Long, tough but worthwhile Slate story re: Arab American vote in Michigan

[marmar]

The Storm Brewing in Michigan
Are Arabs in the state really prepared to hand the presidency back to Donald Trump? In a word: yes.

BY AYMANN ISMAIL
APRIL 29, 20245:45 AM


(Slate) With its rich, dark wood, golden décor, and an invigorating oud musk, the American Moslem Society on the south end of Dearborn, Michigan, masks its age well. Opened in 1937, it was the first mosque in America to broadcast the call to prayer through loud speakers. It was founded by Arab immigrants who had initially been drawn by the promise of $5-a-day jobs at a nearby Ford plant, which laid the foundation for what is now America’s largest concentration of Arab Americans.

On a recent Friday there, an imam clad in a traditional white thobe and kufi delivered his sermon. Several hundred worshipers sat on the blue-patterned carpet stretching across the space and listened attentively as the imam evoked scenes of devastation from Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza. “True attachment to Allah is demonstrated beautifully by our brothers and sisters in Palestine and in Gaza,” he said. “When they see the dead bodies of family members and they are asked what their message is to the world, they reply, ‘We Belong to Allah, and to him we shall return.’ They know that whoever is truthful with Allah, Allah will never abandon them, even if they are betrayed by all of creation.”

....(snip)....

“If it came down to Trump and Joe Biden, I will vote for Trump. Because it doesn’t get worse than Joe Biden,” a man named Salah told me. His friend, Amad, added, “Biden was supposed to be the peacemaker. The comfort-maker. Instead, he became accessory to the biggest genocide in modern history.”

Biden had recently overcome an attempt to disrupt the Michigan Democratic primary with “uncommitted” votes tied to the United States’ support for Israel. But in Dearborn and nearby Hamtramck—home to large Arab populations that were part of a coalition that moved Michigan from Donald Trump to Biden in the 2020 presidential election—Biden lost. And the people here made clear they plan to bring the fight to November. ............(more)

https://slate.com/human-interest/2024/04/donald-trump-joe-biden-2024-election-michigan-muslims.html

[thucythucy]

1. "If it came down to Trump and Joe Biden, I will vote for Trump. Because it doesn't get worse than Joe Biden."

Last edited Mon Apr 29, 2024, 11:06 AM - Edit history (1)

Wanna bet?

Then too: "the biggest genocide in modern history...."

So what would he consider to be modern?

How about the massacre of Tamils in Sri Lanka?

Or of the Boko Haram in Nigeria?

Or of Uyghurs in China?

Or the Saudi imposed famine and bombings in Yemen?

Or the horrors in Sudan?

Going back a few decades, how about of Muslims in Bosnia?

Or the massacre of the Tutsi in Rwanda?

I understand the emotional involvement and reaction of people seeing their own ancestral community being devastated by war and all its attendant atrocity. But to support Trump over Biden by any American Muslim seems to me to be the epitome of cutting off your nose to spite your face. And then cutting off your ears. And then putting out your eyes...

I come back to "it doesn't get worse than Joe Biden."

I'm sure there were lots of Germans who said the same about Fritz von Papen.