The morning light falls through the windows of the American Muslim Center's mosque in Dearborn, outside Detroit. The prayer room's decorations are in light green and yellow, with prayer mats stacked behind a door. Here, over 500 Muslims gather for prayer during the weekends, and community activities are numerous.
The surrounding neighborhoods are filled with small brick houses with well-maintained gardens, typical of the Midwest. The Dearborn area is also home to one of the largest populations with roots in the Arab world in the USA. Here, anger is growing over the Biden administration's actions in the Gaza War, which many call a genocide and which was triggered by the terrorist-stamped Hamas' comprehensive attack on Israel last fall.
People here don't understand why it's happening, why the genocide in Gaza isn't being stopped. How can the USA continue to send bombs, asks Mohamad R Mardini, imam and head of the American Muslim Center, rhetorically.
A Precedent?
He was born in Lebanon, educated in Saudi Arabia, and has lived in the USA for over 40 years. Mardini is known for his interfaith work with Christians and Jews and led a prayer at the Democratic Convention in 2008. The war in Gaza and reports of over 40,000 dead make him outraged.
The war is wrong on all levels. If we let it continue, it can be repeated anywhere in the world, he argues.
Friends who attend the mosque's office agree. They question why the USA, with its enormous domestic political needs, is sending expensive weapons to Israel. Most know someone who has a friend or relative who has been killed in Gaza. The only thing that could make them support Harris is an immediate ceasefire and a weapons embargo against Israel.
She can stop the war with a phone call, they emphasize in unison.
Would Republican Donald Trump be better, despite having introduced a travel ban from certain Muslim countries during his time in the White House and made the sensitive decision to move the USA's Israel embassy to Jerusalem? Maybe, the group reasons. They point out that no wars broke out when Trump was president and that he said outright to (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu that he dislikes what's happening in Gaza.
Most in the office are still leaning towards voting blank.
Growing Movement
Activist Suehaila Amen, who stops by the mosque shortly after, shares the same opinion.
The politicians' lack of empathy is disturbing. They say they're worried about the Palestinians while sending bombs, she says.
Amen is driving the grassroots movement Uncommitted, which is now gaining ground in the USA. During the spring primaries in Michigan, over 100,000 Democratic voters actively struck Joe Biden's name on the ballot and voted blank in protest against the White House's support for Israel. Uncommitted could thus decide the presidential election in the very even swing state.
The 15-electoral-vote-heavy Michigan is one of seven so-called swing states in the USA, places where it stands and weighs between Republican and Democratic majorities, and where the presidential election is realistically decided.
In 2016, Republican Donald Trump won over Democrat Hillary Clinton here by just 10,700 votes. In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden defeated Trump by 154,000 votes. In the populous Wayne County, where Dearborn lies, it was very even.
This spring, Trump has had a tailwind in Michigan and led in opinion polls. After Joe Biden's withdrawal last summer, support for the party's current presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, has increased. She now leads Trump in the state by an average of 1.1 percentage points.
Sources: AP and Real Clear Politics
In the Democratic primaries in Michigan in February, President Joe Biden won as expected with 625,000 votes. But nearly 102,000 Democrats struck his name and voted blank ("uncommitted"), and over 43,000 chose another Democratic aspirant – most in protest against the White House's support for Israel in the Gaza War.
In connection with the primaries, the grassroots movement Uncommitted (in Swedish, roughly "The Uncommitted") was born, whose supporters protest-vote against the Biden administration. The movement has spread to, among other places, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Washington.
They are now deciding how to vote in the presidential election on November 5: whether they think Vice President Kamala Harris is better than Biden or if they'll go to the Trump side. Staying home, voting blank, or supporting an independent candidate are also options.
Sources: AP and others
