
“Yeah, well, you just p—ing everybody off today, huh?”
Those were the words of Will Smith’s character from the 1997 film Men In Black — but they are becoming increasingly relevant to President Biden. His immigration policies are drawing concern from both sides of the aisle, and he sure is having difficulties keeping his Arab Muslim supporters in the battleground state of Michigan happy.
Biden’s reelection campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, threw a party in the heavily Arab and Muslim city of Dearborn, Michigan last week — and no one showed up. Wayne County authority Assad I. Turfe was asked to assemble Muslim leaders from the Detroit area for a meeting with Rodriguez. He spoke with ten such people — including Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud — and all gave a hard pass on the invite.
Biden reelection campaign team shunned by some Arab American leaders in Michigan https://t.co/A2V1G1s0cC
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) January 26, 2024
Arabs and Muslims are overwhelmingly opposed to the support given by the Biden administration to Israel for its defense against terror attacks from Hamas.
Democrat state representative Abraham Aiyash said in a statement: “The conclusion that I’ve drawn from this is they don’t really see this as a legitimate problem. And it’s disturbing at best and at worst, it’s extremely dismissive and disrespectful”
What Aiyash is disregarding is that Jews have voted Democrat as a block for many years, and Biden can ill afford to risk their continued support. Overt support of Hamas could easily be a political third rail that would be construed as Anti-Semitic and turn Jews against the Democrats as a whole. The city of Detroit indeed has some predominantly Jewish suburbs, including West Bloomfield, Bloomfield Hills, Oak Park, Farmington Hills, Southfield, and Huntington Woods.
This Detroit-area political brush fire has significance beyond just a few suburbs of politically polarizing demographics. This is because these flames are burning in the largest population center of the critical swing state of Michigan. The electoral college could very realistically be decided there, much like the 2000 election was decided in Florida.
One Mosque — The Islamic Center of Detroit — even held an “Abandon Biden” event before the planned visit by Rodriguez. This makes one wonder exactly to whom else they would flock. Trump has recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and even moved the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv. He has said he would reject Gaza refugees into the United States and can hardly be viewed as an ally by Muslims. Should Muslims in large numbers support a third candidate, it could divide the vote and favor Trump.
All four Muslim members of the U.S. Congress are Democrats. Two of those are members of the informal far-left coalition called “The Squad”: Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MN) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MI). The American radical left has sympathized consistently with Islam. This is a bit of an odd pairing, as Muslim beliefs on women’s roles and LGBT issues are not at all aligned with Democrat world views. However, the American political left tends to loathe Christianity and its values, which makes openness to Islam a natural choice. “The enemy of your enemy is your friend” seems to characterize the relationship of Islam with the Democratic party.
Per a 2017 Pew Research poll, 66% of Muslims identify with the Democrats, while only 13% side with the Republicans.