By Salim Abdul-Khaliq and Malik Aziz
Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ (said in a Hadith, “Verily, you will follow the path of those before you, step by step and inch by inch; if they entered the hole of a lizard, you would follow.” We said, “O Messenger of Allah, do you mean the Jews and Christians?” The Prophet said, “Who else?”
As we approach the 2024 U.S. Presidential election, Muslims are misguided in their support of Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump. Neither candidate has demonstrated respect for Muslims in their domestic or foreign policies. Many Muslim activist have expressed deep concerns about Douglas Emhoff, the V.P.’s husband and a proclaimed Zionist, and his remarks after completing a White House propaganda tour of historical Holocaust sites in Auschwitz and Poland; Emhoff replied when speaking about students protesting on college campuses, “calls for genocide…are completely unacceptable and must be stopped.” He later used the Zionist trope to silence dissent, that the student protest is “antisemitic.” Emhoff — who is the first ever Jewish spouse of a president or vice president — says he and Vice President Kamala Harris …are sending “strength, love and unwavering support for the people of Israel.”
Vice President Harris has received over $5 million from the Zionist Lobby, The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), stated recently, in the midst of the slaughter of over 200,000 Palestinians thus far, “Let me be clear, I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself,” she said.
The Joe Biden/Kamala Harris Administration has sent BILLIONS of dollars to finance the genocide against the helpless Palestinians to date. Since Israel’s founding in 1948, it has received $158 billion in military aid from the United States, making it the greatest recipient in history. Doubling down, Kamala Harris has sent strong signals to Tel Aviv that she will continue this effort.
For his part, Donald Trump has given his verbal support to Israel, although he has boasted that there were “no new wars” under his past administration. A sign that a Trump re-election will business as usual is Sheldon Adelson, the late Billionaire casino magnate, a staunchly pro-Israel Zionist conservative, who wrote the Middle East Policy for Trump’s first term (including the demand that the capital of Israel be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem) donated $100 million to buy a chunk of Trumps White House in 2016 and 2020. His widow Miriam Adelson received Presidential Medal of Freedom as part of the grift, has continued the family business of pouring millions into Trumps re-election efforts in 2024.
Malcolm X said…” vote only for candidates who have proven they have our best interest and withhold your vote if they don’t.” The fear campaigns being sold to Muslims and Black vis-à-vis Trump and 2020 are not working. Blacks and Muslims are rapidly moving toward third-party alternatives that truly align with their political agendas and rejecting the Democratic Party and the Republican Party status quo. Prove of this is, Jill Stein selected a Black Muslim, Dr. Butch Ware as her Vice-Presidential running mate on the Green Party Ticket, signaling to Muslims who could swing the vote in Michigan, that “the Genocide in Gaza” is off the table and to the Black Masses that “Reparations are on the table day-one.”
Claudia De la Cruz is the Party for Socialism and Liberation nominee for President, and Independent presidential candidate Cornel West tapped California State University, Los Angeles professor Melina Abdullah, a Muslim as his running mate. Abdullah is a professor of Pan-African studies and formerly chaired the Department of Pan-African Studies
It is clear Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ ( and Malcolm X would not approve of Muslims voting for candidates who will continue to drop bombs on innocent, defenseless Palestinians. Malcolm X strongly spoke against the Zionist movement and its collaboration with U.S. Imperialism, as evidence here supports.
In 1964, a visit to a Palestinian refugee camp in Gaza deeply impacted Malcolm X. Witnessing firsthand the displacement and suffering caused by the 1948 Nakba fostered a profound empathy. He declared, “Our problem in America is a problem that is worldwide,” drawing parallels between the Palestinian struggle and the Black American fight for equality. He saw both as battles against oppression.
On Palestine, Malcolm said:
- “The problem that exists in Palestine is not a religious problem… It is a question of colonialism. It is a question of a people who are being deprived of their homeland.” (1964, speech in Cairo)
- “Zionist logic is the same logic that brought Hitler and the Nazis into power… It is the same logic that says that because my grandfather came from Ireland, I have the right to go back to Ireland and take over the whole country.” (1965, “Zionist Logic” essay)
- “We need a free Palestine… We don’t need a divided Palestine. We need a whole Palestine.” (1965, speech in Detroit)
Malik Aziz is the Co-convener of The Darfur 23 and Editor-in-Chief, The Muslim Street
Salim Abdul-Khaaliq is the Founder of The Flaming Crescent Newsletter
