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.
It's like the dumbest version of the trolley problem where the tracks are reversed. You could do nothing and people will die. Or you could pull the lever (convince a bunch of people not to vote for Harris) and a lot more people will die but, hey, at least you can say you did something.
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.
This is the stage we're on. The stage where we fix the problems in the ruling party come with protests; but only if we still have democracy and free assembly.
.. and ensure you lose.
"Cut off the nose to spite the face", they say.
Perhaps better to cut it off now, than for it to slowly rot from neglect.
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.
Let's run with your hypothetical. Let's follow it to the logical conclusion... The election is going to come down to swing states, and the only voters that could possibly affect the result are the Muslim voters mentioned above. Magically, nobody else exists or matters. Don't worry about how. If they vote third party, Trump wins, and it's all their fault... That's your scenario.
Except wait. Today isn't Election Day. Harris could do a 180 on her stance this evening. She has the ability to act now to change the future, to get those precious votes, the only votes that matter. But for some reason, she really doesn't do it, she doesn't care... And that's the problem your hypothetical has.
In reality, her campaign staff made their own choices, and they still have the power to adjust course if they feel like it. Or not. Whatever they like. But somehow you think it's the Muslim voters who are in control here.
Biden is sending in US troops and air support, approved the invasion of Lebanon despite the DoD and Pentagon disapproving, and triggered the Iranian retaliation by lying about a ceasefire. Both the DNC and GOP are genocidal monsters, trying to pretend Trump would somehow be a lot worse than Biden already has been is nonsensical. Both are evil.