The Kamala Harris campaign kicked out a prominent Muslim Democrat from the vice president’s rally in Royal Oak on Monday, further driving a wedge between the Democratic Party and Arab and Muslim Americans.
Ahmed Ghanim, a Democrat, says he accepted an invitation to the event and was seated in the Royal Oak Music Theatre when a campaign organizer ordered him to leave.
“She took me to the door, and she closed it, and I found two police officers waiting there, and she said, ‘You have to leave right now,’” Ghanim tells Metro Times. “I asked why she was kicking me out. She wouldn’t answer. I was very calmly asking why I was being kicked out.”
This article lavishes praise on Trump with little mention of his stated policy positions towards Muslim Americans and Palestinians.
Meanwhile, Trump visited Hamtrack’s Muslim leaders last week in an effort to win over Arab American voters. Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib, a Muslim immigrant from Yemen who campaigned on banning LGBTQ+ pride flags from city property, endorsed Trump in September.
“Trump was in Hamtramck eating with the Muslims with traditional Yemeni food,” Ghalib says. “That’s the difference between the two campaigns in Michigan.”
Oh, Trump's stance on such subjects is utter trash. But the fact that he's actually trying to make the appearance of support is going to matter in Michigan if Harris doesn't do the same. That sort of ground game matters, especially to low-information voters that aren't actively engaged in everything going on elsewhere in politics.