(RNS) — Emgage Action, a prominent Muslim American advocacy organization, has endorsed Kamala Harris for president, offering qualified support for the vice president despite broad frustration among Muslim Americans with the Biden administration’s response to the Israel-Hamas war.
The endorsement, sent to supporters Wednesday morning (Sept. 25), began by criticizing President Joe Biden’s handling of Israel’s nearly yearlong military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and escalating attacks on Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia in southern Lebanon.
“Our strong disagreement with President Biden over the crisis in the Middle East is well known,” the statement reads. “We ultimately hold him responsible for continuing to supply deadly weapons to Israel that have killed tens of thousands of people, including over 15,000 children.”
But Emgage expressed wide-ranging concerns about Harris’ Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, and pointed to Emgage’s work to defeat Trump in 2020. The organization’s leaders, it said, “have always been clear-eyed about the danger Trump’s brand of authoritarianism represents for Muslim Americans, America, and the world.”
While endorsing the Democratic ticket in order to “prevent Trump from returning to the White House,” the statement said, it clarified that it doesn’t constitute “agreement with Vice President Harris on all issues, but rather, an honest guidance to our voters regarding the difficult choice they confront at the ballot box.”
The Harris-Walz campaign celebrated the endorsement in a statement, saying that Harris “has been steadfast in her support of our country’s diverse Muslim community” while acknowledging misgivings about the Biden administration’s actions. “We understand this endorsement is coming at a time when there is great pain and loss in the Muslim and Arab American communities,” read a statement from Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez.
“The Vice President will continue to relentlessly work to bring the war in Gaza to an end such that Israel is secure, all the hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can exercise their right to freedom, dignity, security, and self-determination.”
In an interview with RNS, Emgage Action CEO Wa’el Alzayat stressed that the choice presented to Muslim Americans this November is “difficult” and called the endorsement a “sober assessment” of “which presidency will allow us to advance an anti-war agenda.”
Trump, Alzayat noted, has not expressed support for a cease-fire in Gaza (though he has called on Israel to “finish the problem“) and has suggested deporting pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses, calling the protesters “pro-Hamas radicals.”
Alzayat said that Trump recently declared his intention to bring back his administration’s travel ban on citizens of mostly Muslim-majority countries, a policy that evolved from a more explicit ban on Muslim immigration Trump proposed in 2016.
“Our assessment is either Trump or Harris will be president, and we cannot be affording to have another four years of a Trump presidency that has a history of harming our communities and our democracy,” Alzayat said.
The endorsement will be backed up, the Emgage Action leader said, “with canvassing and GOTV operations as well as digital ads in swing states, and doing it in partnership with other organizations to educate the voters that these elections will have a consequence.” Emgage Action will produce voter materials and social media campaigns in Arabic and Bengali.
Muslim Americans have strongly backed Democratic candidates in recent years, with 86% voting for Biden in 2020, according to polling from Change Research cited by Emgage. Muslims, who represent around 1% of Americans, make up significant shares of populations in hotly contested swing states, particularly in Michigan, which has been decided by razor-thin margins in recent presidential contests.
But Muslim Americans have grown increasingly critical of Biden and the Democratic Party, voicing outrage at the the administration’s support for Israel amid the country’s ongoing assault into the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians since Oct. 7 of last year, when Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel, killing 1,200 and taking hostage roughly 200 others.
On Sunday, Trump gained the endorsement of Amer Ghalib, the mayor of Hamtramck, Michigan, the only Muslim-majority city in the U.S. Ghalib, a Democrat who, according to Semafor, was critical of Harris’ response to pro-Palestinian protesters at her rallies, called Trump “a man of principles.”
In a 19th News/SurveyMonkey poll conducted in late August, Muslim Americans were the second-least likely of any religious group surveyed to say “Yes” when asked if they planned to vote in November (56%), and the most likely to say “maybe” (29%). The same poll found that only 34% of Muslim voters were currently willing to back Harris outright, with 25% expressing support for Trump and 22% undecided.
Alzayat said it is precisely this kind of voter hesitancy that Emgage’s endorsement hopes to address.
“We felt compelled to give guidance to our voters, that in spite of this painful moment that we feel, this is both a principled and strategic approach,” he said.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the only Palestinian American member of Congress, has long signaled growing discontent among Muslim voters.
“As a Palestinian American, and also someone of the Muslim faith, I’m not going to forget this,” Tlaib said during a pro-Palestinian protest on the National Mall last year, referring to the Biden administration’s handling of the situation.
In February, Tlaib urged supporters to vote “uncommitted” in protest of Biden’s policies in the Michigan Democratic primary, delivering her remarks in front of a polling location in Dearborn, a city in her district that boasts a large Muslim population. Tlaib also has yet to endorse Harris.
The situation escalated during the Democratic National Convention, when members of the “uncommitted” movement — a reference to how participants voted in this year’s Democratic primaries — launched an unsuccessful pressure campaign to allow a Palestinian American to speak from the party convention’s main stage.
Alzayat acknowledged many Muslim Americans may disagree with the endorsement, which comes as tensions between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon continue to escalate. While he is “mindful that we are right now in a very painful moment,” he said that with Election Day only a few weeks away, he hoped that Emgage will now be better positioned to push Harris to take different policy stances.
“To those who are conflicted at this moment, I want to be very clear: We hear them, we understand them, and we also respect those who have reached a different conclusion,” Alzayat said. “We are a pluralistic democracy, and there’s no right single way to achieve change. I think we need collective action, different strategies, but I think we all have the same end goal in mind.”
