Arab American activists tout Sanders as advocate during rally in Clifton
BY Hannan Adely
NorthJersey.com
More than 100 people packed the Palestinian American Community Center Thursday night, where well-known Arab-American activists touted Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders as the best person to represent their interests and urged them to vote in the party primary next Tuesday.
Linda Sarsour, a racial justice activist who has rallied for Sanders at events across the U.S., said Sanders has reached out to Muslims and Arabs and listened to their concerns.
“Bernie Sanders chose to put people like me, people in hijab, women who are attacked by Islamaphobes, in front in his campaign,” said Sarsour, who leads the Arab American Association of New York, urging the crowd to become more active in politics.
According to news reports, Sanders won the Arab-American vote in the Michigan presidential primary by a 2-to-1 margin, support that may have helped him pull off a surprise primary victory in Michigan.
Polls, however, have showed that most Muslims support Hillary Clinton as the Democratic candidate for president. A March poll by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding found that 40 percent of Muslims favor Clinton and 27 percent favor Sanders. Another poll by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, done on March 1, also showed that most Muslims supported Clinton. Neither poll surveyed Arab Americans, the majority of whom are Christian, as a group.
Ahlam Jbara, the national Arab and Muslim director for the Sanders campaign, spoke at the event in Clifton. She said she has seen a shift toward Sanders since those polls, especially after the Democratic debate in New York in April, when Sanders sparred with Hillary Clinton over Israel and spoke sympathetically about the plight of Palestinians in Gaza.
Anam Salem, 28, a Clifton resident who attended the event, said she was glad that the campaign was paying attention to her community. ”He has definitely made an effort to reach out to Muslims and engage them and make their voices heard and address their issues — unlike other candidates, who I feel have made no effort or who have done the exact opposite by attacking the community,” she said, talking about the current and former GOP candidates who have made negative comments about Muslims.
But one person at the event said he was still undecided about who to vote for on Tuesday. He was concerned that a lack of support for Clinton would pave the way for a win by Republican Donald Trump, who he feared would persecute minorities.
James Zogby, a well-known advocate for Arab-American political engagement and rights, spoke to audience members by phone, telling them they had the chance to vote for someone who has advocated for them and “gone out on a limb” by voicing support for Palestinians. Sanders appointed Zogby to the committee that will write the Democratic Party platform.
Donna Nassor, of Hackensack, who is third-generation American with roots in Lebanon and Syria, said she supports Sanders’ positions on most issues.
“He’s not excluding Arabs, Muslims and Palestinians,” said Nassor. “He’s including them and welcoming them. That’s a good thing. Why shouldn’t their voices be heard?”
Many of the people at the event said they were concerned with ending and preventing U.S. wars in the Middle East. But Nassor and other voters said they were also inspired by issues important to all Americans, like government transparency and reducing student debt.
Source: www.northjersey.com