Emgage, a leading Muslim electoral advocacy group, has decided to endorse the Democratic Presidential nominee, urging Muslims to save democracy and defeat fascism in the forthcoming November elections. Indeed, in its view, Kamala is the best defender of democracy at present compared with the party of Abraham Lincoln, who believed that people are at their best when free.
The Emgage decision was not made in isolation. Over the past several months, the Democratic Party leadership has actively engaged with influential Muslim leaders to seek their endorsement.
Will Emgage's decision save democracy? Emgage believes that Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin Muslims will respond to its call and vote for Kamala in the White House.
Emgage is not a democratic group. It has no mass membership of Muslims who elect its leaders and recommend its policies. It is a group of a few Muslims with divergent views serving different aspirations and agendas of their donors, some of whom happen to be staunch Democrats. They do not represent Muslims and their electoral aspirations.
The group's decision is neither moral nor political. It reflects the loyalty of its leaders to the Democratic Party based on personal and subjective analysis.
It is immoral because it ignores the fundamental value system that makes a Muslim. Human dignity and rights are essential to Islam's core values. The Democratic Party, in general, has been supportive of the illegal occupation of Palestine by Israel and ongoing genocide. Trump's party is not behind the Democrats in cheering the bloodshed of innocent people. However, it does not make either of them lesser evil.
Emgage could have avoided endorsing anyone, leaving it to the conscience of Muslim citizens to make their own choices. Muslim American voters are educated and concerned about democracy and their faith. By staying neutral in its decision to endorse Kamala, Emgage could have shown some respect to the community it claims to advocate for.
The decision is also questionable from a political perspective. Most Democrats receive significant donations from lobbies, including the ones supportive of genocide. Assuming that the party would endorse people-oriented policies is self-deceptive naivety. The leaders' priority is serving lobbies and their financial backers, not the people who vote for them.
Through its decision, Emgage reinforces the corrupt system that has turned democracy into an oligarchy. Its neutrality could have provided better political education to the community. Yet, it chose to be part of the circle of evil, the root cause of the people's declining power.
Muslims are capable of making their independent decisions without the advice of groups and individuals who want to act as their brokers without any brokerage license.
Let this election prove that the Muslim community is politically mature and morally sound to act in the best interest of its country and faith. Let the community on November 5th declare through its electoral rights that it rejects brokers and knows the meaning of independence in its real sense.
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