Article by Nathan J. Robinson

In 2018, Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to be an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Kavanaugh’s confirmation process was contentious, because he was accused of having sexually abused a woman named Christine Blasey Ford when he was a teenager. Kavanaugh responded angrily to the accusations, and conservatives insisted he was being smeared by Democrats for political reasons. As we showed in this magazine, Kavanaugh’s rebuttal to the charges was full of inconsistencies and outright lies, which Senate Democrats failed to press him on. There was, however, a huge amount of discussion of Blasey Ford’s accusations in the press.

There was less discussion of Kavanaugh’s actual jurisprudence. In fact, some liberal supporters of Kavanaugh insisted that because he was intelligent and studious, he was qualified for the Court, with the only unsettled issue being the accusation by Blasey Ford. It was debated whether Kavanaugh deliberately selected attractive female clerks, or whether he was a supportive mentor to women. Certainly his past behavior toward women was highly relevant, particularly in light of the Blasey Ford allegation. The problem was that, even among Senate Democrats, few seemed interested in Kavanaugh’s horrendous record as a judge, including cases in which he immunized torturers from accountability and undermined labor unions in favor of corporations. (When I wrote that Kavanaugh was clearly lying about basic facts concerning the Blasey Ford accusation, I was invited on NPR. When I wrote a long exposé of his horrific court decisions, hardly anyone read it.) It seemed to me at the time that many liberals saw something they describe as character as more important than ideology, even though ideology can have far more serious implications. As Jay Willis put it in a debunking of the “liberal case” for Kavanaugh, they are part of an elite political world that “prioritize[s] comity and civility over the real-world implications of its work.”

I was reminded of the frustrating, narrow debate over Kavanaugh in the discussions around Pete Hegseth, who has now been sworn in as Trump’s Secretary of Defense. As with Kavanaugh, Hegseth was accused of being abusive to women. (His own mother once called him “an abuser of women,” although she retracted her judgment in a recent interview and says she regretted it soon after making it.) There have been numerous accounts of his poor behavior, from getting dragged out of a strip club in uniform while drunk to squandering the funds of two nonprofits he ran (one pro-war and one pro-privatization of the VA). At one he is alleged to have “treated the organization funds like they were a personal expense account,” and even Republican insiders were concerned about his “frequent public intoxication, poor leadership and the toxic work climate he fostered within the organization.” Hegseth paid a $50,000 settlement to a woman who accused him of rape, and his former sister-in-law says he was so terrifying that his wife had to develop an “escape plan” complete with a codeword in case he got out of hand.

These are very serious accusations, although it’s not clear how the Senate should evaluate accusations that have never been put before a jury. I can see why these lurid and disturbing stories predominated in coverage of Hegseth’s nomination. But let’s be clear: this atrocious behavior is just one reason that Hegseth should not have been made the Secretary of Defense. An even more important reason that he should not be Secretary of Defense is that his political beliefs are likely to contribute to atrocities and aggressive war. A person accused of being an abuser and having alcohol problems who also had “benign” beliefs might not do much damage to the world at large in a government post, although the people around them will certainly be affected. Hegseth, however, holds Nazi-like views on Muslims. He makes Donald Rumsfeld look like Mahatma Gandhi. He should not be anywhere near power, even if every single one of the behavioral allegations against him was proven conclusively false.

First, Pete Hegseth is a rancid bigot whose “clash of civilizations” view of humanity will sanction aggressive warfare against the Muslim world. It is fair to say that if Hegseth said any of the things about Judaism that he says about Islam, it would be transparently obvious that he held neo-Nazi beliefs that could easily justify genocide. But there is a double standard on the treatment of the two religions, so that one can get away with horrific comments about Muslims that would (rightly) be career-ruining if spoken about Jewish people. He specifically says that the very presence of Muslims in a society is harmful:

“Islam itself is not compatible with Western forms of government. [Some] countries want to stay free, so they are fighting like hell to block Islam’s spread. In this age, it’s incredibly difficult to remain clear-eyed about the fact that some ideas for society are better than others. And that is where the real fight lives.”

While he cursorily acknowledges the existence of “moderate” Islam (“When appropriate, I am careful to separate individual moderate Muslims from the radical element”), he says that ordinary, non-jihadist Muslims are essentially misinterpreting their own religion, because “the real heart of Islam is much closer to Islamists than to moderates.” He usually uses the term “Islamism” rather than Islam, but repeatedly makes clear that the distinction is essentially unimportant:

“Esmat is a Muslim, not an Islamist. To him it’s a big difference, but in the larger scheme, the distinction becomes less important.
“ Moderate Muslims are battling not just the Islamists but also the bulk of Islamic theology, history, and traditions… the real heart of Islam is much closer to Islamists than to moderates.”

“Islam—the fastest-growing religion in the world—is almost entirely captured and leveraged by Islamists who believe that their mission is the same as their founder’s. Muhammad led armies, enslaved or killed his opponents, and sought to conquer everyone else. Modern Islamists, of course, have the same goal.”

“Islam and Islamism are two branches of the same theological tree. Islamism is a widespread interpretation of Islam that draws on the text of the Muslims’ holy book, the Quran, which tells the story of a leader who, empowered by his god, spread the Islamic faith by subjugation and the sword. This is a fact, whether it makes you uncomfortable or not.”

“Millions of Muslims have joined modernity and choose to live peacefully; but they do so by disregarding intolerant and violent Qur’anic passages that are no less authoritative today than they were a thousand years ago. Islamists choose to interpret the Quran as it is written, not as modernity tries to edit it.”

So Hegseth is clear: the very presence of Muslims in the United States is a problem, regardless of their interpretation of their faith or their behavior. “The United Kingdom is done for,” he says, citing the fact that many cities now have Muslim mayors. “The British were invaded, and they didn’t even know it.” As “Muslims’ birth rates have grown,” countries that permit Muslim immigration are being destroyed, because they have “import[ed] unskilled, noncontributing Islamist throngs from the Middle East.” The U.S., he says, is next. “Just like the Christian crusaders who pushed back the Muslim hordes in the twelfth century, American Crusaders will need to muster the same courage against Islamists today.” He thinks those who “ “balk at Muslim immigration bans or moratoriums” are deluded: “The ‘Islam = Peace’ narrative is a naive and cowardly worldview, because the alternative is confronting the reality of a threat that’s almost too scary to fathom.” The very fact that the U.S. lets Muslims hold elected office shows we are falling prey to the “cultural invasion”: “In November 2019, twenty-six Muslim candidates won elected office in the United States. Muhammad is now a top ten boys’ name in America—what will it be in 2030?” (Quotations are from his books American Crusade and The War on Warriors.)

Continue reading on:  Current Affairs

Civil rights advocates in the United States are raising the alarm over a directive signed by President Donald Trump that they say lays the groundwork for another travel ban targeting Muslim-majority countries.

The executive order, released on Monday, may also be used to target foreign nationals who are already in the US legally and crack down on international students who advocate for Palestinian rights, experts say.

Deepa Alagesan, a lawyer at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), an advocacy group, said the new order is “bigger and worse” than the “xenophobic” travel ban that Trump imposed on several Muslim-majority countries in 2017 during his first term.

“The worst part of it now, it’s looking to not just ban people outside the US entering the US, but also to use these same rationales as a basis to get people out of the US,” Alagesan told Al Jazeera.

The new order directs administration officials to compile a list of nations “for which vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a partial or full suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries”.

It goes further, however. It calls for identifying the number of citizens who entered the US from those countries since 2021 — during Joe Biden’s presidency — and collecting “relevant” information about their “actions and activities”.

The White House then orders “immediate steps” to deport foreign citizens from those countries “whenever information is identified that would support the exclusion or removal”.

Trump’s executive order also says the administration must ensure that foreign citizens, including those in the US, “do not bear hostile attitudes” towards American citizens, culture or government and “do not advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists”.

Advocates call order ‘scary’

Alagesan warned that the decree, dubbed “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats”, could inflict more harm on immigrant families than the 2017 travel restrictions, known collectively as the “Muslim ban”.

She said the order’s vague language is “scary” because it appears to give US agencies broad authority to recommend actions against people whom the administration seeks to target.

“At its core, it’s just another method to keep people out, to get people out, to break up families, to incite fear, to make sure that people know that they are not welcome and that the government will bring its force to bear against them,” Alagesan told Al Jazeera.

Other advocacy groups have also decried the order since its publication.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) said the decree goes further than the 2017 “Muslim ban” by giving the government “wider latitude to use ideological exclusion” to deny visas and remove people from the US.

“ADC calls on the Trump administration to stop stigmatizing and targeting entire communities, which only sows division,” the group said in a statement.

“America’s promise of freedom of speech and expression — a principle that President Trump himself has long highlighted — now stands in stark contradiction to his new executive order.”

The Muslim Public Affairs Council also cautioned in a statement that enhancing vetting measures for specific countries risks “functioning as a de facto Muslim ban under the guise of security protocols”.

Maryam Jamshidi, a professor at the University of Colorado Law School, said the order appears to revive the travel ban from Trump’s first term, while pushing a right-wing agenda in the broader culture wars.

Parts of the decree also specifically target Palestinians and Palestinian rights supporters, Jamshidi added.

“The right is very invested in continuing this notion that foreigners, people who are Black, brown, Muslim — not white Judeo-Christian, effectively — are threatening ‘real Americans’.”

Jamshidi also said it is not clear how the order would go about deporting people, noting that it is not established whether the immigration law cited gives the administration authority to remove foreign nationals.

The decree relies on a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that gives the president power to restrict entry to the US for “any class of aliens” — but not to remove people already here.

“This is probably not a blanket deportation charge,” Jamshidi said. But she warned that the order could lead to further scrutiny against people from those countries and deter political activities — especially Palestinian solidarity — that could be perceived as running afoul of the administration’s guidelines.

Efforts to deport student activists

The order directs US officials to make recommendations to “protect” citizens from foreign nationals “who preach or call for sectarian violence, the overthrow or replacement of the culture on which our constitutional Republic stands, or who provide aid, advocacy, or support for foreign terrorists”.

Jamshidi said the language is “certainly about foreign nationals, including foreign students who are participating in Palestine advocacy”.

With pro-Israel politicians often calling campus activists “pro-Hamas”, Jamshidi said Trump’s edict could be used to target Palestinian rights advocates who are in the US on student visas.

Both Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have previously called for deporting international students.

As Palestinian solidarity protests swept the country’s universities following the outbreak of the war on Gaza, Israel’s supporters, especially Republicans, painted student demonstrators as a threat to campus safety.

Rubio led a Senate letter to the Biden administration in October 2023, calling for the removal of international students who participated in protests in support of Palestinians.

The letter drew parallels between student protesters and the 9/11 attackers. It cited “lessons learned on September 11, 2001, when terrorists, many of whom were studying in the United States or had overstayed visas, carried out the deadliest attack on American soil”.

“Sadly, twenty-two years later, our country is witnessing public displays from terrorist sympathizers taking to the streets and condoning Hamas’ brutal attacks against the State of Israel,” the letter read.

The 2024 Republican Party platform also calls for deporting “pro-Hamas radicals” to make college campuses “safe and patriotic again”.

Dima Khalidi, director of the advocacy group Palestine Legal, said it is “clear” that Trump’s recent executive order was crafted to specifically target Palestinian rights supporters.

Critics say the bottom line is that, while Trump’s first “Muslim ban” targeted travelers from several Muslim-majority countries, this order has farther-reaching consequences, including about what it means to be an American.

For example, the decree calls for measures to ensure the “proper assimilation” of immigrants and “promote a unified American identity”.

Jamshidi said the order has “broader implications for all sorts of groups than the initial iterations of the Muslim ban”.

“It’s another salvo in the right’s culture wars,” she said.

Source: Al Jazeera English

The 64-page document, which maps out more than 100 executive branch actions, comes weeks before the inauguration of former President Donald Trump, who imposed a travel ban on people from some majority Muslim countries during his first term that Biden rescinded on his first day in office.

It mirrors a comprehensive strategy to fight antisemitism released by the White House in September 2023, and comes more than a year after death of six-year-old boy Wadea Al-Fayoume, stabbed by a man who targeted him and his mother because they were Palestinian-American.

In a foreword to the strategy, Biden called the attacks on the Chicago boy and his mother “heinous acts” and noted a spike in anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate crimes, discrimination and bullying that he called wrong and unacceptable.

“Muslims and Arabs deserve to live with dignity and enjoy every right to the fullest extent along with all of their fellow Americans,” Biden wrote. “Policies that result in discrimination against entire communities are wrong and fail to keep us safe.”

The Council on American Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, called the strategy “too little, too late” and faulted the White House for not promising any changes to a federal watchlist and “no-fly” list that includes many Arab and Muslim Americans, and for failing to end the war in Gaza, which has been driving Islamophobia.

Jim Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute, predicted the incoming Trump administration would disown the strategy, but welcomed the White House’s expansion to include anti-Arab hate instead of focusing solely on acts directed against Muslims.

The Trump transition team had no immediate comment on the strategy or whether it would support it.

Trump, who won support from some Muslim voters angry about Biden’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza, has said he will ban entry to the U.S. of anyone who questions Israel’s right to exist and revoke visas of foreign students who are “antisemitic.”

Tensions between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups surged on some U.S. campuses after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel, with human rights advocates warning of rising antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab hate.

Source: Reuters

Donald Trump’s defense secretary pick Pete Hegseth, who has the crusader motto “deus vult” tattooed on his arm, has put bigoted anti-Muslim rhetoric at the center of several of his published books, according to a Guardian review of the materials.

Hegseth, especially in 2020’s American Crusade, depicts Islam as a natural, historic enemy of the west; presents distorted versions of Muslim doctrine in “great replacement”-style racist conspiracy theories; treats leftists and Muslims as bound together in their efforts to subvert the US; and idolizes medieval crusaders.

Experts say that Hegseth’s view of Islam is riven with falsehoods, misconceptions and far-right conspiracy theories. Yet Hegseth, if his nomination is successful, will head the world’s largest military force at a time of conflict and instability in the Middle East.

The Guardian emailed Hegseth and the Trump transition team for comment and received no response.

The Guardian has previously reported that in his 2020 book Hegseth calls for an “American Crusade”, targeting both “internal” or “domestic enemies” and the enemies of Israel. Hegseth also connected the two, writing: “We have domestic enemies, and we have international allies … it’s time to reach out to people who value the same principles, relearn lessons from them, and form stronger bonds.”

‘False, totally wrong’

In American Crusade, Hegseth presents the medieval crusades as a model for Christian-Muslim relations, but one historian of the period says his presentation of the history of that period is “just totally wrong”.

In a chapter entitled Make the Crusade Great Again, Hegseth writes: “By the eleventh century, Christianity in the Mediterranean region, including the holy sites in Jerusalem, was so besieged by Islam that Christians had a stark choice: to wage defensive war or continue to allow Islam’s expansion and face existential war at home in Europe,” adding: “The leftists of today would have argued for ‘diplomacy’ … We know how that would have turned out.”

Hegseth continues: “The pope, the Catholic Church, and European Christians chose to fight – and the crusades were born,” and “Pope Urban II urged the faithful to fight the Muslims with his famous battle cry on their lips: ‘Deus vult!,’ or ‘God wills it!’”

Hegseth has a tattoo of the same crusader slogan, which is also associated with Christian nationalism, white supremacist and other far-right tendencies.

For Hegseth, the crusaders’ short-lived victories in the Holy Land means they can be credited with safeguarding modern values. “Enjoy Western civilization? Freedom? Equal justice under the law? Thank a crusader,” having written the same thing again earlier in the chapter.

Matthew Gabriele is a professor of medieval studies in the Department of Religion and Culture at Virginia Tech, and the author, with David Perry, of Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe.

In a telephone conversation, he said that Hegseth’s picture of Muslim encroachment in the 11th century was misplaced.

“There were absolutely no incursions into mainland Europe,” he said, adding “If anything, Islam was kind of on the retreat in Iberia and other places as well. So there was no large geopolitical shift or any kind of immediate threat of Islam taking over Europe.”

On Hegseth’s presentation of the crusades as a victory for the west against Islam, Gabriele said: “The Crusaders lost. They lost everything.

“The idea that they kind of like emerged victorious is absolutely false.

“This narrative of the crusades as a defensive war, where if the Christians didn’t launch this offensive towards Jerusalem that Europe would be overrun has been a bog-standard narrative on the right: it’s something that was espoused by Anders Breivik, the Norwegian mass murderer, in 2011 and by the Christchurch shooter a few years ago.”

On Hegseth drawing a direct line between the crusaders and the modern west, Gabriele said: “It’s the worst kind of simplistic thinking,” adding: “Anybody who tells you these simple stories is selling something.”

“The British were invaded, and they didn’t even know it”

Elsewhere in American Crusade, Hegseth repeatedly characterizes Muslim immigration to Europe as an “invasion” in a way that mimics racist “great replacement”-style conspiracy theories about immigrants displacing white populations.

At one point he tries to connect – an expert says falsely – an aspect of Islamic history with the purported “capture” of Europe.

Hegseth writes: “In Islamist circles, there’s a principle known as hegira,” and then claims: “This term refers to the nonviolent capture of a non-Muslim country.”

Hegseth writes: “Hegira is a cultural, physical, psychological, political, and eventually religious takeover. History is replete with examples of this; and because history is not over, it’s happening in the most inconceivable places right now.”

Hegseth posits the US as an example where, he claims: “Radical mosques and schools are allowed to operate. Religious police control certain sections of many towns. Sharia councils dot the underground landscape. Pervasive political correctness prevents dissent against disastrous policies such as open borders and nonassimilation.”

Adducing proof, Hegseth bizarrely writes: “Take the British cities of London, Birmingham, Leeds, Blackburn, Sheffield, Oxford, Luton, Oldham, and Rochdale. What do they all have in common? They have all had Muslim mayors.”

For Hegseth, this shows: “The British were invaded, and they didn’t even know it. In one generation – absent radical policy change – the United Kingdom will be neither united nor a Western kingdom. The United Kingdom is done for.”

He adds: “The same can be said across Europe, especially following the disastrous open-borders, pro-migrant policies of the past few decades. Countries such as Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands threw open their doors to Muslim ‘refugees’ and will never be the same because of it.”

According to Hegseth, countries that do not restrict Muslim immigration ignore that “Islam itself is not compatible with Western forms of government. On the other hand, countries that want to stay free … are fighting like hell to block Islam’s spread.”

Jasmin Zine is professor of Sociology and Muslim Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, and the author of a book-length report, The Canadian Islamophobia Industry: Mapping Islamophobia’s Ecosystem in the Great White North.

Zine said Hegseth’s narrative appeared to be an “Islamophobic conspiracy theory distorting the practice of ‘hijra’ or the migration of the Prophet Muhammad and early Muslims from Mecca to Medina in 622 AD looking for safety from persecution”, which “is now being used to promote the xenophobic idea of a Muslim ‘takeover’ of the west”.

Zine added: “These ideas are also linked to white nationalist demographic replacement conspiracies about Muslim birth rates in the west (AKA ‘demographic jihad’) and scare stories about ‘creeping shariah’, which have spawned retaliatory ‘crusader’ narratives in far-right subcultures.”

‘Hard-core leftism provides the best gateway for Islamism’

At other points in American Crusade, Hegseth appears to try to scapegoat Muslims for familiar conservative grievances, in narratives that suggest Muslims and leftists are colluding to undermine the US.

In case of a Biden victory in 2020, Hegseth predicted that an “anti-Israel and pro-Islamist foreign policy” would be introduced along with “speech codes instead of free speech, bye-bye Second Amendment” and “naked socialism, government-run everything, Common Core education for everyone, a tiny military, and abortion on demand – even postbirth”.

Hegseth also tries to connect his narrative with gripes about supposed censorship on social media platforms. “Who are the first people being banned on social media?” he asks, answering: “Not intolerant jihadists or filthy leftists but outspoken conservatives.”

At times he seems to admire what he imagines to be the thoroughgoing religious zealotry of Muslims compared with an increasingly secular west.

“Almost every single Muslim child grows up listening to, and learning to read from, the Quran,” Hegseth writes. “Contrast this with our secular American schools – in which the Bible is nowhere to be found – and you’ll understand why Muslims’ worldview is more coherent than ours.”

At another point in the book he engages in a lengthy diatribe about the Council for American Islamic Relations (Cair), which has been a bugbear for US conservatives since the “war on terror”, and claims Democrats are helping the organization cement a radical “Islamist” agenda.

“Groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and [Cair] have advanced the radical mission of Islamism for decades,” Hegseth claims, adding: “In the past two years alone, more than one hundred members of Congress – including Ilhan Omar, Adam Schiff, Rashida Tlaib, Elizabeth Warren, and Amy Klobuchar – have signed letters endorsing CAIR.”

Hegseth then singles out “Socialist Bernie Sanders”, who he claims is “a favorite among Muslim Americans due to his support for Palestinian causes and distaste for Israel”.

Sanders has repeatedly publicly supported Israel’s right to defend itself, even after the commencement of the current war in Gaza, while also saying: “Innocent Palestinians also have a right to life and security,” and calling for humanitarian pauses and ceasefires, and last week leading efforts to restrict the sale of offensive weapons to Israel on the grounds that it was in violation of the international laws of war.

Some of Sanders’s positions since 7 October 2023 have drawn criticism from the left, who have seen them as insufficiently critical of Israel and insufficiently supportive of Palestine.

Hegseth meanwhile, as previously reported in the Guardian, is unconditionally supportive of Israel, and has appeared to argue that the US military should ignore the Geneva conventions in favor of “winning our wars according to our own rules”.

According to Hegseth in American Crusade, though: “Leaders of CAIR speak very highly of Bernie because his hard-core leftism provides the best gateway for their Islamism.”

Source: The Guardian

“I’d be lying if I said I was shocked.”

These were the words of Bushra Amiwala, the first Gen Z Muslim elected official in the US, in response to former President Donald Trump pulling off one of the biggest comebacks in modern American political history.

However, Bushra is not alone in her views. How was he able to win, given that he is a convicted felon and the first president to be impeached twice?

To better understand the reaction to Trump’s win, The New Arab spoke to American Arabs and Muslims, all of whom shared mixed views.

While some expressed concern about the war on Gaza in the lead-up to the election, according to recent surveys, others voiced worries about a second Trump term, while some celebrated the result.

Not surprised

According to an election summary report for the city of Dearborn, Michigan, Trump received the most votes in the city, which has the largest proportion of Arab and Muslim residents in the US.

Bushra told The New Arab that she was not surprised by Trump’s victory but was taken aback by the dramatic difference from previous elections.

More than 90% of American counties shifted to the right compared to the 2020 election, and Trump became the first Republican candidate in two decades to win the popular vote.

Ibrahim, a former SJP board member at Emory University involved in the Gaza solidarity encampment last spring, wasn’t shocked by the result, saying he was “disappointed but not surprised.”

He added, “The Democratic Party lost its appeal to a lot of people, especially working-class people and minorities. They need to do a lot of internal reflection over the next four years and think about who voters are actually looking for. It’s not just identity politics.”

Ibrahim also believes the Democratic Party shifted to the right in an attempt to appeal to centrist and Republican voters, but in doing so, they lost the support of left-leaning voters.

Alissa Hakim, a Lebanese-American from Dearborn, also said she wasn’t surprised by the result, and like Bushra and Ibrahim, she was critical of the Democratic Party.

“What Republicans do is proudly unveil their own bigotry, whereas Democrats conceal it with flowery language,” she said. “That’s what cost them the election.”

Alissa added that she voted third-party because she “wasn’t going to vote for a candidate funding Israel’s occupation and genocide in Palestine and its war in Lebanon.”

She continued, “I’m sick of the fear tactics politicians use to guilt Americans into voting for them. There have been plenty of opportunities to make real change over the past four years.”

Ryan Mirza, a Yemeni-American student at the University of Michigan raised in Dearborn, voted for Jill Stein in the hope that the Green Party could secure the 5% of the vote needed to qualify for federal funding.

He told The New Arab that he would have been disappointed by the election result regardless of the outcome.

“Regardless of who won, I knew the elected president wouldn’t represent me or address the issues I care about, like ending the genocide in Palestine,” he said.

Trump’s win is not a reason to celebrate

It has been almost a week since the election results were announced, and some have told The New Arab that Trump’s win should not be celebrated.

Ryan, for example, says he finds it “ridiculous” that some Arabs are celebrating Trump’s victory.

“This is the same Trump who implemented the Muslim ban, the same Trump who said Biden was ‘holding Netanyahu back,’” he said.

At the same time, Ryan expressed concern about the blame being placed on Arab and Muslim voters, stating that even if all third-party votes had gone to Harris, Trump would still have won all seven key battleground states and secured the election.

“Why is it that we are condemning minorities instead of holding the Democratic Party and Harris accountable for their lack of moral compass and revolting support for Israel?” he says.

“Why are we not condemning those who voted for Trump? Why are we not condemning white supremacists and misogynists?”

Voting local

Reflecting on the US elections, Bushra says the Democrats lacked a substantive platform beyond encouraging people to vote against Trump.

She adds that, for the Muslim community, the focus now should be on 2028 and rallying behind a unifying candidate. She is also encouraging “voting local, organizing local” and exercising civic power.

“There is no reason why a candidate would listen to a demographic of community members who don’t cast their vote,” she says.

Source: The New Arab

Four Arab American members of Congress will return to the Capitol to represent their districts in California, Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan, while five were reelected to State House seats in Illinois, Michigan, Colorado and Iowa.

In some places, however, there were allegations of Islamophobia and anti-Arab sentiment as opponents sought to capitalize on voter concerns about terrorism and foreign conflicts.

Suzanne Akhras, a Syrian American Democrat who lost to Republican incumbent Nicole La Ha in the race to represent the 82nd District in the Illinois House of Representatives, said she was targeted by anonymous text messages and phone calls falsely linking her to Islamic terrorism, including claims of ties to Hamas.

“These calls and texts tried to portray me as a danger to the community I love,” she said in a campaign video message to voters in September. “I have lived in Burr Ridge for nearly 20 years. I have been a PTA parent. I have spent my life advocating for vulnerable people and being of service. I founded a very successful non-profit organization.

“I am a proud American. I cherish our shared values of freedom; freedom to express our diverse faiths and freedom to celebrate the diversity of our backgrounds and cultures. Those freedoms I hold dear are under attack in our district. These attacks against me are based on racism, Islamophobia and are xenophobic.”

Akhras, who said she has been recognized as an “upstander” by the Illinois Holocaust Museum for confronting hate speech and crime, said the “disturbing calls and text messages” began shortly after she began campaigning door-to-door. She criticized the Republican Party in the state for failing to denounce the attacks, and accused La Ha of running an “abhorrent and dangerous, xenophobic” smear campaign.

Akhras, who wears a hijab and whose husband, Dr. Zaher Sahloul, helps provide humanitarian medical services to refugees and displaced people in conflict zones, including Gaza, also said that despite winning the Democratic primary in March, she received no support from the Illinois Democratic Party.

Elsewhere, Darrell Issa, who is of Syrian-Lebanese heritage, was reelected to Congress as the representative for California’s 48th district, defeating Democrat Stephen Houlahan with 60.2 percent of the vote.

In Minnesota, Democrat Ilhan Omar, who is of Somali descent, was reelected as the member of the House of Representatives for the 5th District with 75 percent of the vote, easily defeating her Republican rival, Arab American Dalia Al-Aqidi.

Democrat Rashida Tlaib, who is Palestinian American , defeated Republican James Hopper with 69.7 percent of the vote in Michigan’s 12th Congressional District. Republican Darin LaHood, who is of Lebanese heritage, ran unopposed in Illinois’ 16th District.

Two Arab American members of Congress, Democrat Anna Eshoo from California and Republican Garret Graves from Louisiana, did not seek reelection.

At the state level, Democrat Nabeela Syed, who is of Indian heritage, secured a second term in the State House as the representative for the 51st District with 55 percent of the vote, ahead of Republican rival Tosi Ufodike.

In Michigan’s 3rd District, Democrat Alabas Farhat defeated Republican Richard Zeile with 67.9 percent of the vote. Democrat Iman Jodeh was reelected in Colorado’s 41st District, gaining 61 percent of the vote against Republican Robert McKenna.

Palestinian American Abdelnasser Rashid and Syrian American Sami Scheetz, both Democrats, retained their seats without a challenge in Illinois’ 21st District and Iowa’s 78th District respectively.

Source: Arab News

Jerrod Sessler, a Navy veteran and former NASCAR driver, is running against incumbent Republican Congressman Dan Newhouse in Washington’s 4th District, which Newhouse has represented since 2015.

In an interview with the Yakima Herald-Republic, Sessler said: “There is no way that a devout Muslim should be in Congress, because they can’t take the oath of office. Their fundamental belief system is anti-American.”

The congressional candidate also cited passages in the Quran that call for nonbelievers to be killed. Many Muslims say the passages are often misinterpreted. Sessler also said that a majority Muslim Congress would threaten the security of the Constitution.

“What if the majority of Congress was Muslim?” Sessler told the Yakima Herald-Republic. “How safe and secure would our Constitution be? It wouldn’t be.”

Sessler told the Yakima Herald-Republic that, his own views aside, if elected he would engage with and be respectful of Muslim representatives in Congress.

He also told the paper that Muslims are welcome in America and that he supports Muslim Americans ascending to leadership positions, just not in Congress.

On social media, the Republican later defended his remarks.

In a comment on X, formerly Twitter, Sessler wrote: “As divisive as it is in America, Muslims may legally take the oath of office. Some even place their hand on the Quran which unequivocally calls for the killing of anyone that is not Muslim.

“It is nonsensical for people who love and appreciate all that it is to be American to vote for a Muslim, especially a radical one. Just because it is legal doesn’t mean it is helpful to the country, to our kids or to our future.”

This is not the first time Sessler has made such remarks. During the Washington primary in August, he argued that Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar could not uphold the constitution because she was a devout Muslim.

“Muslims cannot uphold the Constitution. It goes against their religious beliefs,” Sessler said, adding, “Shame on her voters for putting her there if they actually believe in America.”

There are three Muslim Americans in Congress: Omar, Indiana Representative André Carson and Michigan Representative Rashida Tlaib.

Who Is Jerrod Sessler?

In addition to being a Navy veteran, Sessler is a former business owner and engineer. In 2004, he founded a maintenance company called HomeTask, Inc., but he has campaigned full time since his first political bid in 2021.

On his campaign website, Sessler described his “difficult and impoverished childhood” and positioned himself as “the poster child for the American dream.” If elected, his promises to defend the American dream, protect constitutional rights and national security, and be a voice for the country’s future. He is also committed to defending Second Amendment rights.

Sessler first ran against Newhouse in 2022, but he did not advance past the primaries. A Trump supporter, Sessler was in Washington, D.C., on January 6. However, he did not enter the Capitol. The former president has endorsed Sessler over Newhouse, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after the January 6 Capitol riot.

Newsweek has contacted the Trump campaign via email to ask whether the former president endorses Sessler’s opinions on Muslims in Congress.

In April, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “Jerrod Sessler is a fantastic candidate and will be a GREAT Congressman for Washington State’s 4th Congressional district. A Navy Veteran, Entrepreneur, Loving Father and Husband, Jerrod will fight hard every day to secure the border, stand for the Rule of Law, strengthen our military, take care of our Vets, Defend our Nation, and protect our always under siege Second Amendment.”

In comparison, Trump called Newhouse “weak and pathetic.”

Source: Newsweek

Harris’ national security adviser, Phil Gordon, told the community leaders in the virtual meeting that the administration supports a ceasefire in Gaza, diplomacy in Lebanon and stability in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the vice president’s office said.

Ali Dagher, a Lebanese-American attorney and community leader, said the outreach from Harris’ office was not enough. “It’s too little, too late,” said Dagher, who did not participate in the meeting.

Harris, a Democrat, faces Republican former President Donald Trump on Nov. 5 in what polls show to be a tight presidential race.

President Joe Biden won most of the 2020 Muslim and Arab votes, but their backing of Democrats has fallen sharply during nearly a year that Israel has been fighting Hamas in Gaza. Activists say Biden and Harris have done too little to stop Israel’s military campaign in the Palestinian enclave.

The Israeli military offensive in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, Palestinian health authorities say. Israel was responding to an Oct. 7, 2023 incursion by Hamas gunmen, who Israel says killed around 1,200 people and abducted about 250 hostages. Gaza has suffered a humanitarian crisis with nearly all its 2 million people displaced and widespread hunger in the enclave.

In Lebanon more than 1,900 people have been killed and 9,000 wounded during almost a year of cross-border fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, with most of the deaths in the past two weeks, according to Lebanese government statistics.

Emgage, a Muslim American advocacy group, recently endorsed Harris, while others have urged supporters to shun her. While they have not supported Trump, their choice not to vote or to vote for third-party candidates could hurt Harris, analysts say.

U.S. support for Israel has led to large protests, especially in hotly contested swing states like Michigan that could decide the election. Harris has offered no substantive policy differences on Israel from Biden, who stepped aside as presidential candidate in July.

Source: Reuters

The endorsement comes as the 2024 race between Harris and Trump remains very tight ahead of the Nov. 5 election. Arab American and Muslim voters may play a decisive role in the outcome in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and other battleground states. These voters helped President Joe Biden defeat Trump in 2020 by thousands of votes.

Many Muslim groups, including Emgage Action, have criticized the Biden administration, where Harris serves as vice president, for its support of Israel’s war in Gaza. Harris has urged an immediate ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, saying she supports Israel’s right to defend itself as well as the Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

“While we do not agree with all of Harris’ policies, particularly on the war on Gaza, we are approaching this election with both pragmatism and conviction,” Emgage CEO Wa’el Alzayat said in a statement, adding it sought to provide “honest guidance to our voters regarding the difficult choice they confront at the ballot box.”

Emgage Action, which endorsed Biden in 2020, said it mobilized 1 million Muslim voters in that election. The group said the Harris endorsement reflects a “responsibility to defeat Trump and defend the community against what would be a return to Islamophobic and other harmful policies.”

Trump’s campaign had no immediate comment. His campaign has held dozens of events with Arab Americans and Muslims in swing states and plans another event this weekend in Michigan, Richard Grenell, Trump’s former acting director of national intelligence, said last week.

Trump has said he will reinstate the “travel ban” that restricts entry into the United States of people from a list of largely Muslim-dominant countries. Biden rolled back the ban shortly after taking office in 2021.

The Harris campaign welcomed the endorsement a week after another big voting bloc, the pro-Palestinian grassroots organization Uncommitted National Movement, said it would not endorse Harris, Trump or a third-party candidate.

Harris has already won the backing of smaller Muslim groups, including the Black Muslim Leadership Council Fund and the American Muslim Democratic Caucus.

The U.S., Israel’s biggest ally and weapons supplier, has sent Israel more than 10,000 highly destructive 2,000-pound (900-kg) bombs and thousands of Hellfire missiles since the start of the Gaza war in October, U.S. officials told Reuters in June.

The war in the Gaza Strip began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas gunmen stormed into Israeli communities, killing some 1,200 people and abducting about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, Israel’s military has leveled swaths of Gaza, driving nearly all of its 2.3 million people from their homes, giving rise to deadly hunger and disease and killing more than 41,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Source: Reuters

A late August poll conducted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations advocacy group showed that in Michigan, home to a large Arab American community, 40% of Muslim voters backed the Green Party’s Stein. Republican candidate Donald Trump got 18%, with Harris, who is President Joe Biden’s vice president, trailing at 12%.

The poll, conducted by text message more than two weeks before the Harris-Trump Sept. 10 debate, showed Harris leading Trump 29.4% to 11.2%, with 34% favoring third-party candidates including Stein at 29.1%.

Harris was the leading pick of Muslim voters in Georgia and Pennsylvania, while Trump prevailed in Nevada with 27%, just ahead of Harris’ 26%, according to the CAIR poll of 1,155 Muslim voters nationwide. All are battleground states that have swung on narrow margins in recent elections.

The Green Party is on most state ballots, including all battleground states that could decide the election, except for Georgia and Nevada, where the party is suing to be included.

Stein also leads Harris among Muslims in Arizona and Wisconsin, battleground states with sizable Muslim populations where Biden defeated Trump in 2020 by slim margins.

Biden won the 2020 Muslim vote, credited in various exit polls with from 64% to 84% of their support, but Muslim backing of Democrats has fallen sharply since Israel’s nearly year-long action in Gaza.

The Uncommitted National Movement said on Thursday it would not back Harris even though it opposes Trump and won’t recommend a third-party vote. It said Trump would accelerate the killing in Gaza if reelected but Harris had not responded to its request she meet with Palestinian Americans who lost loved ones in Gaza and had not agreed to discuss halting arms shipments to Israel.

A campaign spokesperson said Harris was committed to earning every vote and uniting the country, while continuing to work to end the war in Gaza. The campaign earlier declined to comment on the shifting dynamics; officials tasked with Muslim outreach were not available for interviews.

The Uncommitted movement rallied over 750,000 voters to cast uncommitted ballots in the Democratic nominating contests early this year to protest Biden’s policy in support of Israel’s war. Biden left the race in July and endorsed Harris, who then launched her campaign.

Harris has gone further than other Biden administration officials to voice sympathy with the Palestinians and has forcefully criticized Israel’s conduct while adhering to Biden administration policy, disappointing Arab American and Muslim voters.

About 3.5 million Americans reported being of Middle Eastern descent in the 2020 U.S. Census, the first year such data was recorded. Although they make up about 1% of the total U.S. population of 335 million, their voters may prove crucial in a race that opinion polls show Harris and Trump neck and neck.

On Tuesday, Harris called for an end to the Israel-Gaza war and the return of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. She also said Israel must not reoccupy the Palestinian enclave and backed a two-state solution.

But at closed-door meetings in Michigan and elsewhere, Harris campaign officials have rebuffed appeals to halt or limit U.S. arms shipments to Israel, community leaders say.

“Decades of community organizing and civic engagement and mobilizing have not manifested into any benefit,” said Faye Nemer, founder of the Michigan-based MENA American Chamber of Commerce to promote U.S. trade with the Middle East. “We’re part of the fabric of this country, but our concerns are not taken into consideration,” she said.

Stein is aggressively campaigning on Gaza, while Trump representatives are meeting with Muslim groups and promising a swifter peace than Harris can deliver.

Stein’s 2016 run ended with just over 1% of the popular vote, but some Democrats blamed her and the Green Party for taking votes away from Democrat Hillary Clinton. Pollsters give Stein no chance of winning in 2024.

But her support for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, for an immediate U.S. arms embargo on Israel and for student movements to force universities to divest from weapons investments have made her popular in pro-Palestinian circles. Her running mate Butch Ware, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is Muslim.

This month Stein spoke at ArabCon in Dearborn, Michigan, an annual gathering of Arab Americans, and was featured on the cover of The Arab American News under the headline “The Choice 2024.” Last week in an interview with The Breakfast Club, a New York radio program, she said, “Every vote cast for our campaign is a vote against genocide,” a charge that Israel denies.

Trump team campaigns for Arab American votes

At the same time, the Trump team has hosted dozens of in-person and virtual events with Arab Americans and Muslims in Michigan and Arizona, said Richard Grenell, Trump’s former acting Director of National Intelligence.

“Arab American leaders in Detroit know this is their moment to send a powerful message to the Democrat party that they shouldn’t be taken for granted,” Grenell said. Trump has said he would secure more Arab-Israeli peace deals.

Biden defeated Trump in 2020 by just thousands of votes in some states, thanks in part to the support of Arab and Muslim voters in states where they are concentrated, including Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Biden won Michigan by 154,000 votes in 2020, but Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton there by fewer than 11,000 votes in 2016. The state is home to overlapping groups of more than 200,000 registered voters who are Muslim and 300,000 who report ancestry from the Middle East and North Africa.

In Philadelphia, which has a large Black Muslim population, activists have joined a national “Abandon Harris” campaign. They helped organize protests during her debate with Trump last week.

Philadelphia CAIR co-chair Rabiul Chowdhury said, “We have options. If Trump pledges to end the war and bring home all hostages, it’s game over for Harris.” Trump has said the war would never have erupted if he were president. It’s unclear how he would end it. Trump is a firm supporter of Israel.

Source: Reuters