The letter comes as polling within the Muslim American community shows a major departure from the Democratic Party over the Biden-Harris administration's unfettered support for Israel's war on Gaza, which they along with rights groups and legal experts view is a genocide against Palestinians.
The letter calls on Muslims to instead vote for any of the third-party candidates, including the Green Party's Jill Stein whose support has swelled among the Muslim American community in recent weeks.
"We want to be absolutely clear: don’t stay home and skip voting. This year, make a statement by voting third party for the presidential ticket," the letter said.
"Equally important, vote all the way down the ballot for candidates and policies that stand for truth and justice, ensuring your voice is heard at every level."
The letter, written and released in collaboration with the Abandon Harris campaign, was signed by more than three dozen religious leaders from all around the country, including Dawud Walid, Dr Shadee Elmasry, Imam Omar Suleiman, Dr Yasir Qadhi, and Imam Tom Facchine.
The imams who have signed the letter say the calls for Muslims to uncritically support Harris is fear-mongering.
"None of this is an endorsement of Donald Trump's vile, racist agenda, which includes advancing the apartheid and genocidal interests of a foreign state while falsely claiming to put America first," the letter said.
In terms of a bipoloar two party system, you're right, the other party will fuck them hard.
In terms of swaying their main party to listen to their voters or risk losing an election, they did the right thing. You have to make a stand at some point to hold your representatives accountable.
I used to think the best time to do this was once your party was in power, but through sheer osmosis of being on this instance, I'm now of the mind that once they're in power they will have no reason to listen to you, so you might as well strike when their victory is uncertain.
Yeah, they do. You know when that point is? It's during the motherfucking primary, not the general election!
I sure wonder why they didn't vote for the anti-genocide candidate during the highly-contested primary.
they did do that during the primary, and their concerns were ignored. now the chickens are coming home to roost! I truly hope the strategy of eagerly telling everyone to the left to the party to fuck off works out, but I'm not very confident tbh
That's called "losing".
Now's the time for those people to suck it up, put on their big kid pants, hold their noses, and not fucking help usher in a fascist dictatorship.
The one bringing about the fascist dictatorship is the genocide enthusiast at the helm right now. Alienating voters by being a genocidal monster is on the genocidal monster.
like I said, hope this strategy works out for you! I'm not confident it will, but I guess we will see.