Associated Press
Democrat Joe Biden urged
Muslim Americans on Monday to join him in the fight to defeat President Donald
Trump as he addressed an online summit hosted by the advocacy
organization Emgage Action to
mobilize Muslim voters ahead of the presidential election.
“I want to earn your vote not
just because he’s not worthy of being president,” the presumptive presidential
nominee told participants. “I want to work in partnership with you, make sure
your voices are included in the decision-making process as we work to rebuild
our nation.”
Biden also reiterated a pledge
to overturn a Trump administration ban on travelers from several predominantly
Muslim countries, calling it “vile.”
Wa’el Alzayat, CEO of Emgage
Action, said by email that the organization was seeking to maximize Muslim
American turnout in key battleground states. In Michigan alone — one of the
states where the organization has chapters and where Trump won in 2016 by fewer
than 11,000 votes — he said he believed there are more than 150,000 registered
Muslim voters.
Several prominent Muslim
American elected officials endorsed Biden for president in a letter organized
by Emgage Action ahead of the summit.
Speaking from home:
Among those who signed the letter
are Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and
Indiana Rep. Andre Carson, all Democrats. Omar, one of the first Muslim women
elected to Congress, served as a high-profile surrogate for Bernie Sanders
before he exited the presidential race in April — making her support for Biden
potentially helpful as the former vice president seeks to mobilize Muslim
voters this fall.
“Muslim American voices matter
to our communities, to our country,” Biden said. “But we all know that your
voice hasn’t always gotten recognized or represented.”
Emgage Action has titled the
event “Million Muslim Votes,” underscoring its emphasis on boosting Muslim
turnout in November.
“Joe Biden’s presence serves
not only to galvanize Muslim Americans to cast their ballots, but to usher in
an era of engaging with Muslim American communities under a Biden
administration,” Alzayat said by email before the summit.
The pro-Biden letter from
Muslim American elected officials decried a number of Trump’s domestic and
international policies, including his administration’s travel ban and his
pullout from the Iran nuclear deal.
“A Biden administration will
move the nation forward on many of the issues we care about,” the letter said,
citing racial justice, affordable health care, climate change and immigration.
The Muslim American officials
also praised Biden’s agenda for their communities. Among other goals, Biden has
vowed to rescind the travel ban affecting Muslims “on Day One” if he’s elected.
In his address, he pledged to
include Muslim American voices in his administration, if elected, and to speak
out against human rights abuses against Muslim minorities around the world.
“I’ll continue to champion the
rights of Palestinians and Israelis to have a state of their own as I have for
decades, each of them a state of their own,” he said.
Other state- and local-level
Muslim American officials signing onto the pro-Biden letter hail from several
states, including Michigan.
“A lot is at stake,” Alzayat
said. “The importance of Muslim American voter participation in this upcoming
election cycle is greater than it has ever been.”
Trump’s reelection campaign,
meanwhile, has included Muslim voters in its faith outreach on behalf of an
incumbent who has prioritized religious liberty in his agenda.
“President Trump understands
that our faith is what unites us as a nation,” Courtney Parella, deputy
national press secretary for the reelection campaign, said in a statement. “He
has and will continue to staunchly defend religious freedoms for all
Americans.”
Omar’s signature on the
endorsement letter expands on her statement last week, via Twitter, that she
would vote for Biden. New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez —
another member of the quartet of congresswomen of color, often known by the
nickname “the Squad,” who have become progressive luminaries since their
arrival in Congress — also has said she would vote for Biden in the fall.
But Ocasio-Cortez, who served
on a task force that helped shape a climate change plan designed to unite Biden
and Sanders backers, has yet to issue a full-throated Biden endorsement.
Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, another “Squad” member and former backer of
Sanders’ presidential bid, was conspicuously absent from the Emgage
Action-organized letter.
Farooq Mitha, senior adviser
for Muslim engagement with Biden’s campaign, said reaching out to Muslim
American voters is a priority for Biden, pointing to his own appointment as an
example. The campaign has hosted events with Muslim Americans and met with
community leaders over the past months, he said.
“A Biden presidency offers
Muslims an opportunity to be engaged with government, rather than being shut
out like many other groups that have been alienated and demonized by the Trump
administration,” he said in response to emailed questions. “Muslim communities
can have an outsized impact in many states and we are working every day to earn
their support.”
Associated Press, Jul
21, 2020, via GOP USA
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