US: Muslim spectator kicked out of Kamala Harris town hall-style event
US ELECTION: Following the removal of a local man from a location hosting the Democratic presidential nominee’s town hall-style gathering in Royal Oak, Michigan, on Monday, at least one well-known Muslim American organization has criticized Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign.
The conflict stems from Harris’ recent attempts to engage the Muslim community in the Great Lakes State, a crucial vote constituency in her bid to gain support in the battleground state. Muslim Americans in Michigan tend to support Democratic presidential candidates, but new research suggests that pattern may be reversing as the minority continues to express dissatisfaction with the Biden administration’s response to the Gaza humanitarian situation.
In a phone conversation with a news agency on Tuesday, Ahmed Ghanim, an activist who previously ran for the U.S. House in Michigan’s 11th Congressional District, said he completed all the necessary papers to attend the event at the Royal Oak Music Theater. He waited in line, cleared security, and was given a seat.
“A woman requested that I accompany her to the entrance a little while after I had taken my seat. She shut the door when I reached it,” Ghanim said. The campaign wanted him removed, he said, and two Secret Service personnel threatened to arrest him if he didn’t go.
However, when Ghanim asked one of them why he was being ejected from the cinema, the officer said, “It’s not us,” Ghanim told The Detroit News. “It’s the location,” the outlet said.
In an interview with the News, Chris Wyant, the senior advisor for the Harris campaign in Michigan, said the vice president’s team “regrets this action and its impact on Dr. Ghanim and the community, and he is welcome at future events.”
The removal from the theater upsets Ghanim. “I feel there is not much respect or appreciation for the Muslim community,” he said. “No one from the campaign even called me, and so it is a lack of respect, and I feel like I was singled out and I feel I was profiled.”
Similar views were expressed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations Action, a nonprofit organization dedicated to Muslim American civic involvement.
“The Harris campaign removes, under threat of arrest, a Muslim community leader who simply responded to an invitation as Donald Trump ramps up his outreach to the Muslim and Arab communities,” CAIR Action executive director Basim Elkarra said in a statement. “This disturbing action on the part of the Harris campaign sends a dangerous message of exclusion to the Muslim community.”
The Trump and Harris camps have increased their efforts with the Muslim community since the state is a battleground with a large Muslim voting base. The Detroit metropolitan region is home to a large number of Michigan’s registered Muslim voters.
“A few votes might make a difference because of how close things will be. More than 200,000 Muslims are registered to vote in Michigan. “They voted for Biden by roughly 70% in 2020, so a big decline there could cost the Democrats the election,” Engage CEO Wa’el Alzayat previously told a media report.
Both parties are putting in extra effort to support key groups in the last two weeks before Election Day since even a little shift might change the political tides in battleground states.
According to CAIR, the Harris campaign should directly make reparations. “It’s coming at an interesting time when Trump is reaching out to Muslim leaders and meeting with them directly,” Elkarra said during a News Agency phone interview. “This could possibly help increase support for Trump.”