Why many Muslim and Arab voters do not fear another Trump presidency

Over the last two decades, Muslim and Arab voters have gained significant political agency in the U.S. Having previously aligned with the Republican Party, they left in droves after 9/11 due to the GOP’s neoconservative policies.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Patriot Act, and the surveillance of Muslim communities destroyed all trust between the two sides. The Democratic Party filled this void and offered Muslim and Arab voters a new political home. The nascent political alliance between the two was built upon the vision that Arabs and Muslims were a unique and welcomed component of American society.

But President Biden’s handling of Israel’s war on Gaza has led Muslim and Arab voters to grow disillusioned with the party and feel they are no longer as welcome as they may have once been. 

This sentiment was further reinforced by the uncommitted movement that sprung up in protest against Biden’s policies in March.

Efforts to wake up Democrats and the Biden administration highlight a seemingly unnoticed theme within today’s political scene: The Muslim and Arab community does not fear another Trump presidency.

Not only are they a demographic desensitized by historical discrimination in the U.S., but many are immigrants and refugees coming from such horrific situations that they view the potential harms from another Trump presidency as relatively insignificant.

Try telling a Syrian refugee who fled Bashar Al-Asad’s brutal regime, an Iraqi who fled America’s invasion of Iraq in 2003, or a Palestinian who has lived in the shadow of Israel’s brutal occupation, that Donald Trump would be their worst nightmare.

Ultimately, it is this unique outlook on their lives that has enabled them to conclude that Biden and Trump are just not that different.

For example, during his 2020 campaign, Biden promised to re-open the Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem, which had been closed by Trump. Nearly four years have passed, and the administration has not fulfilled the pledge. This was a missed opportunity by the Biden administration to differentiate itself from its predecessor.

Muslim and Arab voters also do not fear Trump because of critical moments in which Biden has appeared apathetic toward Palestinian suffering, just like Trump. The most glaring instance occurred last October when Biden stated he had “no confidence” in the Palestinian death count in Gaza because it came from the Gaza Health Ministry, a source used by Israeli Intelligence. Muslim and Arab Americans were deeply disturbed by such apathy and concluded that Palestinian lives do not matter to Biden and the Democratic Party.

This notion was also reinforced during last week’s presidential debate. Trump attacked Biden and called him “a weak Palestinian, a very bad one.” Trump had used “Palestinian” as an obvious slur. Not only did Biden not condemn such hatred, he seemingly ignored it and retorted with a pitiful response: “That is a bunch of foolishness.”

With that said, both Biden and the mainstream Democratic Party need to ask themselves this one question: Despite our foreign blunders, how do we get Arabs and Muslims to support us in 2024? It seems as if they already asked themselves this question, and concluded that playing the proverbial “Trump card” will somehow intimidate the Arabs and Muslims into voting for Democrats in November.

It will not work, because the dystopian Islamophobic and anti-Arab world that liberals keep warning about is already unfolding right now in Biden’s America.

Consider the evidence from the Council on American-Islamic Relations. According to organization, over 8,000 complaints of anti-Muslim bias were reported last year. Under Biden, pro-Palestine supporters have been beaten, jailed and doxxed for expressing solidarity with Gaza. Some students from Harvard have even been denied their degrees.

Why would Muslim and Arab Americans forgive such repression, especially from an administration they initially believed supported them?

Arabs and Muslims are so hurt now that, even if the embattled president drops out of the race, nothing will restore their lost confidence in the Democratic Party.

To assert themselves politically once more, Muslims and Arabs are prepared to send a message to Democrats, even if it means putting Donald Trump back into the White House.

Although Trump would be worse for the Arab and Muslim communities in the short run (especially on the issue of Palestine), Muslims and Arabs perceive that Democrats’ loss will be a just punishment, forcing the party to recalibrate its views and adopt a more pro-Palestinian stance in the future.

Abdelhalim Abdelrahman is a Palestinian American writer based in Ohio.