“If I were to sign that ballot with President Joe Biden’s name, the ink that I would use to sign that ballot would be through the blood of innocent Palestinians who were murdered in this recent onslaught,” so I will not vote for Joe Biden. It will be Trump and Trump only.
These were the words of an Mosque Imam Salha from Detroit.
Imran Salha, who was born and raised in New Jersey but whose family hails from a village in the West Bank, said he voted for Biden in 2020 not “because I thought he was a beacon of morality. I voted for him because he wasn’t Trump.”
Given everything that has happened since, Salha said he can’t in good conscience vote for Biden again.
Salha said just a few minutes after the 6 p.m. prayer service at the Islamic Center of Detroit, where he serves as the imam.
Another Arab added-
“Trump all the way,” he said, quickly adding, “I am going to be an advocate for Trump with everybody I know.”
These were the words of Enayah, an Arab automotive design manager born in Kuwait to a Gaza refugee, considers himself a liberal and has supported progressive causes for years.
These days, though, he keeps an “Abandon Biden” poster in his car so that whenever there’s another protest, he’s ready.
He voted for Biden in the last presidential election. But if his choice is between Biden and Trump in November, he’s voting for Trump this November.
Enayah recognizes how that might sound to most people, given Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies. But he feels like Trump is better than Joe Biden in all respects.
Voting for Biden would be dishonoring all those who have died in Palestine this year.
So he will be voting for Trump this November.
Another Palestinian ” Khalid Turaani’s” old family homeplace in British-ruled Palestine rests atop a framed photo of his mom and dad.
Other family mementos, including the badge and number his father used as a young police officer, hang on the living-room wall of his home in West Bloomfield, about a half hour northwest of Detroit.
Next to them is a 1946 British-archives map of the region of Palestine.
“Here is the village where my father was born, where my parents got married, where my oldest brother was born as well,” Turaani said, pointing out a speck on the map. “It is right on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.”
Turaani was born in a refugee camp in Syria and lived the first 16 years of his life there after his father was exiled at age 23.
His parents took the key to the old homeplace with them when they were forced to leave. It’s a Palestinian tradition, he said, “a symbol of their will to return.”
Turaani came to the United States as a college student and eventually settled in Michigan. He backed Bernie Sanders for president in 2020 but supported Biden after Sanders dropped out of the race. Now, he’s working to make sure Biden doesn’t get a second term this November.
Turaani, a business consultant, is one of the founders of the “Abandon Biden” movement. A registered Democrat, he had a “Biden-Harris” sign on his front lawn four years ago.
But “I put aside any kind of party affiliation when it comes to the wanton killing of people and genocide,” he said.
Is there anything Biden can do to persuade Turaani to vote for him in November?
“If he could unbreak the hearts of the 20,000 Palestinian women who lost their children or if he could bring back those lives that he actively supported their killing, then maybe Joe Biden could have redeemed himself 27,000 Palestinians ago,” he said.
“To me, it’s like a serial killer who says if you just forgive me, I’ll stop killing, but if you don’t, I’ll keep killing. It’s like, no, you need to stop killing, period.”
Faten Saab, a stay-at-home mom who was one of the protesters outside the hotel where Biden’s advisers met with local leaders, said she still hasn’t decided who she will vote for in November, “but it won’t be Joe Biden.”
That’s for sure.
She might vote for a third-party candidate or sit out the election altogether, “but we’re not going to choose the lesser of two evils,” she said.
Her sister, Nadia Saab, a registered nurse from Dearborn, said she has lost faith in Republicans and Democrats. “It’s just quite insulting that we have a president who can aid and abet in the killing of 30,000 people and then still expect to get our vote,” she said.
Both sisters refuse to accept the argument that voting for someone other than Biden could hand the presidency to Trump. “It would be Joe Biden handing the presidency to Donald Trump,” Faten Saab said.
Voting for Trump and honoring the dead
Enayah wipes away the tears that fill his eyes when he remembers family members killed in Gaza. In the next room, the TV flashes with the latest headlines from the Middle East.
Television got Enayah and his wife through the first few months of the Joes administration.
They were so devastated by Joe election in 2020 that they couldn’t bear to watch the news, so they would instead tune into the late-night shows and laugh as comedians poked fun at the new president.
“That’s how we survived,” he said.
Now, he relies on the news to get him through the day. He turns the TV on first thing each morning and leaves it on until he goes to bed at night.
Salha, who stressed that he was speaking as a private citizen and not in his capacity with the Islamic Center, said he recognizes that his refusal to vote for Biden could put Trump back in the White House.
“there needs to be a red line where I could show the people in power that I will not allow you to take me for granted.”
Salha said.
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