The letter comes as polling within the Muslim American community shows a major departure from the Democratic Party over the Biden-Harris administration’s unfettered support for Israel’s war on Gaza, which they along with rights groups and legal experts view is a genocide against Palestinians.
The letter calls on Muslims to instead vote for any of the third-party candidates, including the Green Party’s Jill Stein whose support has swelled among the Muslim American community in recent weeks.
“We want to be absolutely clear: don’t stay home and skip voting. This year, make a statement by voting third party for the presidential ticket,” the letter said.
“Equally important, vote all the way down the ballot for candidates and policies that stand for truth and justice, ensuring your voice is heard at every level.”
The letter, written and released in collaboration with the Abandon Harris campaign, was signed by more than three dozen religious leaders from all around the country, including Dawud Walid, Dr Shadee Elmasry, Imam Omar Suleiman, Dr Yasir Qadhi, and Imam Tom Facchine.
The imams who have signed the letter say the calls for Muslims to uncritically support Harris is fear-mongering.
“None of this is an endorsement of Donald Trump’s vile, racist agenda, which includes advancing the apartheid and genocidal interests of a foreign state while falsely claiming to put America first,” the letter said.
The Uncommitted Campaign, a movement that gained media attention for its call to withhold votes from President Biden during the primary elections over the war on Gaza, released a statement earlier this month saying that while it could not officially endorse Harris, voters should not cast their ballot for any other candidate but her.
How’s that not an offical endorsement?
Endorsement means you like them. This makes it clear they do not.
No, it do not mean liking something. Endorsement is an act of acceptation and/or support. Saying “voters should not cast their ballot for any other candidate but her” is an explicit endorsement.
Except that the people saying this are making a distinction between the two. Do you want to interpret what they are trying to say or do you wanna play word games? Disingenuous.
They don’t like her but can admit the current alternative will be much more terrible. They do not want to endorse a “lesser evil.” Option A will hurt, option B is likely to take a limb.
The letter calls on Muslims to instead vote for any of the third-party candidates, including the Green Party’s Jill Stein whose support has swelled among the Muslim American community in recent weeks.
I get that Stein is on the ballot in way more states (Michigan especially) and will likely get way more votes, but Claudia de la Cruz really can’t seem to get any coverage when topics like this come up.
Great question. I am mostly to blame because they are mentioned in the original article somewhere in the middle. I just didn’t paste in the entire article. It’s very long so I had to do some cutting after pasting 6 lines.
It comes after an umbrella group of major Muslim groups in the US released a similar call urging members to vote third-party, whether it be for Stein, Dr Cornel West, the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s Claudia De la Cruz, or the Libertarian Party’s Chase Oliver.
Jill Stein has made the genocide her main campaign point. Her platform also is not very "radical’. She mostly offers everything Democrats are asking for. Universal healthcare, ranked choice voting etc. For implementing rcv to escape the duopoly she is imo the best ‘compromise candidate’.
It also helps that realistically only the Greens have the ballot access and infrastructure to make winning possible. A bit difficult to advocate for a candidate who literally cannot win.
I wonder why? Isn’t that curious.
Incoming hatred of Muslims coming from liberals in 3, 2, 1…
Queue these comments in a minute:
Always happens.
🌎🧑🚀🔫🧑🚀
Oh, of course, but expect similar to what happened with “Bernie bros” after Hillary’s loss in 2016 to happen to muslim-Americans in 2024 if Harris loses.
Great win! Taking votes away from kamala surely teaches Donald a lesson
President Donald Trump and the republican party who are currently in running the government are going to learn that their poor foreign policy has electoral consequences.
Everyone should vote for his opponent, Kamala Harris, who is in no shape or form part of the current government. This will show current President Donald Trump and his republican party that they have crossed a red line which nobody will vote for.
Actually this is a nazi talking point and you should feel bad
I’d love to see an explanation for that one.
Arab americans are sick of having their homelands bombed by democrats. The Obama administration for example dropped an average of 60 bombs per day on the middle east and north africa during his presidency.
Let’s not even attempt to pretend like republicans are not also responsible, because… ?
What do you think her opponent would do if elected? Pick the lesser evil, damn.
