The 2024 Muslim Vote !

With US government’s increased unconditional financial, political and military support for the state of Israel which has enabled Israel to escalate hostilities on millions of civilians in Gaza, as perceived by many people across the globe, American Muslims have this issue on top of their minds as they prepare to vote in the elections in November.

On the one hand, Biden administration has approved more aide, and supplied weaponry to Israel, on the other hand, Trump and Republican politicians have vouched to continue the unprecedented support to the state of Israel. Both parties have ignored calls for ceasefire from other countries including their allies and disregarded International law. There has also been a perceived bipartisan assault on freedom of speech by passing laws, and destroying careers of professors and students who tried showing support for Palestinians or criticized Israeli government. It is too early to tell whether there will be any change in foreign policy with Kamala Harris becoming the new Democratic presidential candidate, the first woman of black and South Asian heritage.

In this divisive and charged environment, Jill Stein of the Green Party has also emerged as a voice of reason and supporter of peace. Although her chances of getting meaningful number of votes are practically zero, her voice is a breath of fresh air in this polluted political air.

Being a Muslim American voter myself, this issue is also on top of my mind. But, I do think that one issue shouldn’t be a deciding factor in elections. So, I tried to do a dispassionate analysis of each party’s position on 18 key issues. I looked at their published stances and plotted each party on a simple scale that ranges from “contradicts” to “Aligns” with values. In deciding where to place each party, I evaluated their stances on alignment with “Muslim values”. I do have to acknowledge that:

• I am not a political scientist, so my own understanding of the position of each party would surely be biased and inaccurate, in many cases.
• I do not possess any authority to claim representation of all Muslims or even American Muslims. I have used my own judgment to evaluate alignment of the three political stances to Muslim values.

Here is the analysis:

Color of each dot represents the political party. Red is Republican party, blue is Democrats, and green is Green Party. Dots with a border mean that that party’s position has the best alignment to Muslim values. If an issue has more than one dots with a border, this means that more than one party’s position is aligned with Muslim values.

Here is a summary of positions of each party based on which the above chart has been plotted.

Conclusion

A lot will change over the course of next three and a half months. This analysis is based on my perspective in the last week of July, 2024. The purpose of this analysis isn’t to just quantitatively add the most numbers of aligned issues and vote for that party. Our value judgments must be applied to make sure we make sound decision as this election may be the most consequential election in recent American history. I also realize that some of the issues would be weighed more heavily by each individual, however, having a larger perspective, as shown in this analysis, may prove useful for making a thoughtful decision.

Let me know if this is helpful!

Mashhood