elections were held last Tuesday, and according to results reported by American media, Trump won the presidential race after significantly exceeding the required number of votes in the Electoral College of 270, defeating his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris.
Trump will be sworn in next January 20 to officially begin his presidential duties.
