US Politics |OT|

[SvennoJ]

Harris to meet handpicked Muslim supporters in Michigan

US Vice President and Democratic party candidate Kamala Harris will hold a private meeting with Muslim advocates in Flint, Michigan, north of Detroit, later today, multiple local sources have told Al Jazeera.

The meeting will be attended by members of Emgage, a Muslim-American political group that has faced criticism for endorsing Harris despite her pledge to continue to arm Israel as the US ally bombs Lebanon, Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Yemen.

President Joe Biden and Harris have seen their support in Arab and Muslim American communities plummet over their unwavering support for Israel despite well-documented abuses by the Israeli military in Gaza and across the region.

Some community advocates have slammed the White House’s approach of holding off-the-record meetings with unknown Arab and Muslim attendees without changing its “ironclad” backing of Israel.

Hussein Dabaja, a Lebanese-American political consultant in the Detroit area, decried the lack of transparency around such meetings.

He said the Harris campaign is “afraid” to have an open dialogue with representatives of the community, so it is reverting to behind-closed-doors meetings to appear like it is listening to Arab and Muslim Americans.

“It’s a meeting just to check off the headline. There’s no actual substance behind it,” Dabaja told Al Jazeera. “It’s unfortunate that the people meeting with them believe after one year of our people getting massacred that these fake meetings are still going to do it.”