Michigan Muslim, Arab leaders cancel meeting with Biden campaign over Israel support

City officials and Arab and Muslim leaders decided to terminate the planned meeting with President Biden's campaign manager due to the administration's support towards Israel in its war against Hamas. The meeting was supposed to take place on Friday afternoon, according to the Detroit News.

Assad Turfe, the deputy county executive of Wayne County who had coordinated the meeting, stated that the cancelation of the meeting was "in the best interest of the community."

"As the community got to learn about the meeting, there was definitely a lot of outrage and, ultimately, the decision was made to cancel the meeting," said Turfe, whose family is from Lebanon.

Turfe stated that 10 to 15 Arab American elected officials, officeholders, and representatives from larger community organizations were to meet with Biden's campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez.

The Biden campaign had requested the meeting with Arab leaders and officials as part of a broader effort to have "thoughtful conversations" with core constituency groups around the country, said Turfe.

However, Turfe noted that the meeting was unnecessary since the Biden administration has soiled its reputation in the community.

Arab leaders from the Muslim and Christian communities, according to Turfe, had hoped to convey the "sentiments" of the community firsthand. He explained that many who supported Biden in 2020 would likely abandon that support in November, citing the plight of 26,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza and the plight of thousands more who are displaced or starving.

"Unless something drastic happens, you have lost the Arab American and Muslim community. At this point, from what I can see, there's no winning them over. That was the idea of the meeting," said Turfe said.

"Until there's a cease-fire, the overall consensus in the community is they're not welcome here, essentially," he said, according to the outlet.

The Mayor of Dearborn, which has an all-Muslim city council, wrote on X about his decision not to attend the meeting and said that it's not a time to play "electoral politics."

"When elected officials view the atrocities in Gaza only as an electoral problem, they reduce our indescribable pain into a political calculation," wrote Mayor Hammoud. "I will not entertain conversations about elections while we watch a live-streamed genocide backed by our government."

"This is not a moment for electoral politics. Over the course of 111 days, Israel has murdered more than 26,000 Gazans and displaced over 2 million, with no end in sight," he continued. "The lives of Palestinians are not measured in poll numbers. Their humanity demands action, not lip service. When elected officials view the atrocities in Gaza only as an electoral problem, they reduce our indescribable pain into a political calculation."

"Community engagement is powerful when it is used to shape policies that save lives - these conversations must be had with policy-makers, not campaign staff. I will not entertain conversations about elections while we watch a live-streamed genocide backed by our government," he added.

Based on estimates from the Census Bureau, Michigan is home to approximately 300,000 people of Middle Eastern or North African descent, making it one of the largest Arab American communities in the nation. Turfe pointed out that Biden might run into trouble if a significant portion of them choose to switch from being Democrats to Republicans.

A portion of the community was distraught as to why Biden would send a campaign official rather than a White House representative to meet with them. Rodriguez, Biden's campaign manager, formerly served as the director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs under Biden.

Sources told the outlet that while Wayne County and Dearborn terminated the meeting, additional meetings between Rodriguez and individual representatives of the Arab community in other parts of Michigan proceeded as planned on Friday.