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    Arab American Voters in Dearborn, Michigan, Heard Trump’s Case 

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    After supporting Joe Biden in 2020, the majority-Arab American city outside Detroit delivered an unlikely win for Donald Trump, who promised to bring peace to the Middle East.Ameen Almudhari was one of thousands of people in the majority-Arab community of Dearborn, Mich., who helped Joe Biden win the city and defeat Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.Four years later, Mr. Almudhari had had enough.This week, he joined thousands of other Dearborn residents in voting for Mr. Trump, helping him score a stunning win in a place that seemed an unlikely source of support in the former president’s bid to return to the White House.Standing next to his 10-year-old son outside an elementary school on the north side of Dearborn on Tuesday evening, Mr. Almudhari, 33, explained his change of heart, part of a remarkable turnabout in Dearborn, which is just outside Detroit.He was, he said, fed up with Mr. Biden’s support of Israel and Ukraine and said the death and destruction being underwritten by the United States drove his decision to back Mr. Trump.“The first time we vote for Joe Biden, but what we see right now, he didn’t stop the genocide in Gaza,” said Mr. Almudhari, a Yemeni American, who faulted the president for spending American money to support the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. His son, Khaled, interrupted him with a smiling comment: “Trump will end the war!”Indeed, Mr. Trump has said as much, and the promise was among a host of reasons cited by voters in Dearborn for the wave of support from Arab and Muslim Americans for Mr. Trump.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Trump, Who Once Proposed a Muslim Registry, Now Courts Their Votes

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      When he ran for president eight years ago, Donald J. Trump floated the idea of creating a national registry of Muslims and proposed banning immigration from Muslim countries. So it was striking to see him on Saturday at a rally in suburban Detroit celebrating endorsements from a handful of Muslim and Arab American leaders.It was a political turnaround that would have seemed unthinkable during Mr. Trump’s first campaign, when he frequently spouted anti-Muslim rhetoric. As president, Mr. Trump blocked travel from several predominantly Muslim countries, creating travel chaos. And at moments during this campaign, he has drawn on the anti-Muslim sentiments from earlier in his political career.But in a tight election, Mr. Trump and his campaign have been trying to win the support of Arab American and Muslim voters who may be disaffected with Democrats over President Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza and the party’s positions on social issues. Their support is seen as especially important in Michigan, a key battleground state with many Arab American and Muslim voters.At Saturday’s rally in Novi, Mich., a suburb of Detroit, Mr. Trump invited a group of people that his campaign said included a number of Muslim and Arab American leaders to the stage, where they endorsed him. (Mr. Trump claimed they were “highly respected leaders,” but his campaign has not provided any details about who most of them were, making it difficult to assess their prominence.)“We as Muslims stand with President Trump because he promises peace,” Belal Alzuhiry, an imam from the Detroit area, said in front of hundreds at Suburban Collection Showplace, an exhibition center. “We are supporting Donald Trump because he promised to end war in the Middle East and Ukraine.”Mr. Trump has not provided a plan by which he would end the war in Ukraine or the widening one in the Middle East, which began when Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Kamala Harris Meets With Arab and Muslim Leaders in Michigan

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      Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday met with Arab and Muslim leaders while campaigning in Michigan, a crucial battleground state where roiling discontent over the United States’ backing of Israel’s war in Gaza and its escalating attacks in Lebanon could threaten her support.“The big takeaway was that she fully understands the severity of the situation, she absolutely understands the impact this has had on our communities, and the potential impact this could have on voters,” said Wa’el Alzayat, the chief executive of Emgage Action, a group that mobilizes Muslim American voters and has endorsed Ms. Harris.During the meeting, which took place backstage at a rally in Flint, Mich., Muslim and Arab leaders pressed Ms. Harris to work toward ending the war in Gaza, expressed concerns about the civilian casualties and about tens of thousands of people being displaced in Lebanon, Mr. Alzayat said.He added that Ms. Harris, who was joined by her campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, said she understood the frustrations in the community and was committed to finding a path to peace. The meeting was originally scheduled for 10 minutes but ran for 20, sending a strong message about “the gravity of the current moment we’re in,” he said.Ms. Harris’s campaign said in a statement that she expressed her concern for the “scale of suffering in Gaza,” and outlined her goal to end the war in Gaza, which started after Hamas attacked Israel nearly one year ago, on Oct. 7. The vice president also expressed her desire to secure the release of hostages taken during the attack, and continue to ensure Israel’s security while also seeing to it that Palestinian people can “realize their right to dignity, freedom, self-determination.”Ms. Harris also expressed her concern about civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon, and reiterated the Biden administration’s desire for a diplomatic solution and preventing a regional war, the campaign said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Walz, Appealing to Muslim Voters, Says War in Gaza ‘Must End Now’

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      Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, on Thursday made a direct appeal to Muslim voters, decrying “staggering and devastating” destruction in Gaza and saying that the war between Israel and Hamas should be brought to an immediate end.“This war must end, and it must end now,” Mr. Walz said in a three-minute video address to the virtual “Million Muslim Votes: A Way Forward” event, which was hosted by the group Emgage Action.Mr. Walz said Vice President Kamala Harris was focused on ensuring that “Israel is secure, the hostages are home, the suffering in Gaza ends now, and the Palestinian people realize the right to dignity, freedom and self-determination.”The remarks, while brief, represented an effort by the Harris campaign to reach Muslim Americans who are angered by the Biden-Harris administration’s approach to the Middle East, have long been targeted by former President Donald J. Trump’s rhetoric and policies, and are struggling with their choice in this year’s election.Emgage Action, focused on building Muslim American political power, has endorsed Ms. Harris despite significant discontent among many Muslims over the White House’s support for Israel, which is now fighting in both Gaza and in Lebanon.Mr. Walz spoke to Emgage Action from his home in Minnesota and did not take questions. On the campaign trail, he has been disrupted by vocal pro-Palestinian protesters at rallies in Phoenix, eastern Pennsylvania and elsewhere.In an illustration of the broad and unwieldy coalition that the Democratic ticket is trying to hold together, Mr. Walz’s appearance came on a day when Ms. Harris campaigned with former Representative Liz Cheney, an anti-Trump Republican who has urged Mr. Biden not to withhold arms for Israel. Ms. Cheney’s father, the hawkish former Vice President Dick Cheney, has said he is also planning to vote for Ms. Harris.Mr. Walz spoke nearly a year after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the start of Israel’s staggering response in Gaza, and during a week in which the Middle East seemed to have entered into a long-feared wider war.The conflicts are reverberating within Muslim and Jewish communities in battleground states, including Michigan and Pennsylvania.In Michigan, some Arab Americans voted “uncommitted” during the Democratic primary this year when President Biden was still the Democratic Party’s candidate, issuing a protest vote against Mr. Biden’s support for Israel in the war in Gaza.The Uncommitted National Movement, the national group that organized major protest efforts, has since said it would not endorse Ms. Harris, though it has also urged a vote against former President Donald J. Trump and warned against third-party votes. More

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      Who Is Laura Loomer, the Far-Right Activist Who Traveled With Trump?

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      After fellow Republicans criticized her appearance on the trail, noting her history of offensive remarks, former President Donald J. Trump praised her but later said he disagreed with some of her statements.Five years ago Laura Loomer, a far-right activist with a history of expressing bigoted views and a knack for generating publicity, filed an application for a trademark to protect her work in “the field of political activism.”Ms. Loomer, 31, part of a generation of web-savvy right-wing influencers, decided to trademark the term she had coined for her signature move of ambushing people with unexpected, often embarrassing questions. She called it getting “Loomered.”Already a well-known figure among internet obsessives thanks to her anti-Muslim activism, undercover sting operations and web-savvy political stunts, Ms. Loomer found herself at the center of the presidential campaign this week when she traveled with former President Donald J. Trump. She went with him to Philadelphia for the presidential debate, and then accompanied him to Sept. 11 memorial events in New York City and Shanksville, Pa., which drew pointed criticism from Democrats and Republicans because she had previously called Sept. 11 “an inside job.”Here’s more about Laura Loomer.Why are politicians from both parties criticizing her?Ms. Loomer has made a number of racist, sexist, homophobic and Islamophobic comments in the past. She has described Islam as a “cancer,” used the hashtag “#proudislamophobe” and once seemed to celebrate the deaths of migrants crossing the Mediterranean. In 2018, after Twitter banned her for frequent anti-Muslim content, she handcuffed herself to the company’s headquarters in New York and wore a yellow Star of David similar to those Nazis forced Jews to wear during the Holocaust (Ms. Loomer is Jewish).After the billionaire Elon Musk bought Twitter, her account was reinstated, and she has since built up a following of more than 1.2 million people on the site (which Mr. Musk later renamed X) and has a web show. She often blasts out content praising Mr. Trump and viciously attacking anyone she might perceive as a rival.Two days before she traveled with Mr. Trump to the debate, she wrote in a post on X that if Vice President Kamala Harris, whose mother was Indian American, won the election, the White House would “smell like curry.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Jewish Man Charged With Attempted Murder in Attacks on Muslim Neighbor

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      Izak Kadosh faces more than 40 charges, many of them hate crimes, including attempted murder and aggravated assault. Prosecutors said the attacks, in Brooklyn, went on for months.A Jewish man in Brooklyn was arrested and charged with attempted murder and hate crimes after repeatedly attacking his Muslim neighbor over several months, ultimately breaking into the neighbor’s apartment and striking him so hard with a mallet that he had internal bleeding, according to a criminal complaint.The man, Izak Kadosh, was arrested on Saturday, two days after he broke into the apartment, according to police officials. Mr. Kadosh faces more than 40 charges, including attempted murder, aggravated harassment, hate-crime assault and intent to damage property.Mr. Kadosh pleaded not guilty to all of the charges in Kings County Criminal Court on Monday. Bail was set at $25,000 cash or a $125,000 partially secured bond. He is being held on Rikers Island and is due to appear in court again on Friday.A lawyer for Mr. Kadosh declined to comment on the case.The neighbor who was attacked, Ahmed Faycal Chebira, said the harassment started soon after he moved into the building, in the Crown Heights neighborhood, in October. Mr. Chebira, who is from Algeria, said Mr. Kadosh would call him “dirty Arab” or “dirty Muslim” and spit on him.“I told him, leave me alone,” Mr. Chebira, 50, said in Arabic on Wednesday. “Everyone has their own religion in America; I don’t have a problem with anyone.”“I feel relieved now that they caught him,” Mr. Chebira continued, adding that he was in the hospital when he learned about the arrest. “I was afraid that I would leave the hospital and he would be outside.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Can Harris Win Back Arab American Voters? The Door May Be Cracked Open.

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      Vice President Kamala Harris has not strayed from President Biden on Israel policy, but she has taken a stronger tone on the suffering of Palestinians.In Muna Jondy’s family, every topic is fair game on the WhatsApp thread.The 40-person chat, which includes Ms. Jondy’s brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews, discusses everything: the Drake and Kendrick Lamar rivalry, Ohio State-Michigan football superiority and, of course, politics.The discussion of President Biden’s re-election campaign was a common theme this year as the administration’s support for Israel in the war in Gaza alienated many Muslim and Arab American families, including the Jondys.But the mood shifted when Mr. Biden dropped out of the race and Vice President Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee. The family took notice last week when Ms. Harris said she would not look away from images of dead children or be silent about the tragedies in Gaza.“Am I crazy or is this way more than Biden ever was willing to say?” Ms. Jondy’s niece messaged the group. Others in the chat were more skeptical: “Would be nice, but unless I see an explicit change in policy I won’t believe it.”The WhatsApp chat is typical of the conversations happening among Arab Americans across the country who turned away from Mr. Biden over the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 36,000 people over the past 10 months. In crucial battleground states like Michigan, where Ms. Jondy’s family lives, many people who voted for Mr. Biden in 2020 said they felt betrayed and joined protest movements that challenged his campaign.Ms. Harris may have an opportunity to change the conversation. While she has not strayed from Mr. Biden on Israel policy since she began her own campaign for the presidency, she has struck a stronger tone on the suffering of Palestinians.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      At Least 11 Americans Among Those Dead in Hajj Pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia

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      The daughter of one Maryland couple was still searching for answers about her parents’ deaths. The State Department said it was possible that more deaths could be confirmed.At least 11 Americans were among those who died while making the Islamic pilgrimage of hajj to Saudi Arabia this month in searing temperatures, the U.S. State Department said on Tuesday, adding that it was possible that more deaths could be confirmed in the coming days.In Maryland, the daughter of one couple was still searching for answers about the exact circumstances of her parents’ deaths, and about the actions of the tour operator whom the couple had paid tens of thousands of dollars to help them make the trip.The daughter, Saida Wurie, said she and her brothers had not yet been told where their parents, Isatu and Alieu Wurie, had been buried. She says she plans to travel to Saudi Arabia as soon as she learns where they are.“Losing a loved one is hard,” she said on Tuesday. “But then not being able to bury them is just an indescribable feeling.”The couple were among the more than 1,300 people who died while making the annual pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca, as temperatures reached 120 degrees at times. The Saudi government said that the vast majority of them did not have permits.Hajj is a deeply spiritual ritual that Muslims are encouraged to perform at least once in their lifetimes, if they are physically and financially able to do so. With nearly two million participating each year, it is not unusual for pilgrims to die from heat stress, illness or chronic disease. It is unclear if the number of deaths this year was higher than usual, because Saudi Arabia does not regularly report those statistics.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Woman Tried to Drown 3-Year-Old Girl After Making Racist Comments, Police Say

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      A Texas woman tried to drown the child in the pool of an apartment complex last month, the police said. The child’s mother said her family was Palestinian and Muslim.A woman in Texas was charged with attempted capital murder after she tried to drown a 3-year-old girl in an apartment complex pool after making racist comments, officials said.Mustafaa Carroll, the executive director of the Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said at a news conference on Saturday that the girl was attacked by a white woman who made the comments to the girl’s mother, who was wearing a hijab, a head scarf worn by Muslim women.Mr. Carroll called on national and state law enforcement officials to open a hate crime investigation into the attack, which took place on May 19 in Euless, Texas, a suburb of Dallas and Fort Worth.Witnesses told detectives that the woman, Elizabeth Wolf, 42, had tried to drown a child and had argued with the child’s mother, the Euless Police Department said in a news release.Ms. Wolf was initially charged with public intoxication as she tried to leave the area, the police said. The Tarrant County criminal district attorney’s office filed charges of attempted capital murder and injury to a child on May 23, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.Ms. Wolf could not be immediately reached for comment on Sunday, and it was not clear if she had a lawyer. She was released on bail a day after she was arrested in May, according to CAIR-Texas.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More