Newsweek magazine reported – based on interviews it conducted with activists and individuals – that the air strikes launched by the United States in Yemen on orders from President Joe Biden appear to be another nail in the coffin of Arab and Muslim voters’ support for him.
Biden had ordered multiple air strikes against the Houthi group in Yemen to prevent them from carrying out attacks on commercial shipping ships passing through the Red Sea. The first raids carried out by the US army came on Thursday in cooperation with Britain, and were supported by Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands.
Edward Ahmed Mitchell, deputy executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said, “We are disturbed by the Biden administration’s escalation of this crisis by bombing Yemen without Congress’ approval, instead of just addressing its roots, which is the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip.”
He added, “If the genocide ends, the temperature of the situation in the region will decrease,” describing the American raids without the approval of Congress as illegal and dangerous that “will not achieve peace in the end, but rather will exacerbate the risk of escalating the pace of war.”
In response to Biden’s statement in which he stated that his country and its partners will not tolerate the Houthi attack on “our individuals,” Mitchell said, “Our government is rushing to protect commercial ships, but it is not rushing to protect the thousands of children being killed in Gaza.”
According to a Newsweek report, a coalition of Muslim Americans in swing states launched a “Abandon Biden” campaign urging voters not to re-elect him for a second presidential term in the elections scheduled for November of this year, because of his response to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
They will not vote for him
For his part, Gilly Hussein, director of the CAIR branch in Minnesota, said that the overwhelming majority of Muslims confirmed that they will not vote for the current president in the upcoming elections.
Dr. Hassan Abdel Salam of the “Abandon Biden” campaign also told Newsweek – via email on Saturday – that the situation in Yemen proved that their campaign was “accurate in its prediction of the disaster that is the president’s policy on Gaza.”
He added, “The United States simply cannot use force without deterrent controls… Perhaps Palestine is – for Muslim Americans, and Muslims around the world – the most important foreign policy issue.”
The magazine goes back to quoting Mitchell – who was speaking to it on behalf of CAIR – that he expected the genocide in Gaza to have a “major impact” on the political inclinations of American Muslims and their decisions in the upcoming elections and beyond, but he added that he did not know how things would change.
Support Netanyahu
In turn, Wael Al-Zayat, CEO of ImageG – a non-profit organization that aims to educate and mobilize Muslim voters – expressed his belief that Biden’s standing among Arab and Muslim voters has already been greatly affected by his policy towards Israel and Palestine, and his “absolute” support for the Israeli Prime Minister. Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to a Newsweek report, ImageG published the results of an opinion poll early last November that showed that only 5.2% of Muslim Americans confirmed that they would vote for Biden in the 2024 elections.