DEARBORN, Mich. — Orthopedic surgeon Adam Fahs burst into tears as he recently recounted the horrors of what he saw in Gaza when he traveled there last December to treat wounded Palestinians. Fresh in his mind, he said, were the European Hospital’s wards full of women and children who had been maimed, and doing his best to treat them with grossly inadequate access to medical supplies.
“I remember talking with one of the health care workers and he was telling me that there’s a tradition now that the Palestinians have where before you go to sleep, you say goodbye to your family because you never know if you’re going to wake up,” said Fahs, a Lebanese American. “And you say your testimonies of faith, in case you pass away in your sleep.”
That haunting reality weighs heavily on Fahs, now back home in Michigan, a key swing state that holds outsize weight in determining the next president, making every vote crucial. With Arab Americans making up a significant part of the state’s electorate, their support could be decisive. Fahs says he’s disaffected with both candidates — former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. The way he sees it, it doesn’t matter who is in office — no candidate cares about Gaza or Arab life.
In Dearborn, Michigan, America’s only Arab-majority city, voters are wrestling with difficult decisions ahead of the upcoming general election. After speaking with dozens of Arab Americans here, it’s clear the community, traditionally leaning Democratic, now finds itself disillusioned by both major parties, especially over the U.S. handling of the war in Gaza. With frustration mounting over foreign policy and domestic issues like inflation and health care, many question who truly represents their values. And as Election Day approaches, the debate continues: whether to support the familiar, vote third party, or sit this one out altogether.
It was this very debate that drew prominent Arab American figures, including activists and politicians, to Dearborn in September for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s 44th Arab American Convention, or “ArabCon.” Among them, novelist and activist Susan Abulhawa, who delivered a resounding message.
“Vote out of hope, not fear,” Abulhawa said.
Disappointment with Democrats
Driving through the streets of Dearborn, one might liken it to many other suburban cities in the U.S. A closer look reveals the Arab-majority city’s many layers — clusters of Yemeni grocery stores and coffee houses, Lebanese bakeries selling mana’eesh, a traditional flatbread, and Iraqi restaurants dishing out kebabs. The only visible flag in the area is an American one, fluttering at full mast by a gas station — a reminder that the city is just as American as it is Arab.
“Those who truly know Dearborn know it’s more than just the largest concentration of Arab Americans. It is where Arab America comes home. It is where our voices are truly heard and our biggest dreams are realized,” Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud said during his opening remarks on the first day of ArabCon on Sept. 13 at Dearborn’s Ford Community & Performing Arts Center, a stone’s throw from the city’s cluster of Arab American businesses.
Although the metro Detroit suburb is nestled in a swing state, Dearborn has historically leaned blue. Biden clinched a victory in Michigan’s Democratic presidential primary this year, but a noticeable 13% of Democratic voters ticked the “uncommitted” option, many of them in an effort to pressure him into calling for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza. In Dearborn, “uncommitted” received 56% of the vote compared to Biden’s 40%, The Associated Press reported. Voting uncommitted as a Democrat is still a vote for the party, but not specifically for its selected candidate.
Come Nov. 5, however, “uncommitted” will not be an option. Yet Arab Americans remain deeply concerned about Gaza’s rising death toll, now exceeding 42,000, and the escalating conflict spreading throughout the Middle East, including in Lebanon, Yemen and Syria.
“We see the footage every day — of parents trying to dig their children out from under the rubble, of moms wondering when the next meal is for their kids, of children burying their parents — because of a bomb that had struck their area,” said state Rep. Alabas Farhat, a Democrat whose district includes east and central Dearborn. “So, for us, this is not a war, it is a genocide — it is a systematic massacring of Palestinians.”
At ArabCon, the frustration Farhat expressed was on full display. Vendors at the convention hall sold “Free Palestine” T-shirts and keffiyehs, and Gaza came up in every panel.
Farhat said the Democratic Party “has missed several key opportunities” to reassure Arab American voters concerned about Gaza. One glaring oversight, he said, is the ongoing decision to supply Israel with weapons for its military campaign in the enclave. He also points to how the Democratic National Convention did not allow a Palestinian American affected by the war to speak, despite giving a platform to the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a slain Israeli American who was abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.
“The time for listening — we’re beyond that now,” Farhat said. “We’re in a phase where constituencies like mine are demanding action in the form of policy change, not just rhetoric change, but in seeing a party that for years this community has been loyal to, standing up for them.”
Maryam Hassanein, 24, quit her position with the Biden administration’s Department of the Interior this summer in protest of the U.S. handling of the war in Gaza. She believes that nothing will change if Democratic voters are pressured into supporting the party, adding that it’s the responsibility of candidates to earn votes.
“Pushing people away from voting how they want to vote in terms of independents and third party isn’t really what we should be doing,” Hassanein said. “Change won’t come if we sit here and say change won’t come. If we accept things how they are, then of course there will be no change.”
Activist Linda Sarsour, who lives in Brooklyn, New York, but was in Dearborn for ArabCon, takes a broader view that echoes the sentiments of others who spoke with NBC News. She says the Arab American community’s concerns extend beyond the conflict in Gaza, reflecting the complex nature of their struggles, which include domestic issues.
We care about health care, we care about economic issues, we use the transportation systems, we have property taxes, we worry about our electric bills, which are being monopolized by major corporations,” Sarsour told NBC News at ArabCon. “So, I want this administration and those that are running for office to know that yes, the war in Gaza is a top-priority issue for us, but they also want to hear what your other plans are.”
Not just Gaza
While Gaza weighs heavily on the minds of many Arab Dearborners, it’s not the only conflict they care about. The U.S.-backed, Saudi-led war in Yemen has pushed millions to the brink of starvation. The Iraq War, now widely criticized, left 200,000 civilians dead, haunting the many refugees who sought safety in Dearborn. Syria and Libya, too, have been devastated by American airstrikes, further fueling distrust of U.S. foreign policy in the region.
Yemeni American Mona Mawari, 39, lost her uncle in a missile strike during the war in Yemen. Her family’s story mirrors the trauma shared by many, and encouraged her to quit her job as a pharmacist to work as a community organizer full time
“He was attending a funeral service when missiles hit the event hall,” said Mawari, who spoke to NBC News at a packed Yemeni coffee house on Schaefer Road. “He was like a father to me.”
Sayed Saleh Qazwini, who leads the Arab-majority congregation at the Muslim Educational Community Center of America (MECCA) in nearby Canton, said the community has watched the devastation of their countries happen in phases over the years. As an Iraqi American, he said his family “has already paid the price” for U.S. foreign policy.
“Our government, which calls out other countries for human rights violations, why aren’t they saying anything?” Qazwini said about the war in Gaza. “Why are they being the suppliers of these bombs that are killing children and innocent lives?”
Zena Alzein and Zahraa Bahsoon, both 19-year-old Lebanese American students, said they don’t want to vote for Harris or Trump because of the foreign policies their administrations supported in the Middle East.
“We want to feel like we didn’t have a hand in allowing or supporting stuff like this to happen,” Bahsoon said, with Alzein in agreement.
Harris has received support from parts of the Arab and Muslim American communities, including endorsements from Deputy Wayne County Executive Assad Turfe and Emgage USA, which promotes civic engagement. Earlier this month, she met with Arab and Muslim leaders in Michigan to discuss U.S. policies in Gaza.
Nasrina Bargzie, the director of Muslim and Arab American outreach for Harris’ campaign, told NBC News in a statement that Harris is committed to earning every vote and has been “steadfast in her support” of these communities throughout her career.
Meanwhile, Brian Hughes, a senior adviser for Trump’s campaign, criticized the Biden-Harris administration’s policies for sowing “chaos” in the Middle East, saying that only Trump would restore “peace and stability.”
Yet, Trump’s track record includes the controversial Muslim travel ban and his veto of a bill to end America’s involvement in the war in Yemen. He has also pledged unwavering support for Israel, saying President Joe Biden should let it “finish the job” and calling him “a Palestinian,” seemingly as a slur.
Third-party dilemma
On Ford Road stands the Islamic Center of America, sandwiched between the St. Sarkis Apostolic Armenian Church and the St. Clement of Ohrid Orthodox Church.
As congregants packed into the Islamic center’s prayer room for Jummah, or Friday prayer, the Green Party’s Jill Stein waited in an adjacent room, ready to plead her case to them.
The Green Party has called for “an end to ethnic cleansing of Palestinians” and “the occupation by Israel of Gaza” and the West Bank, Stein said.
“It’s about time that our political parties pay attention, not only to the Arab American community, but to the American people, who are also being hurt by this economy of endless war,” Stein told NBC News.
Stein’s stance on Gaza resonates with young voters such as Palestinian American Zayed Saleem, 18, who believes that the Green Party is a viable alternative to the mainstream candidates.
“I don’t believe in giving either of them (Harris and Trump) power,” he said. “I think if every single person decided they’re not going to give power to either of the two, and they decided to give power to the third party, that’s when our voices will be heard.”
While her policies appeal to many Arab Americans, some question whether Stein, who has already lost two presidential races, in 2012 and 2016, stands any realistic chance of challenging the well-heeled campaigns of Harris and Trump.
Married couple Ayan Ajeen, 26, and Arhum Arshad, 28, are considering voting for Stein as protest.
“It’s either third party or not at all,” Arshad said. “It’s more so just voting for anybody but the two parties. In my rationale, it’s letting them know, ‘You lost this vote.’”
Ajeen, who is Palestinian American, said she doesn’t trust Harris’ expressions of sympathy for the people of Gaza because she believes the vice president is complicit in their suffering as a key member of Biden’s administration.
“If she wanted to do something about it, she would have done it by now,” Ajeen said. “I’m not going to be the one that helps put someone in office that’s going to continue killing my people overseas.”
Some Arab Dearborners are considering a vote for Trump this November.
While working at his family’s men’s fashion store on Michigan Avenue, Amar Shohatee, 21, told NBC News he’s undecided, but he leans toward Trump, noting the absence of new wars during his term.
“On Trump’s end, he’s already been in office — we saw how he is, he’s not all bad,” Shohatee, a Yemeni American, said. “If I had to vote for one of them — Kamala or Trump — it’ll be most likely Trump.”
With the elections just weeks away, panelists at ArabCon, including the activist Sarsour, encouraged the community to stay engaged.
“Don’t forfeit your right to participate in democracy,” Sarsour said. “Go out to the polls, vote for candidates who align with your values. Vote your conscience.
