Muslims voted for Trump outraged by his pro-Israel cabinet picks By Reuters

Written by Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – American Muslim leaders who supported Republican Donald Trump while protesting the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon are deeply disappointed by his cabinet nomination, they told Reuters.

“Trump won because of us and we are not happy about his secretary of state and others,” said Rabiul Chowdhury, a Philadelphia investor who chaired the Abandon Harris campaign in Pennsylvania and founded Trump’s Muslims.

Muslim support for Trump helped him win Michigan and may have swept into other swing states, strategists believe.

Trump chose Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a staunch supporter of Israel, for Secretary of State.

Earlier this year, Rubio said he would not call for a ceasefire in Gaza, and believed Israel should destroy “all elements” of Hamas. “These people are cruel animals,” he added.

Trump also appointed Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas and a pro-Israel conservative who supports Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and called the two-state solution in Palestine “unworkable”, as the next ambassador to Israel.

He chose Republican representative Elise Stefanik, who called the UN a “cesspool of antisemitism” for its condemnation of the deaths in Gaza, to serve as the US ambassador to the United Nations.

Rexinaldo Nazarko, executive director of the American Muslim Engagement and Empowerment Network (AMEEN), said Muslim voters had hoped that Trump would choose cabinet officials who worked for peace, and there are no signs of that.

“We are very disappointed,” he said.

“It looks like this administration is full of neoconservatives and extreme pro-Israel, pro-war people, which is a failure on the part of President Trump, in an organization that promotes peace and is anti-war.”

Nazarko said that the community will continue to press to make their voices heard for ending the war in Gaza. “At least we’re on the map.”

Hassan Abdel Salam, a former professor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and co-founder of the Abandon Harris campaign, which endorsed Green Party candidate Jill Stein, said Trump’s plans for workers are not surprising, but they are extremely alarming.

“It’s like going into Zionist overdrive,” he says. “We’ve always been very skeptical … Obviously we’re still waiting to see where the administration will go, but it looks like our community has been played.”

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Many of Trump’s Muslim and Arab supporters said they hoped that Richard Grenell, the former acting director of national intelligence, would play an important role after leading the Muslim and Arab American communities for months, and was introduced as the next secretary of state. at events.

Another important Trump ally, Massad Boulos, the Lebanese father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany, met several times with Arab American and Muslim leaders.

Both promised Arab American and Muslim voters that Trump is a man of peace who will act quickly to end wars in the Middle East and beyond. No one was immediately found.

Trump made several visits to cities with large Arab American and Muslim populations, including stops in Dearborn, a major Arab city, where he said he liked Muslims, and in Pittsburgh, where he called Trump’s Muslims “a good movement. They want peace. They want stability.”

Bill Bazzi, the mayor of the neighboring city of Dearborn Heights, who supported Trump, said that he met the president-elect three times and still believes that he will work to end the war, even though the Cabinet has been appointed.

Rola Makki, Lebanese American, vice chair of Muslim relations for the Michigan Republican Party, agreed.

“I don’t think everyone will be happy with all of Trump’s nominations, but the result is what matters,” he said.

“I know that Trump wants peace, and what people have to understand is that there are 50,000 dead Palestinians and 3,000 dead Lebanese, and that happened during the current administration.”