Why is the Green Party gaining so much traction among Muslim Americans?

Nearly 30 years ago, we registered the Green Party as a political organisation in Georgia, stating that it was our purpose "to provide an electoral tool for the grassroots movement for social justice, peace and non-violence, participatory democracy and ecological sustainability."

Now in 2024, with the carnage of war in Gaza awakening conscientious voters in the United States who oppose our nation’s support of genocide, that electoral tool is finally gaining traction.

Over the years, many have agreed with us on key issues and policy demands.

Following the 2000 campaign where we ran Ralph Nader and then lost to George W. Bush, the Democrats skipped the self-reflection and blamed the Greens.

And far too many folks who should have known better, hearing those tropes, but not our oft-repeated deconstruction of them, too often pretend that the Democratic Party will not continue to betray them.

Zionist lobby

In the US, voters often project their own hopes for public policy onto Democrats running for federal office, pretending these candidates had said things they never said (be it a promise for universal health care or for an end to a war).

They also incorrectly believe that candidates actually mean the things they say, in spite of all of the evidence of their inaction or action on the issues that matter most.

When it comes to Gaza, too many have ignored the ideological capture of our elected officials by the Zionist lobby.

Years ago, former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney said in an interview that AIPAC organisers demand she sign a pledge of fealty in support of Israel, which she refused to do.

And this year, we learned that AIPAC handlers are assigned to each Republican member of Congress. This influence no doubt shapes US policy when it comes to Israel's occupation of Palestine.

And the nearly $100 million they and their allies have spent on campaign financing, or what former President Jimmy Carter called legalised bribery, also plays a role.

Both parties complicit

During Republican administrations like those of Donald Trump, George Bush and Ronald Reagan, people who wanted peace convinced themselves that returning Democrats to power would end or at least alleviate the carnage.

But the stories piled up until it was undeniable that Democrats were also bad at peace. Recall former President Bill Clinton's time in office, during which his Crime Bill set off a wave of repercussions against Black people in the US, including many in the Muslim community.

More recently, former President Barack Obama never failed to disappoint with his drone strikes on Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia (even targeting US citizens), his expansion of the surveillance state, and his nickname of deporter-in-chief by immigrant rights groups.

President Joe Biden too fell short, given his administration's collusion with social media platforms to censor our voices, his belligerence with global leaders, his funding ($59+ billion) of Ukraine against Russia, and of course his material support ($14 billion and counting) for the state-sponsored terrorism waged against Palestine.

Yet until now, few voters were willing to abandon the Democrats. This is despite officials' disloyalty to the public, and their decision to favour policies advocated by their campaign contributors rather than the people who actually elected them to office.

Even among Greens, we have some party supporters who were with us during the 2000 presidential campaign when Nader ran for president, but their contributions and volunteer energy have dried up in the years since.

Nonetheless, they still feel entitled to call me and urge me to abandon the Green Party's work to build political power independent of the corporate parties. This time around, they do so in fear of a greater evil - ie by voting for Stein, Harris loses to Trump.

Moral clarity

It is in these moments that I feel buttressed by the moral clarity of so many Muslim American voices. Consider Dr. Hassan Abdel Salam, co-founder of the Abandon Harris campaign. He asks, "What evil could be greater than genocide?"

Or Imam Tom Facchine of the Yaqeen Institute, who reminds us that unless we are willing to walk away from the table, we are not actually negotiating.

And there's also United Kingdom-based political analyst Sami Hamdi, whose appeal to US Muslims is that we are the most powerful Muslims on the planet, and that our community around the world demands that we exercise courage on their behalf.

Both Dr. Jill Stein and her running mate Dr. Rudolph Ware have done an excellent job giving voice to our collective intention, be it as Greens or Muslims, to dismantle US imperialism.

Not only does our party demand the dismantlement of 800 US bases around the globe, but our presidential slate has consistently spoken out against the targeting of those peoples and nations in the path of the Greater Israel ambitions of the Zionist regime in Tel Aviv.

The polling numbers and campaign rhetoric of both the red team (Republicans) and the blue team (Democrats) have told us for years that most US voters choose their candidates more so to vote against their opponents, than out of any real loyalty to the other corporate party's candidate and their policies.

They even campaign acknowledging their own evil, but arguing that they somehow are entitled to our votes because their opponents are more evil.

Their refrain is that we have only two choices in this (or any) race. They would have us believe that a failure to choose the candidates chosen for us by corporate contributors is a "waste" of our vote.

They deploy any number of vote-shaming tropes to bully votes they fail to earn.

So often, except for those most loyal to their tribe, Democrats are disappointed in the modest demands of their candidates and elected officials, frustrated by their lack of backbone or willingness to challenge power, embarrassed by their lapses in integrity and even discouraged from showing up at the polls at all.

In 2000, the Muslim vote was decisive in electing George W. Bush. But Muslims abandoned Bush and his Zionist cabinet over his wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, and his rhetorical dependence on a "clash of civilizations" as justification for his war aims.

By 2004, US Muslims switched to the blue team, voting overwhelmingly for John Kerry (who lost to Bush), and then helped to elect Obama in 2008.

Leaving the Dems behind This year, polling by ISPU, CAIR, Yaqeen Institute and others point to a mass Muslim exodus from the Democrats. But very few are returning to the Republicans. Some plan to stay home. Others said they will leave the top of the ticket blank, choosing no presidential candidate.

Still others are making the switch to a third party, and usually to the Green Party. Random sample data from this past summer published by ISPU and CAIR show the Green Party's Stein (29 percent) evenly splitting the non-Trump (11 percent) Muslim vote with the blue party’s Harris (29 percent).

Yaqeen's sample of observant Muslims (79 percent make the five daily prayers) shows 53 percent support for third-party candidates.

For months now, I have been asking our Muslim friends, what sort of relationship do you seek with the Green Party - a short-term marriage of convenience, or a long-term relationship that is mutually beneficial?

And as a community, are we willing to build on values and policies supported by a majority, many of whom we may disagree with on any variety of issues?

In exchange for ensuring the democratic participation of a diversity of people in this plural culture, will we be asked to leave our religion at the door, to accept a tokenized seat at a table, to colourise a board photo, and be silent about our perspective, all while others speak for us?

Politics is our vehicle for shaping the public narrative with which positions on public policy are justified.

The United Nations was founded with a document which expressed a determination "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war."

Though only 1.3 percent of our nation's population, it is in our capacity as Muslim Americans to offer the leadership required if we are to meaningfully pursue these aspirations expressed in the UN charter.

Doing so requires our engagement in the narrative-shaping political process.

We must examine whether by changing the narrative, our tax dollars might be spent doing something other than creating humanitarian crises demanding our charity.

Elections are not supposed to be about the candidates and parties. If elections are to be a useful tool for our democratic engagement, we need a deep analysis for how we as US voters can win, and particularly how we as US voters might win on behalf of a global Ummah yearning to live in peace.

In 2024, Abandon Harris offers us such an analysis. And those of us who have built the Green Party are honoured to offer this movement an electoral vehicle for the expression of our collective cry for not only an arms embargo and another ceasefire but indeed for a lasting peace.