By james art We’re a week away from the election and almost every poll shows a close race.
At a recent campaign event in Michigan, Vice President Kamala Harris was met with waves of boos and boos from Palestinian protesters.
The protests came just days after Dr. Ahmed Ghanim, a leader of the state’s Muslim community, was removed from Harris’ event without explanation.
From CBS News:
Dr. Ahmed Ghanim attended the invitation-only event in Royal Oak on Monday, excited to hear from Harris and former Sen. Liz Cheney. Ghanim said he went through security checkpoints, sat in his seat and answered emails as he waited for them to begin. Ten minutes later, he said, Harris campaign workers came to his seat and asked him to step to the back.
Ghanim said he was asked to leave the scene and was told by authorities that if he did not leave, he would be arrested.
“The transition was so abrupt. I was sitting there waiting to listen to the vice president being threatened with arrest,” he said. “I told him I was leaving, but I just needed to know why I was being removed. He said it’s not us, it’s the place.”
The Harris campaign released the following statement in response to the story:
“The campaign was quickly informed by Emgage Action of yesterday’s incident and looked into it. Our campaign regrets this action and its impact on Dr. Ghanim and the community, and he is welcome at future events. We value our relationship with the Muslim American community and are committed to ensuring that all public and political spaces are welcoming and respectful to every American.
Michigan remains a potential Election Day problem for Harris, as a result of its large Arab-American population. The Democratic nominee has taken no discernible steps to separate her campaign from the Biden administration’s Gaza policy, and she has vowed to continue sending arms to Israel.
“Could Kamala Harris Lose Because of Muslim Voters in Michigan?” asks an article in the Newsweek:
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, appears to be facing significant opposition from Muslim voters as she continues to face a race in Michigan in the weeks leading up to this year’s presidential election.
Michigan is the swing state with the largest concentration of Muslim voters, a group that has overwhelmingly supported Democrats in recent presidential races. Large swathes of those voters, however, were alienated by the way the Biden-Harris administration handled the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which comes amid a broader conflict between Israel and Hamas.
The Trump campaign
The Trump campaign is apparently taking steps to capitalize on disillusionment among Arab American voters.
While Harris was being booed, Trump was also in Michigan making a play on Arab and Muslim voters. A number of Muslim leaders joined him on stage at a campaign rally.
“Give them a big hand because they’re going to vote for us and help us win,” he told the crowd.
Ahmed Ghanim, the aforementioned doctor who was kicked out of a Harris event, was asked by the Trump campaign to appear in an ad but declined.
On Sunday, Trump held a rally in Madison Square Garden that sparked a backlash over a number of racist and sexist remarks and jokes. Targets include Palestinians and Muslims.
Former New York City mayor and disbarred attorney Rudy Giuliani told attendees that “Palestinians are taught to kill us at two years old” and accused Harris of wanting to “bring them to you.”
Trump campaign transition team co-chairman Howard Lutnick told the crowd that we must elect the GOP nominee to “crush jihad.”
“Lutnik’s use of the word ‘jihad’ in this context is suggestive of a fanatical view of Islam,” notes The New Republic. “The term is widely mistranslated as ‘holy war’, while the literal translation in Arabic is ‘to fight’ or ‘to fight.’ In a religious context, the word is used to describe a person’s internal or external struggle to do good works.
some Odds and ends
A few choice articles on the site that you may have missed:
In 1968, a Democratic president proposed de-escalating an unpopular war to help his party. Biden must act now.
It is not too late for the Non-Aligned Movement to hold the Democrats accountable for the genocide
The nation supported Kamala Harris and the magazine’s fall 2024 interns wrote an Op-Ed disagreeing with the decision.
An important part of Responsible statesmanship: Why aren’t Harris and Trump talking about nuclear weapons?
At The interception Akela Lacey has a mandatory investigation to track every dollar spent by AIPAC this election season. The pro-Israel lobby has spent money on more than 80 percent of the 469 seats up for re-election.