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Arab Americans in Dearborn, Michigan, are struggling with feelings of not being heard in the 2024 election
Suffolk

Arab Americans in Dearborn, Michigan, are struggling with feelings of not being heard in the 2024 election

Farhat said the Democratic Party had “missed several important opportunities” to reassure Arab American voters worried about Gaza. A glaring omission, he said, was the ongoing decision to supply Israel with weapons for its military operations in the enclave. He also points out that the Democratic National Convention did not allow a war-affected Palestinian American to speak, despite giving a platform to the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a murdered Israeli American kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023 offered.

“The time to listen – we’re past that now,” Farhat said. “We are in a phase where constituencies like mine are demanding action in the form of a change in policy, not just a change in rhetoric, but in a party that this community has been loyal to for years standing up for them.”

Maryam Hassanein, 24, resigned from her position in the Biden administration’s Interior Department this summer in protest over the U.S.’s handling of the war in Gaza. She believes nothing will change if Democratic voters are pressured to support the party, adding that it is the responsibility of candidates to win votes.

Maryam Hassanein
Maryam Hassanein, former special assistant to the U.S. Department of the Interior under the Biden administration, at ArabCon in Dearborn, Michigan, on September 13.Mustafa Hussain for NBC News

“Stopping people from voting however they want in terms of independents and third parties is not really what we should be doing,” Hassanein said. “Change won’t come if we sit here and say change won’t come. Of course, if we accept things as they are, there will be no change.”

Activist Linda Sarsour, who lives in Brooklyn, New York, but was in Dearborn for ArabCon, takes a broader view that echoes the sentiments of others who spoke to NBC News. She says the Arab American community’s concerns go beyond the conflict in Gaza and reflect the complex nature of their struggles, which include domestic issues.

Linda Sarsour sits for a portrait
Palestinian-American organizer Linda Sarsour at ArabCon in Dearborn, Michigan, September 13.Mustafa Hussain for NBC News

“We care about health care, we care about economic issues, we use the transportation systems, we have property taxes, we worry about our electricity bills being monopolized by big corporations,” Sarsour told NBC News at ArabCon. “So I want this administration and those running for office to know that while the war in Gaza is a top priority issue for us, they also want to hear what your other plans are.”

Not just Gaza

While Gaza weighs heavily on many of Dearborn’s Arab residents, it is not the only conflict close to their hearts. The US-backed, Saudi-led war in Yemen has pushed millions of people to the brink of hunger. The now widely criticized Iraq War claimed 200,000 civilian lives and persecuted the many refugees who sought protection in Dearborn. Syria and Libya were also devastated by American airstrikes, further fueling distrust of U.S. foreign policy in the region.

Yemeni-American Mona Mawari, 39, lost her uncle in a rocket attack during the war in Yemen. Her family’s story reflects the trauma shared by many and encouraged her to leave her job as a pharmacist to work full-time as a community organizer.

Mona Mawari stands for a portrait
Yemeni-American Mona Mawari at a local cafe in Dearborn, Michigan, on September 13.Mustafa Hussain for NBC News

“He was attending a memorial service when rockets hit the venue,” said Mawari, who spoke to NBC News in a crowded Yemeni coffeehouse on Schaefer Road. “He was like a father to me.”

Sayed Saleh Qazwini, leader of the majority Arab community at the Muslim Educational Community Center of America (MECCA) in nearby Canton, said the community has seen the devastation of their countries unfold at times over the years. As an Iraqi American, he said his family has “already paid” the price for U.S. foreign policy.

Imam Sayed Saleh Qazwini stands for a portrait
Imam Sayed Saleh Qazwini of MECCA at ArabCon in Dearborn, Michigan on September 13th.Mustafa Hussain for NBC News

“Why does our government, which denounces other countries for human rights violations, say nothing?” Qazwini said about the war in Gaza. “Why are they the purveyors of these bombs that kill children and innocent lives?”

Zena Alzein and Zahraa Bahsoon, both 19-year-old Lebanese-American students, said they did not want to vote for Harris or Trump because of the foreign policies their governments supported in the Middle East.

“We want to feel like we had no part in allowing or supporting things like this,” Bahsoon said, to which Alzein agreed.

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