Photograph by Kholood Eid
Words by Nayantara Dutta
The dust has settled after one of the most contentious elections in U.S. history. Donald Trump has won a second term in office and is also on track to winning the popular vote. The same country that impeached Trump has re-elected him. The impact of this result will be felt across the nation, especially among Muslim Americans, many of whom had already lost hope in President Biden’s anti-Gaza administration.
In his second term, Trump has promised to launch the “largest deportation operation in American history,” increase border security, end birthright citizenship, and reinstate and expand the Muslim travel ban to prevent refugees from Gaza from entering the U.S. “Mass deportations now!” was a rallying cry at the Republican National Convention. Trump’s anti-Muslim agenda fueled his entire campaign.
“We have been feeling so numb,” says Zahraa Alrafish, an Iraqi-American college student from Dearborn, Michigan, and the founder of Arab Women United. “We’re seeing our families back home struggling and suffering—and there is no aid. We’re continuing to grieve and, with this election, we did not feel we were going to get what we wanted on either side. It was a lose-lose situation for so many of us because both sides are so dedicated to pleasing Israel and [its] demands at all costs.”
For decades, Muslim Americans have been persecuted in their own country, but violence increased under Trump. Syed Lagoon, a Bangladeshi-American web designer from Astoria, Queens, describes increased surveillance after 9/11. “[Under the Obama administration], I saw [armed] police officers come into masjids that I was in during Ramadan as [a part of] community outreach programs,” Lagoon tells Atmos. “With the Trump administration, it increased tenfold. The subtext became text. The seed that started under Obama changed its name, explicitly calling out extremist, jihadist Muslims. Then, the Muslim ban happened within weeks.”
In December 2015, while on the campaign trail, Donald Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” One week into office, he issued a travel ban to prevent citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East from entering the United States for 90 days. The anti-Muslim rhetoric of Trump’s campaign led to a 91% increase in hate crimes against Muslims in 2017. “I remember I cried when Trump was elected [in 2016],” Lagoon says. “When my father found me sobbing, the only reason that I could give is that I feel like a lot of people are going to get hurt.” It took four years for the Muslim ban to be repealed, on the first day Biden took office in 2021.
“It was a lose-lose situation for so many of us because both sides are so dedicated to pleasing Israel and its demands at all costs.”
With his history, Muslim Americans expect Trump’s second term to be even more damaging. “Donald Trump is the same person who said ‘Islam hates us,’” says Zohaib Qadri, city council member of District 9 in Austin, Texas. “Donald Trump is the same person who enacted the Muslim travel ban, so to fellow Muslims who might have been duped or tricked or believed that this individual was somehow going to be the peacemaker, I honestly, from a human level, feel bad for them—but also, I can only say that I hope they realize that they’ve been tricked.”
This year, Muslim voters showed up to the polls in record numbers, with a CAIR survey showing that 95% of Muslim Americans, an estimated 2.5 million citizens, intended to vote. But they were divided on whom to support. Overwhelmingly, the most important issue for Muslim American voters was the genocide in Gaza. This is especially true for those based in swing states like Michigan with a significant Arab American population, overshadowing domestic concerns like healthcare, the economy, abortion, and taxes.
After the 2020 election, where the Muslim vote helped Biden secure a narrow victory in swing states, Muslim Americans felt betrayed. The Biden administration’s unwavering military support of Israel, which has ramped up over the last year, left many Muslim American voters conflicted about which candidate to vote for this time round. “We’re still losing family overseas and it feels like we’re not really being heard,” says Alrafish. “Biden has said multiple times that [a ceasefire] will come soon, but we keep getting brushed off to the side as if our needs are not also meant to be met.”
In Michigan, home to Dearborn, a town known as the “capital of Arab America,” around 100,000 voters joined a national campaign during the Democratic primaries to vote “uncommitted,” in an effort to sway Democratic candidates to support a ceasefire in Gaza, Lebanon, and Yemen as well as an embargo on arms sales to Israel. In this community, Biden had received 69% of the vote in 2020. But the past year has not seen meaningful answers to calls for a ceasefire from either Biden or Harris—and last week, Harris ultimately lost Michigan by around 82,000 votes to Trump.
“I was more optimistic with Harris getting something done that would see the release of hostages, that would see a ceasefire, that would see, as she said herself, dignity towards the Palestinian people,” says Qadri. “I don’t think Trump’s administration cares about Israeli lives or Palestinian lives. I think it’s all a game, and it’s a game of politics.”
CAIR data shows that 42% of Muslim voters overall intended to vote for Jill Stein, the only candidate who supported a ceasefire, compared to 41% for Harris and 10% for Trump. It was, however, Trump who won 42% of the vote in Dearborn, with Harris trailing at 36% and Stein at 18%, showing that Muslims voted against an administration that has financed genocide. It’s worth noting that, throughout her campaign, Harris emphasized her commitment to ending the war in Gaza—a stance she reiterated on the campaign trail in Michigan, where she promised to “end the war in Gaza [and] ensure Israel is secure.” For many who had seen little action to support these claims, however, her words rang hollow.
“I don’t see the Trump administration prioritizing lives. I don’t know if they’ve ever stood for humanity or any human lives.”
“I believe she said that as a way to garner more votes at the last minute,” adds Alrafish. “They were empty words because we’ve heard her say so many times that the suffering in Gaza is so terrible, but she also doesn’t want to stop funding them. She was trying to play both sides.”
In his victory speech, Trump said “I’m not going to start wars, I’m going to stop wars,” but it’s worth reading the fine print.
Trump is no friend of Palestine—he has been outspoken about supporting “Israel’s right to win its war on terror,” and has threatened to disrupt pro-Palestinian protests by throwing “any student that protests…out of the country.” He may have called for an end to the war, but he wants it on Israel’s terms, telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “get your victory and get it over with. It has to stop, the killing has to stop.” It’s a point of contention among many Arab American voters. “How are you going to support a ceasefire, but then also say that you want to support Israel’s ideology?” asks Alrafish.
Muslim Americans are understandably unsure about whether Trump will in fact end the war—and what that might look like. In Trump’s rush to “get it over with,” and as someone who has long called himself a steadfast defender of Israel, there could well be more death and displacement instead of working towards a free Gaza for Palestinians. “I don’t see the Trump administration prioritizing lives. I don’t know if they’ve ever really stood for humanity or any human lives,” says Qadri. “I really do fear for folks in Palestine and Gaza. We’re already seeing the conflict widen. My fear is that it further widens and we continue to see deaths of innocent folks throughout the region.”
Whatever Trump’s plans are for his new administration and however they materialize, many Muslim Americans intend to defend their rights and advocate for a ceasefire on just terms. “We want a ceasefire, we need a ceasefire, and a ceasefire is exactly what President Trump should be thinking about right now,” says Alrafish. “So many of us feel that we have not been listened to—and as American citizens, he should want to listen to us. Our community has been so incredible. We’ve lost a lot of people, but we’re always there for each other and we always stand together.”
“We’re going to keep continuing to use our voice through social media, through protests to push organizations to stand for what’s right,” Alrafish adds. “We’re going to be using our power to continue to let people know what we stand for. We are not going to be backing down. We are not going to be silenced.”
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Muslim Americans Brace for a Second Trump Era
