The Muslim Vote: Who wants it?

Arab American and Muslim voters are now facing a unique and moral dilemma. We know that we have to be part of the political process, but many of us believe that we have very few good options.

So, where do we fall? And more importantly, what do we do? And does our vote even count?

Transcript

**Transcript is auto-generated leaving room for misspelling and error**
 
Ahlan w sahlan. It's a crisp fall day here in the Lone Star State. An early in person election here in Texas started this week. The Arab American and Muslim voters are now facing a unique and moral dilemma. We know that we have to be part of the political process, but many of us believe that we have very few good options.

So, where do we fall? And more importantly, what do we do? And does our vote even count? Welcome to Yalla and Yap. My name is Lena, and I'm joined by my co hosts Mariam, Manal, Deanna .

Before we get into all that, what are our options right now? If you are a Arab American or a Muslim American, what are our options?

Lena, when you say what are our options what do you mean specifically 

we have the Democratic Party, and the candidate is Kamala Harris. There are many Muslims who do advocate for her, and who are pushing for the Muslim demographic in the United States to cast their ballots for her. And then on the flip side, you have those who are saying that we should, reject, Harris and the Democratic Party and go green third party, specifically the Green Party. then you have some that are, voting red and,  so, they're not all a monolith.

They are voting different directions

for different reasons,

Usually, even amongst us, right amongst our group, we all value certain things over others, right? So there's, some things I'm more passionate about, I'm more interested in when it comes to voting in any normal election. But I think what makes this election so unique is the timing and what's happening the world at the moment.  What's happening in Palestine. What's happening in Gaza, what's happening in Lebanon and that the candidates that we have as options at the moment, are not just not on the same, wavelength when it comes to what we want to see, or what I want to see happen 

But that would be for the Muslim Arab American voter for us. We, that would be a very front and center, topic. And I don't know if that's what a average American considers an important. Issue what I see and I, I try to watch national news and I try to keep up with what, most people say when they talk about the election and their concerns tend to be mostly focused on the economy. for the Republicans, this, immigrate, legal immigration coming in this country unabatedly and just haywire and causing, eating pets, that's the kind of obsession that seems to be overwhelming and a lot of places like in Texas.

And for me, it's like we're living in two completely different worlds, I'm watching my social media with horror in Gaza, in Lebanon. And I see this day in and day out, and I feel like this is the case for all of us. But for, my colleague at work or my kids, friends, parents at school, they're really concerned about something completely different. So I feel like there is this parallel of Americans feeling worried about different things.  My Democratic friends, a lot of them feel like This is a significant moment in our history, unprecedented because we have what they believe could be a potential upending of our democracy as we know it. and they paint this very dystopian scenario about what could happen if Trump does win. So I feel like there's a lot of different fears and concerns. And so where do we fall into all of this? Is our concern in light of all of that, really a big deal to the two big parties.

I think it is. And I think the point is not only what's happening in Palestine, but is the fact that our government is spending money that can be addressing all of these issues that our colleagues and friends and coworkers and neighbors are concerned about, why we can't address them because we're sending billions of dollars to exterminate basically a group of people across the world for whatever foreign policy we're trying to implement. And neither party is. distancing themselves or creating a new or a new plan for that foreign policy. So as long as our money is not being kept in house and is being sent for military aid across the world, then we can't expect any of these candidates to then solve our issues of the housing crisis of the the homelessness of healthcare issues of immigration. What was it that I read somewhere where it said, need to bring Congress in to approve aid to go out for the people, the hurricane survivors, you don't need congressional approval to send billions of dollars because that's okay.

We can bypass that. How does that make sense to the average American? So no, it's not. It's not an issue just across the world and very dear and near to our hearts because it's affecting our people, but it also affects us as Americans.

But do you feel like that concern is  resonating with the average American voter?

 I think after Hurricane Melton, I think it's opened up people's eyes because now they're wondering why they haven't received money, why haven't they received aid, and the response from us, Adams, has been, well, maybe you should ask your representatives where that money's going. 

 What matters most to them. And then what matters to us, it's so different. So they're going to be voting based off that when you read, just even the comment section, you'll see, the comments are like, okay Remember in November Basically that they are going to want to vote out this administration because they see that,  I would be curious to know the thoughts of the, of those who watch Fox news, what was going through their heads when they heard  Lindsey Graham outwardly saying that, yes , it's bad in North Carolina, but. Another country needs ammo for more mass slaughter, 

so this is what he says. . I've been going all over South Carolina like most people hadn't slept much. But look what's going on in Israel. Our friends in Israel are surrounded by people that want to kill them, destroy them. A second holocaust in the making and Biden says be proportional.

What is the proportional response to people who want to kill you and your family? They're running out of ammunition in Israel. That's horrible. We have to help our friends to keep the war over there from coming here. 

So I'm curious to know.   What are their thoughts? Did that change anything? So I'm always curious to hear what the other side wants. What are their priorities? and a lot , talk about restoring true American values, the family structure, that sort of thing how to implement it and some of them, I think I even heard something about, I think because Pennsylvania, I believe is a swing state. And so that one's a really critical one for both candidates. So,  who will be able to, to these voters

Some, even it comes down to, is this, what is a woman even fit? Would a woman be able to negotiate with Putin? That's a question that some of them will even ask. So it's like truly for different reasons.

So with any campaign, political campaign, especially presidential, highly contentious one, they're calculating everything to the T. And I feel like we're going back to the frustrations that we have. We have, I speak for myself, I have historically voted Democrat. And so when you see the party that you thought had some or felt like you're part of their constituency completely dismiss you dismiss what's important for us.

And they know exactly what our concerns are. And just the attitude that we're getting, they're receiving that we're receiving. I feel like that's what's making us feel. Extremely frustrated.

the most frustrating thing is we have our concerns, but we can't make the Democratic Party listen. And we haven't been able to do that, even with the last year of protesting and calling representatives and emailing them and spreading awareness about the issue. We've tried everything and it's like we're not being heard.

Okay. So I'm going to play the clip  trump is going to be worse than Biden. Let's measure it. What do you mean relative to what happened to the Palestinians? me what is so terrifying. That you are willing to forgive the genocide in Gaza. Tell me what scares you so much that you are willing step over Sidra's lifeless corpse with the legs blown off and say, excuse me, sorry, that you will step over Hind Rajab's cold corpse that was shot at times by the Israelis while she sat in the car waiting for an ambulance that was blown by Israeli tanks.

That you step over Hind Rajab's body, sorry That you would step over Reem's body. Tell me what's so terrifying. You step over Reem. That you step over the child. You can't identify this child. The head's blown off. You step over them. You step over the 240, 000 corpses to get to that ballot box. You step over all of them. You walk by the Palestinian refugees walking by. Where are you going? I'm going to the ballot box. Voting for who? You're too ashamed of us to say at that time, you walk to the ballot box, you walk over those bodies, piles and piles of those bodies in the blood. You see those kids in those images of the hospitals crushed by the rubble, their arms are hanging, blood dripping for no other crime some random people from the West said this us. You will walk all over those courses, go to the ballot box, vote for the one who did Okay. So I cut it just cause it's a pretty long clip. 

I just want to make a point that it resonates with us as

Palestinian Americans.

that resonate with other people? And again, we need to bring it back and we need to understand why. Why does it, why does that something like that mean so much as, because that's addressing maybe the Palestinian side of us

What is the American side of us, the American side of us, we preach peace to the rest of the world. We preach peace and we are the ones that come and talk to the rest of the countries of the world as if we're the ones that do no wrong. And yet this is what we're doing. As an American, to me, that doesn't sit well on my conscious when I'm coming to the ballot box. Number two, a lot of this, a lot of this couldn't have happened without American funding. American funding that is being taken away from Americans, from us as Americans in America, in order to fund a war that also directly affects the other part of me, which is the Palestinian part.    

with this election, we, we are seeing footage of the horrors that, our government is funding. But this has been happening prior to every election I understand his message and I feel his pain. We feel the pain and we can feel his pain through his words for him  it just puts into perspective. Cause it's both parties have done very disgusting things to our people. I don't think it's new. at the scale of it is insane and we are seeing it right in front of us. So it's hard to ignore. Right. But will we as Muslims ever be able to truly participate if that's the case? Because it almost seems like in almost every election,  we will be walking over these bodies to get to the ballot.  

And not just Palestinian,

That's exactly what I was talking about.  Like during Obama's administration. Right. It's always been that way. And I understand why people were so uncomfortable voting in Hillary Clinton at the time, because they knew what she was advocating for  it just puts. Us in this dilemma. 

 You're talking about that internal strife that we have. So changing foreign policy isn't going to happen overnight.  We Are becoming more and more aware we survived the Trump administration.

That is correct. His point was correct. We did survive. Right? We also survived the Bush administration, but people in Afghanistan and Iraq did not 

for us as Americans,

because we still went to the office, the ballot boxes, and we didn't vote. We voted for what we thought was a good option later.

So we went from Bush to Obama, and then Obama continued with the most, drone strikes

so then we, again, not only did we do that, we walked over those same corpses, right, and then went and voted him in again.

,

We didn't do as a Muslim community is show up in our primary elections and show up in our local elections. Last year, there was a group in Dallas that really was like out there trying to get people to show up in the primaries. And I remember speaking to one of the organizers and he was telling me, he was like, whoever comes in as the democratic primary nominee for a certain district He was like, there's a 90 percent chance that person ends up being voted in because that district is democratic.

But we, as the Muslim community didn't even show up to help pick which democratic primary nominee we thought was more in line. We just are thinking about the presidential elections. And so I really think we need to start showing up more. 

Let's listen to the flip side of the coin. We have Muslims who are saying that no, we should not abandon the Democratic Party and that we should endorse Kamala Harris and let's play that clip by Mehdi Hassan. Yeah.

a lot of people are criticizing, uh, Muslims who support Harris. The Green Party now has a vice presidential candidate who is Muslim. Butch Ware, he was on this show recently on Instagram. He called you quote, beyond reprehensible. He said about you after you praised a group of Somali community leaders for endorsing Harris



He has also suggested that Muslims who vote for Harris are not proper Muslims. They're hypocrites. I don't know who this person is, um, but clearly, um, it is wrong, uh, for a candidate to, um, characterize the people who are opposed to them or supporting them. There are opponent in the ways in which, uh, he has done, and you know, I was born Muslim, I will die Muslim, and I do not have a qualifier to my muslimness that I worry about.

There are a couple of Muslim representatives in the Democratic Party who are in Congress, and I do think that they have a unique position, and we don't really know what's going on behind the scenes to really judge them for the things, the position that they're taking. That's just, for me, a disclaimer. Maybe they promised them protection, maybe they prom you know, we don't know, so just to keep in mind.

 But then it also begs the question, do they need our vote? Because that's another topic.

If they did, they're not trying very hard to get it.

Yeah, 

but that's what I'm saying. Right.

 Do they need our vote? Right. So if they are truly concerned about Trump winning and what have you, and they know that there are not just Muslims and Arab it's a whole. A group of people that are, mass slaughter. Genocide is a red line for me. It's a deal breaker. I'm not voting you in. Are you really, are they really trying that hard or are they just factoring in the fact that they will be losing those voters? 

But we're not wanna we don't make that cut. They're trying to appeal to black, male voters. They're trying to appeal to white, suburban, Republican voters, using the abortion to kinda get them on their side. she's in Michigan right this week, she's in Michigan. She has an opportunity to say hey, let me get these Arab Americans to support me I know exactly what's bothering them. And what has she done?

Listen, the Green Party, even some of their political views are not in line with some of the political views that I might have. Right? Um, The, my choice to vote green in a very red state is to make a statement. It is to make a statement that I hope five, 10 years down the line, when the next election is up, is coming up, that they run a statistic.

On to try to figure out how significant our vote was, and then hopefully realize that we went green. And when we all go in a certain direction, we know that Butch Ware and Jill Stein aren't going to win. We know that,

but what we're talking about, how we need to start influencing the change in local elections.

This is our. Only way of protest. This is our way of making our voices heard, because if we vote Republican, it's going to be lost and muffled and no one's going to know anything about it. And if we vote Democrat. It's going to be the same, especially in a red state like ours, we have the luxury of living in a red state to send out a message. we spoke about this and we said how there was, what was it like a few years ago, they started talking about how Texas can potentially start moving to a purple state. Was it that was the terminology that was used? We are a big reason as to why that we were going to push a purple state. Guess what?

We're going to move you 10 steps backwards this year because we're going green and you

need to understand that. Then if you didn't make space for us in this election, you better best make space for us in the next

maybe hasn't? this very train of thought he says this is what you guys are thinking, but that's not how it works Do you know that clip that I'm talking about the first video that he came out? 

And that clip, the way it was aggressive, it seemed condescending. Like you guys don't know what you're doing. And that was the attitude that bothered me personally. 

It's the shaming.

Yes. A hundred percent. I totally agree with you there.

I think it's what's frustrating about this election and what was frustrating me about people who were like, go vote blue no matter what.

Before she even made a statement,

it was

The shaming people, like what you were saying, Lina, and to voting this party, just don't think about anything else.

We don't want Trump in an office, just vote blue. But it's like, wait, but wait a minute.

This administration is funding mass slaughter of our people, like of people, like in a level that's like, More than we've ever seen in a lifetime in front of our faces and footage, you know,

what do you mean, but, but they're funding this, but it's like, but don't think about that right now.

We'll talk about it later. Just vote for it. Vote for this person. 

It seemed like the American people knowing that our taxes were funded, taxes were funding this, we're becoming a little more radicalized and wanting,

I don't know, some sort of revolution, if you will, you know, we're not going to tolerate this, that Biden out. We're going to make a change. We're not going to allow our government to continue this, to perpetuate these horrid crimes,

and stay an ally, you know? So it's like, now they drop Biden, switch them out. And all of a sudden, yeah, now we're gonna, now we're going to see change. Like, okay, now we're okay.

But it's like, I thought we were all in this together. Like, cause imagine a world where those same people who were outraged all voted green, for example. You know, imagine the impact, but it's like there was a, there's a split. And for some people, it wasn't the red line after all. It wasn't, it wasn't the deal breaker. Um, because they're, you know, thinking about their wellbeing in this country.  

This is a message to the two main parties in the U. S. who are running, which are Republican and Democrat. I'm not, I mean, Trump  moved the U.

S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. That was a big move 

recognized the Golan Heights, right? So that's another really big thing that happened. I'm not saying by my vote for green that I am endorsing Trump and it's not fair for anybody to tell me 

that. You can't tell me because I am not voting Democrat that I am voting Republican.

I do not agree with Trump's policies. I am against the racism that he spews, and I not stand with what he has already done for Palestinians and for the Middle East in the moment. Right? And at the moment, until now. 

How, how do you guys feel when, when, when you're called two things, you were to say, you know, I'm not voting for Harris, how you're called, um, selfish and or a single issue voter

 I don't really necessarily see it as a single issue vote because this is affecting everything. It's affecting aid that citizens in this country are getting or not getting. It's affecting a lack of educational resources for our children in public school. It's affecting healthcare decisions and dropping The cost of certain medications that should be affordable to all Americans.

 I agree with you, um, Manal, that is, this one, this single issue, quote unquote, is encompassing a bunch of other issues. 

just sending weapons. It's the foreign interference in our political system, the fact that they can buy out politicians, they can remove politicians by the opposing candidate that does not, um, that represents their interests. And these are very big anti democratic, anti progressive values.

And I think that this Gaza war also was another watershed moment because it made us see. 

The hypocrisy, and I feel like that, Became a lot more obvious, glaringly obvious this past year, because we already have our expectations about the Trump's party. We already know what to expect. We know what the racism, we know all of that, but we had some hope and faith for the Democratic party. Which I voted previously for, which I thought represented me a little bit more than the other party, but. It now seems like they're almost neck and neck exactly the same. Maybe

Well, can you talk a little bit more about why you thought historic, because I also voted Democrat. Um, why is it that Muslims were voting Democrat for the past few terms? Even though maybe traditionally our values don't align, 

So Republican party was in charge of the Patriot act was in charge of. Everything post nine 11 Iraq, Afghanistan. and they were very much marginalizing. They were, we had people that were being picked up and like thrown into prisons.  We had phones that were being tapped. Like were under a microscope, right. 

And so. Later, people were like, no, we're going to the, the democratic party, in my opinion, was very smart. They picked up on that and decided that they were going to address us and they were going to advocate for like these equal rights for everybody. And so we started shifting Democrat 

I think also we've

always been, we've always been given

two options and one was always much worse than the other. And I think that's been the dichotomy that we had two choices, and one was and the other one was just bad. I've been so disappointed, I totally forgot why I was voting Democratic. But it's because it was a party that was more inclusive, it wanted us to be represented. 



circle back to our discussion about voting. So, I don't know what organization put out

a list of recommended candidates to vote, um, on the ballot. Come this week for election. and I don't know if anyone has it pulled up, but even if you wanted to go green party for the presidential candidate, the other, almost all of the other candidates were going to be recommended to go straight 

ticket democratic. 

What do you guys thoughts are on that? 

We need to do our research. Right off the bat, looking at that list, Colin Allred is on that.

Colin Allred,  was,  a city coun a city member of, Richardson, . Now he's running for Senator against Ted Cruz.  There's a big, um, Muslim community in the Richardson area and district, where he was campaigning initially.  He, he tried leveraging that Muslim vote. He did get there, That Muslim vote, he, did become the rep that district and then He abandoned the Muslims once he was in his, um, he didn't call for a ceasefire.

He didn't, um, he wasn't. In line with a lot of the things that the Muslims were asking for. And so now we're again, up against the wall it's like, are we going to pick Ted Cruz, who is very much anti

Muslim

So this impact action

Do you know them? Are you guys familiar with who they are? 

sent to this by someone who is more aware and has heard of them. And my understanding is that they vetted this list and put a majority of the people who have already asked for a ceasefire.

 And it's good to be able to use these cheat sheets right now, but let's keep this in mind. the future. Because all of these that we're voting for right now, other than the president, we could have had a bigger say in if we had a higher turnout during our primary votes, and the Muslim community just did not show up in the primary vote just in more. Do you guys remember when He was running for district.  And they were campaigning for him. He was calling for a ceasefire. He was very pro Palestinian and. We just didn't show up like there was a map where you could actually look at the palette of the Muslim voters in your area and like it would turn green or yellow, whether they voted or not, regardless of who they voted for and people were still yellow,

wow.

 Many more you're talking about voting primaries for the US or for Texas? Specifically or local like city or even your

school. I think there's so many layers.   How involved are

You in your kids schools? For example, if you have kids in public

 I try to do my best to volunteer. I'm a working mom. I can't be on the PTA and dedicate my time, even though I would love to be. But my, with the time constraints that I have, I do my best to be up there for chaperoning. I do that. I try to be there for field day. I try to be there for any of the other activities. I want to be a representative of my religion.

I want my daughters to see that their mom is a strong woman who is out there and ready

you need to be active in your school. You need to be volunteering. When they're asking for donations for the teacher luncheon, we need to be sending out, we need to be showing our generosity as Muslims. We need to be there.   

We had two two local members. They were running for city council. So I was on the committee to help gain. Votes for them and they could barely get the minimum to even qualify as a nominee. 

 It was difficult just to see if Arabs and Muslims were registered to vote. Like they didn't even know, or if they were qualified, they didn't want to. And I don't understand why. They don't want to. I don't know if they're scared I don't know if they think there's going to be repercussions against them.

It's just very hard to get our people involved.

I think for a lot of, um, I think for a lot of our people, how we define it, they're kind of looking at what's affecting them day to day, right? And I feel like a lot of immigrant families and second generation, like, that's something that, well, it's not me.  know, they care more their taxes that they have to pay or, you know, how much the rise of cost, like inflation. And that's why there was a study that we were talking about the other day, Manab, about the Arab American Institute. And felt like that was a very misleading article. Like, If I'm in a campaign, I'm trying to see what the Arab American thinks, and I go pull up the Arab American Institute polling, it said their number one concern, Arab Americans number one concern, although that is important to them, their number one concern is the economy. So I can kind of see like maybe they're misled because they think that truly more important to us than funding a war in Gaza and Lebanon.

don't know that it's that. I think that here are first generation American. And I think we need to do a study as to, what the difference in vote, like, are the people in Michigan showing up? You know, those are third, Are they showing up to their elections and their primaries?

And are they out there in their schools?

And so when dissecting why in Dallas, we don't see that, but for example, we see a ton of people show up. Like we see how many, there's like what three aid prayers at epic alone. we see that they are fully packed, so we know our we know that we are strong in numbers.

We know that we have a we have a presence. we used to say before that our parents were still being that we're still getting their citizenships.

They didn't have the right to vote. They were just heads down, trying to survive. And making sure that their kids are not losing their Palestinian or their Muslim identities, right? We, as a first generation group. like, okay, we're back. We're past that. We now have the tools to make sure to maintain our Muslim and Palestinian identities. And what do we do to help change the environment that we work, that we live in for the better. But I think the Dallas community specifically has an increase of people that are not first generation Americans who are gone, are going back and are being like our parents in a sense of we're still trying to become American.

We're still trying to figure out how to keep our identity. so maybe we have more work to do as first generation Americans to educate, to promote and to go out and convince people the importance of voting

regardless.

Meriem, we have been

doing that. And I feel like, actually, I feel like I'm going the opposite direction. I used to think there was a lot more hope. I used to feel like we can change things that when I was in college, I thought by the time I'm my age today. my mid thirties, that things would be much better that we all that hard work.

We did. I went to school,  learned political science, international studies. They got a master's in journalism. I was going to be became a journalist and I, I wrote and I wrote and I advocated not just me, a lot of people, and there is awareness. Look at the college campuses back in the spring. There 

is awareness. We did do our part. We did not fail them, and they're So, I don't know if it's

because we're not voting and we're not doing

our part. I feel like there is just so many things that are just not going to change from us alone. And that's the and I think that's the that we're feeling, is like all of that that we did.

And in the end, it's never been this bad in our lifetime. Things are actually much worse than they were. 

I was I was also very hopeful to see that there would be more unity and understanding among different groups and wanting to learn and more curiosity and the more we get involved The more we're able to be accepted and seen as equal and what we're seeing now, unfortunately, in this past year is, uh, at the end of the day, People are going to see you as a certain way.

They're going to reduce you to this one ethnicity or this one background, and they're going to dehumanize you. And they're going to dehumanize people who look like you. And they're never going to value their lives. Like they do their own, they're never going to value the lives of people who are like us as they would their own. 

 We've been trying to, we, we tried to vote and get engaged, but then it's like, was it always like this? 

I think our generation is showing up, but it's not enough. We have more and more Americans that have come, come into Americans, right, that are now able to vote, that are not exercising that right to vote. 

Exercise your right to vote. 

You are given a couple of times a year where you have direct influence into the change in our country and you don't show go out and express your right, your, your, your right to vote. And then let's start moving. Let's start thinking about the next four years. Let's start thinking about the next two years when we have our local elections. Let's start working. From from within. I do have hope in the generation to come by the way, these Gen Zers. 

They're great. They're the ones showing up at

college 

campuses. We didn't 

have

it. We didn't have that. we were very scared. We were. were very worried. And they are the even second generation Americans or the younger. of the first generation Americans, right? Like our younger siblings. there is hope, but we also have a huge number that can be voting right now 

that are, that we're not tapping into.

So rather than it taking five years, rather than it taking another 20 years, it might only take 10 or five. If we can mobilize the space and get 

it to show up. 

a hundred percent. I, I, think I, was more speaking to those who may feel the same way as I was,  but you are absolutely correct that we can't, we can't give up. And. To your point that you made earlier about sending a message, I think, especially if you're living in, in Texas and a red state, send that message in the way that we are able to. 

This is our little protest vote, right? So this is what we're doing. It's a, very discouraging to be scrolling on our algorithms, like you're mentioning and seeing our people be slaughtered and feel like we are funding it personally, we all have, taxes that are going into this. And so it's very discouraging. What can we do? is it that we can do to have our voices heard? It feels like you're screaming into a void. It feels like on the daily, we're screaming in to avoid, no one's listening to us. So how do we make sure that when five, 10 years down the line, we look back and we say, we did something to make sure that our voices were heard.

And again, it's hard for me to say for someone in Michigan, what to do. I would never preach to someone in a swing state like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia. that's a lot to take on. That's a responsibility, but we live in Texas. It's red, 

 And also, for for those of us who have children, I feel like this is a very important thing that you want your kids to see, that you are part of this society. You're not removed from it, you're going to vote. And for me personally, I love taking my kids and show them this is where we vote. Here are the candidates.

You know, You 

want them to be informed at a young

age.

a great idea. 

yeah, I usually take my kids to vote and I let them press the button for me.

And then I let them wear a little sticker too.

oh, yeah. Yeah, you can ask for extra stickers. My kids like stickers. So any final thoughts before we wrap this very interesting 

discussion? 

Show up and vote. Use that right that you have. Exercise it. luxury. 

Then feel confident with your vote. Don't feel pressured voting one way or the other. Just 

know your facts And vote accordingly. We're not shaming anybody. 

And if you're, 

if you're not in a swing state, 

vote with your conscience. 

That's what I'm doing. Not, not repeating 2016 

again. That's for sure.

Our producer just sent us a message saying that Trump is leading Harris among Arab Americans, the poll suggests by Al Jazeera.

So Al Jazeera.

basically is reporting that Trump is, um, leading within the Arab vote. 

all right. Well, good luck to this country. 

Let's end it on that note. Thanks for joining us and tune in next time. Make  📍 sure to subscribe and share