There are nearly four million Muslims in the United States, including about 240,000 in Michigan. In the 2020 presidential election, American Muslims were a big part of why Joe Biden won Michigan by just 155,000 votes.

This year some say they feel politically homeless, not understood or welcomed by either Republicans or Democrats.

Hamza Ashfaq, a recent medical school graduate, says this presidential campaign has been challenging because neither candidate fully reflects his values or political priorities.

“Everybody’s going to play the lesser of the two evils vote. In the end, it’s, you know, not going to be good for us either way,” Ashfaq said.

Michigan was at the epicenter of the uncommitted national movement that protested President Biden during the Democratic primaries.

This idea that neither party reflects their moral values came up again and again in interviews with Muslims in Detroit.

Palestinian American Mahmoud Muheisen, 24, is a recent graduate of Wayne State University.

He has never voted in a U.S. election before — but feels obligated to vote this year.

“The people, they share my faith. They share my name. They share my blood. I think it would be inhumane to just dismiss it, especially as a Palestinian Muslim American,” he said.

Muheisen says he plans to vote for the Green Party’s candidate, Jill Stein.

Youssef Chouhoud is an associate professor of political science at Christopher Newport University who studies voting trends of American Muslims. He says Gaza is at the top of mind for many American Muslims.

“American Muslims care about the economy. American Muslims care about climate change, and they care about health care access and immigration policy. But certainly, one of, if not the top, if not — for some American Muslims, the only issue that they care about is the crisis in Gaza,” he said.

Chouhoud says this sense of political homelessness weighs heavily on American Muslims, “and something that is going to probably continue from now until they go into the voting booth.”

Farah Khan is the co-chair of Michigan’s Abandon Harris campaign.

The campaign is trying to encourage Muslims in Michigan to vote for a third-party candidate.

“Do not vote for these two despicable candidates who are running for presidency,” Khan said. “I don’t know what kind of world we live in now because these are the people we have to look up to for our leaders. It’s really sad.”

According to a national survey conducted for the Council on American Islamic Relations, about 30% of American Muslims nationwide support Kamala Harris. Another 30% back Stein. Eleven percent said they plan to vote for Donald Trump, and nearly 17% said they are still undecided.

Imam Mikail Stewart-Saadiq is former chair of the Imams Council of Michigan. He taught at the Al-Ikhlas Training Academy for 20 years.

The registered Democrat says he’s willing to give Harris a chance.

“She is not Trump, nor is she Biden. So in my opinion, you know, I would like to see what she can do,” he said.

Stewart-Saadiq says this is a moment to move forward and build on the political work of previous generations.

“And having to fight your way through politics and fight your way through political revolution, you know, of all those games, I’m not willing to spit in the face of my ancestors,” he said.

Detroit voter Munira Salim says she’s still undecided on who to vote for in the weeks before the election.

“When it comes to the pro-peace vote, when it comes to the Muslim vote and even when it comes to the Black vote, like, there’s no one representation,” she said.

Like Salim, many Muslims are waiting to see if there are any changes in the Biden-Harris administration’s Gaza policy before they cast their votes in November.

The Abandon Harris Campaign launched on Thursday in Dearborn as a continuation of the Abandon Biden Campaign.

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The campaign aims to change the policies of Vice President Kamala Harris regarding Israel’s ongoing military action in Gaza — seeking a permanent ceasefire and an arms embargo.

Michigan Co-chair Farah Khan says the Abandon Harris campaign is looking for actual policies, not just words and inaction.

“We will hold the Harris Biden administration accountable for their role in this atrocity,” Khan said at a press event outside the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn on Thursday. “Accountability means more than words. It means actions. We must be clear — they have had their chance, and they have failed us.”

Listen: Interview with Farah Khan, co-chair of Abandon Harris for Michigan

The Gaza Health Ministry reports that over 41,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed and more than 95,000 injured during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza since Oct. 7 — the day Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in Israel, taking 250 hostages.

Campaign leaders say the Abandon Harris movement is active in at least nine states — including swing states like Michigan. Dr. Hassan Abdel Salam, national co-chair of the campaign, says they are asking voters not to vote for either party’s candidate.

“Our vote is magnanimous,” Salam said. “It’s a moment for democracy to triumph, for us to change the political landscape.”

The campaign plans to endorse a third party candidate soon.

Reporting by Nargis Rahman, WDET

Other headlines for Friday, Sept. 13, 2024:

• Henry Ford Hospital held a groundbreaking on Thursday for its $2.2 billion Detroit campus expansion, anchored by a new 1.2 million-square-foot hospital facility on the south side of West Grand Boulevard
• The city of Detroit’s Youth Affairs Team and Detroit ACE are hosting an artist showcase on Friday, Sept. 20, called “Young, Gifted and Woke.”
• Usher’s Past Present and Future Tour is continuing its run through the Motor City Friday at Little Caesars Arena. On his way there he stopped by the Boys and Girls Club of Detroit to help highlight the lack of access some youth have across the country to quality after-school programs.

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

The presidential election is a few months away, and American Muslim voters are weighing out their options for the next president.

Youssef Chouhoud, an associate professor of political science at Christopher Newport University in Virginia, studies trends involving American Muslim voters. He says this year many American Muslims are concerned about Gaza.

“Certainly one of if not the top, if not for some American Muslims, the only issue that they care about is the crisis in Gaza, and so that holds particularly heavy weight this election cycle,” Chouhoud said.

He says American Muslims are nestled within the American fabric, concerned about the economy, climate change, health care and immigration policies.

After 9/11, Chouhoud says, American Muslims were against the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. He says after 2010, many focused on domestic issues.

But he says that changed after the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel — during which Hamas killed 1,200 people — and the invasion of Gaza that followed, where the latest death toll stands at more than 40,000 Palestinians killed.

Chouhoud says many American Muslims view themselves as part of the extended Muslim nation, or the ummah.

“One of the beliefs in Islam is that anything that affects one part of the Muslim ummah affects you as well,” he said.

Chouhoud says many American Muslims also have close connections to Gaza.

“Everybody in the American Muslim context, is probably only one degree removed from somebody in Gaza,” he said.

Chouhoud says American Muslims are stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to voting for the next president.

“They don’t, by and large, support a Trump presidency, for the reason that during the Trump administration, and you know, the explicit policies that Trump wanted to and has enacted have negatively affected American Muslims.”

He says many American Muslims say they do not feel like they belong to either Republican or Democratic parties.

“The sense of homelessness, I think, that American Muslims feel politically, is something that weighs heavy on them, and something that you know is going to probably continue from now until they go into the voting booth,” he said.

Chouhoud says things are likely to remain up in the air until the November elections.

Read more:

• DNC hosts first ever panel on Palestinian human rights
• Uncommitted delegates at DNC aim to put pressure on Harris’ Gaza policy
• ‘Uncommitted’ delegates hold DNC sit-in after refusal to allow Palestinian speaker at convention