As President Joe Biden grapples with how to keep anti-Israel voters in the Democrats' fold, the head of one of the largest anti-Israel groups in America took to a Detroit mosque to lambast the president, hoping that Muslim voters will tank Biden in November and in so doing, give the White House back to Donald Trump.
Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), spoke at Masjid Muath in Detroit on February 27th, the day of Michigan’s primary, and his speech was wild, to say the least. In it, he attacked Biden’s mental and physical acuity and vowed that most Muslim voters will abandon Biden this November.
“Our message [to President Biden] is as follows: ‘Allah willing, our votes will make you lose the presidency,’” Awad said in an Arabic speech which was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). “It is [also] a message to [the Democrat] Party: ‘You went too far, you listened to him, and did not draw the line, so you will lose the presidency.’”
Biden and CAIR have had a rocky road since the unprovoked attacks by Palestinian terrorists on southern Israel on October 7th. In the month after the attack, Awad said he “was happy to see” Gazans “break the siege.” Since then, the White House has distanced itself from CAIR, with spokesman Andrew Bates saying that “we condemn these shocking, antisemitic statements in the strongest terms.”
Most recently, CAIR was caught lying, along with American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), about being invited to an event in Chicago that the Biden White House attempted to host with Arab leaders — who ultimately blew off the administration. CAIR Chicago and AMP both signed onto a letter that turned down the meeting. “There is no point in more meetings…a meeting of the minds is nowhere in sight,” the group wrote. The only problem is that, according to the White House, CAIR and AMP were never actually invited.
Given that the entire premise of these groups’ existence is founded on lies, it’s not a shock that they’d glom onto something they weren’t invited to for attention. But the friction between the White House and CAIR predated the group rejecting an invitation that wasn’t even extended to it; Awad’s trashing of Biden predated CAIR’s rejection of the Chicago meeting, where he further advocated for the Democrats to jettison Biden in favor of “new blood.”
"I hope, and even demand, that the Democratic Party tell this president to step aside, because he is not qualified to lead this country,” Awad said. “He is not qualified to represent us for several reasons: his moral failure, his involvement in the genocidal war, and his mental, physical, and moral incapacity to continue for a second term.”
Across America, Biden has seen hundreds of thousands of Democratic Party primary voters cast protest ballots for “uncommitted.” While the anti-Israel push did fairly well in places like Minnesota, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar threw cold water on the idea that these voters would ditch Biden in any meaningful way in November, which is why the campaign is a fairly obviously meaningless virtue signal.
Awad, however, thinks that Muslims are done with Biden. “If they do not listen to us,” he warned, “we will meet them in November in the final and decisive elections. We will not say now what we intend to do, but most Muslims will not vote for Biden.”
The anti-Israel activists in the Democrat Party sense weakness in the White House, and they’ve seized on real or perceived policy shifts (like Vice President Kamala Harris saying the word “ceasefire”) with a vengeance.
As the White House continues its turn against Israel, and as party leaders like Senator Chuck Schumer agitate for snap elections in Israel — while curiously omitting any demands that Gaza host elections — the loud bloc of anti-Israel voters among the Democrat electorate is making it clear that they aren’t going anywhere.
Biden has to hope that Omar is right and that they’ll vote for him anyway, and that Awad’s proclamation that “Allah willing, our votes will make you lose the presidency,” is just a bunch of hot air.