Hawzah News Agency - (Detroit- US) - Prior to the 2020 election, presidential candidates rarely — if ever — visited a mosque on the campaign trail. But that’s changing.
The day before he appeared onstage at Wednesday’s Democratic presidential debate, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee visited the Islamic Center of Detroit to discuss the concerns of Muslim Americans.
The round table, attended by Imams, activists, nonprofit leaders and other community members, lasted about an hour. The group discussed Inslee’s promise to dismantle the Muslim ban, his climate change agenda, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the U.S.
Zaki Barzinji, who served as White House liaison to Muslim-American communities during the Obama administration, applauded the increase in candidates visiting mosques during the run-up to 2020.
“Any attention is good attention for the community, is my perspective,” said Barzinji. “We need to figure out how to leverage that attention and shape it in a way that leads to substantive representation of our community.”
Barzinji, who is also on the board of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, pointed to new political participation figures as one of the reasons Democrats are going out of their way to host town halls with Muslim Americans.
In the last few years alone, Muslim engagement has skyrocketed. 2018 marked the blue Muslim wave, where nearly 100 American Muslims, almost all Democrats, ran for public office in the face of Islamophobic campaigns from opponents who consistently targeted candidates for their faith and identity.
Muslim turnout in four crucial swing states in particular ― Michigan, Florida, Ohio and Virginia, each with a significant Muslim population ― jumped 25 percentage points from 2014 to the 2018 midterm elections.
Like Amanullah, Barzinji said the election of Trump has thrust Muslims into the spotlight, but that there is arguably a silver lining: increasingly diverse campaign staffs who are ensuring their candidates take notice.
“In the climate that we’re in since Trump came to office, there’s been such a rush to embrace marginalized communities, Muslims being one of those marginalized communities, and so our voices have been elevated and our issues have been elevated,” said Barzinji.