A letter to Trump-supporting Muslim, Arab, and Middle-Eastern men
(especially the ones in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Ohio)
To my Trump-supporting Muslim, Arab, and Middle-Eastern men. I see you. I know you have felt left out of recent discussions about men of color supporting Trump. Black and Latino men seem to be getting all the attention. That's not fair to you. You, too, deserve recognition for your betrayal. And to be clear, to support Trump in general but specifically as a Middle-Eastern/Arab/Muslim man is nothing short of a betrayal of your own families and communities. If you identify with this category and you are already so insulted that you are done with this essay, I get it. The truth hurts.
If you are still reading, you may be asking: who the hell am I? That's a fair question. I am a Middle-Eastern guy myself, specifically from Iran. According to my birth certificate, I'm Muslim. According to my own spiritual compass and common sense, I'm not. My family immigrated here when I was a young child during the gruesome 8-year Iran-Iraq war. My family, like many of yours, is strewn across the world, though the majority of my family resides here in the United States. And also probably like yours, my family is politically and ideologically mixed. White Americans are really surprised, sometimes delighted (depending on what part of the country you're in) to learn that some of us are Trump supporters! In my family alone we have Islamists, atheists, Republicans and Democrats, progressives and conservatives, and some who care more about college football than politics! And yes, while certainly not in the majority, there are also Trump supporters in my family. And based on national polling, this is a typical political profile for families in our community.
But my encounters with Trump-supporting Middle-Eastern men go beyond my own family. I live with my wife and children just outside of Chicago, where I'm an Associate Professor in the School of Education and Social policy at Northwestern University. My work affords frequent occasions to travel all across the nation. These days, it seems like I'm always in an Uber on my way to or coming home from O'Hare airport. It doesn't take a social scientist like myself to know that Muslim and Arab men are overrepresented in the gig economy or to know that many of them are supporting Trump. National polling from places like The Arab American Institute and Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans shows practically a split ahead of the 2024 elections.
But why? Through my family, community, and professional interactions, I've learned why some of you are supporting Trump and why you should change your mind while there's still time.
You support Trump because you are uncomfortable with the gender politics of the Democratic Party. Let us name an elephant in the room right away. As a community - diverse as we are across nationalities and ethnicities - we tend to be socially conservative. Even the most Westernized or progressive amongst us struggle to keep up with societal shifts related to gender and sexuality. Fair enough. My own father, liberal by most accounts, is bewildered by the grammar of gender pronouns. You may not understand or even support the politics of gender on the left, but what about the extreme gender politics of the right? You do realize Trump and the Republican's gender politics are based largely on White Protestant Christian ethics, right? Do you really endorse giving power to the government to control the health decisions of the women in your family?
You support Trump because you adore Elon Musk. Let's admit it, some of you like Trump mainly because of your admiration of Elon Musk. In addition to jewelry, cologne, and delicious kebabs, our people are known to have a thing for technology. My own research suggests that our cultural affinity towards technology is rooted in the histories of political instability in our home countries and our collective ambitions toward modernity. There is no problem with owning an Apple Watch or even driving a Tesla. But let me appeal to your masculinity here. Are you not even a little bit embarrassed that your politics derives in part from your worship of a man much wealthier and more powerful than you will ever be? Should your wives and daughters follow your lead and worship Musk like you do?
You support Trump because you think Republicans will stand up to the Islamic Republic of Iran. My family has suffered enormously from the crimes of this rogue state. But it is nothing short of delusional to think Trump will free us from the tyranny of the Ayatollahs. I'm not going to get into the history and politics of sanctions, regime change, and revolution. But the notion that the Republic party will do anything in the interest of the Iranian people is completely unsubstantiated by even a cursory review of recent history. Moreover, we know war is big business, and the instability that Iran sows in the Middle East is good for American military contractors. Democrats are not blameless, not by a stretch, but let's be honest we all know Republicans own this one. Supporting Trump based on the idea that he will stand up to the Ayatollahs is not only delusional but dangerous for the Iranian people and for the broader region.
You support Trump because you are enraged at Biden and the Democrats' historic love fest with Israel. It defies all logic that some of you are supporting Trump in protest of supposed Democratic support for the Islamic Republic, while some of you are supporting Trump in protest of Democratic loyalty to Israel. Make it make sense, please. In the Oct 16 episode of NPR's Code Switch podcast, "In Michigan, Arab Americans weigh the power of the vote," I heard from some of you pro-Palestine Trump supporters. Listen, I, too, am angry with the US political system that is uncritically devoted to the state of Israel, and I share your deep frustration and disappointment with America's role in perpetuating the war in Gaza. But do you not remember the Muslim ban? The moving of the US embassy to Jerusalem? A revenge vote for Trump is not the answer!
We are days away from a historic election that will carry massive implications for our communities abroad as well as here in the US. The polls are showing our community as almost evenly divided. To my Middle Eastern and Muslim friends, uncles, cousins, and Uber drivers: Please don't embarrass yourselves and the rest of us by voting for a selfish racist old man who holds our communities in great contempt. It's not too late to change your mind. We will celebrate and welcome your decision, even in the last hour of this election.
With respect,
Sepehr
This posted letter may be the most condescending piece of subjective, ill researched propaganda in the last 10 years. And the threat to delete contrary views only underscores the lack of serious inquiry, Islamophobia, and anti-Trump bias at play. Regardless of who one supports, this blog should be about reasonable, intellectual exchanges and news. Not biased post advanced under the guise of being intellectually supported. Nowhere in the post is there any discussion of the fact that the International Court of Justice ruled that the current WH administration is complicit in plausible genocide. Nowhere in this post does the author address the October 30, 2024 report from the Times of Israel indicating that Trump told Netanyahu the war in Gaza must end when he takes office and what ending the war would mean for over a million innocent children the middle east. Nowhere does his post even discuss the range of Islamophobia that has spiraled out of control in the last 3 years on college campuses and the abuse of middle eastern employees and contractors, with with implied endorsement of the current WH administration. Nowhere does this post address billions of dollars being spent in Ukraine while US families cant afford to feed their children or send them to good schools or purchase groceries. Nowhere does this post address the fact that the WH administration has endorsed a new unconstitutional rule that permits Americans can criticize their own president and political leaders but lose their jobs or ability to live safely in the US if they criticize Netanyahu's violence and seemed disdain for human rights.
In short, this post should not have been endorsed under the guise of inviting legitmate debate. We must stand against hate, which means denouncing all forms of genuine anti-semitism. We, however, cannot endorse wanton indiscriminate violence, genocidal conduct, Islamophobia, or censorship in the process of fighting anti-semitism.
Finally, this post ignores massive levels of killing and destruction in the middle east unseen in a generation, which implicitly makes this post dangerous and antithetical to human rights, all for the sake of championing a political affiliation. Denouncing all hate is always the best approach. (I wonder how many contrary views were deleted from viewership. )