A group of Muslim American organizers from swing states has launched a campaign denouncing President Joe Biden’s 2024 re-election bid due to his stance on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Activists from Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin unveiled the #AbandonBiden movement at an event in Dearborn on Saturday.
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“We’re looking into finding ways to build a mechanism of coordination between all the swing states so that we’re constantly working together to ensure that Muslim Americans will come out in all of these states, and that Mr. Biden will lose every one of them,” said Hassan Abdel Sala, a professor at the University of Minnesota, as quoted by Politico.
“We don’t only have the money, but we have the actual votes. And we will use that vote to save this nation from itself,” Jaylani Hussein, director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told attendees in Dearborn, Michigan. He told Newsweek on Sunday that community leaders are “not going to allow this country to continue to uplift the military-industrial complex and continue to get us into wars and continue to not value life.”
As part of their campaign, activists also called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, where fighting resumed after a weeklong truce expired on Friday. The White House has urged Israel to minimize civilian deaths in the Palestinian enclave and backed short-term “humanitarian pauses,” but has refused to endorse a comprehensive ceasefire. Israel states that its goal is to eliminate Hamas in Gaza and has argued that a full cessation of hostilities would only benefit the militants.
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Biden and other top US officials are facing pressure from Muslim and leftist groups, including the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who are demanding that Washington take a tougher stance on Israel.
The Biden campaign has also seen some worrying signs that the president may be losing a grip on battleground states. A New York Times/Siena College poll revealed last month that Trump was leading in five of the six key swing states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Nevada.