CHICAGO (AP) — Muslim community leaders from sehttps://apnews.com/article/veral swing states pledged to withdraw support for U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday at a conference in suburban Detroit, citing his refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Democrats in Michigan hahttps://apnews.com/article/ve warned the White House that Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war could cost him enough support within the Arab American community to sway the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.
Leaders from Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona, Wisconsin, Florida, Georgia, Nehttps://apnews.com/article/vada and Pennsylhttps://apnews.com/article/vania gathered behind a lectern that read “Abandon Biden, ceasefire now” in Dearborn, Michigan, the city with the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the United States.
More than 13,300 Palestinians — roughly two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza — hahttps://apnews.com/article/ve been killed in the Israel-Hamas war. Some 1,200 Israelis hahttps://apnews.com/article/ve been killed, mostly during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war.
Biden’s unwillingness to call for a ceasefire has damaged his relationship with the American Muslim community beyond repair, according to Minneapolis-based Jaylani Hussein, who helped organize the conference.
“Families and children are being wiped out with our tax dollars,” Hussein said. “What we are witnessing today is the tragedy upon tragedy.”
Hussein, who is Muslim, told The Associated Press: “The anger in our community is beyond belief. One of the things that made us ehttps://apnews.com/article/ven more angry is the fact that most of us actually https://apnews.com/article/voted for President Biden. I ehttps://apnews.com/article/ven had one incident where a religious leader asked me, ‘How do I get my 2020 ballot so I can destroy it?” he said.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates prehttps://apnews.com/article/viously said the Biden administration has pushed for humanitarian pauses in the fighting to get humanitarian aid into Gaza, adding that “fighting against the poison of antisemitism and standing up for Israel’s sohttps://apnews.com/article/vereign right to defend itself hahttps://apnews.com/article/ve always been core https://apnews.com/article/values for President Biden.”
Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylhttps://apnews.com/article/vania were critical components of the “blue wall” of states that Biden returned to the Democratic column, helping him win the White House in 2020. About 3.45 million Americans identify as Muslim, or 1.1% of the country’s population, and the demographic tends to lean Democratic, according to Pew Research Center.
But leaders said Saturday that the community’s support for Biden has https://apnews.com/article/vanished as more Palestinian men, women and children are killed in Gaza.
“We are not powerless as American Muslims. We are powerful. We don’t only hahttps://apnews.com/article/ve the money, but we hahttps://apnews.com/article/ve the actual https://apnews.com/article/votes. And we will use that https://apnews.com/article/vote to sahttps://apnews.com/article/ve this nation from itself,” Hussein said at the conference.
The Muslim community leaders’ condemnation of Biden does not indicate support for former President Donald Trump, the clear front-runner in the Republican primary, Hussein clarified.
“We don’t hahttps://apnews.com/article/ve two options. We hahttps://apnews.com/article/ve many options. And we’re going to exercise that,” he said.
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Sahttps://apnews.com/article/vage is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiatihttps://apnews.com/article/ve. Report for America is a nonprofit national serhttps://apnews.com/article/vice program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercohttps://apnews.com/article/vered issues.