Muslim Americans’ Choice for President Must Be Joe Biden

As a proud Muslim American, I know this election’s most important issue for our community is ending President Trump’s travel and refugee bans, the egregious “Muslim bans.”

I also know there’s only way to stop Trump’s bigotry: by voting him out of office. Michiganders have many candidates in the March 10 Democratic primary to choose from, but now is the time to pick a leader with executive branch experience who we’ve trusted for a long time.

That person is Vice President Joe Biden.

My wife and I are proud to call Joe and Jill Biden our friends. But our respect for Joe Biden goes much deeper than friendship. Four years ago, as his time as vice president was nearing an end, Biden easily could have taken a pass on going after Trump. But he stood with us.

Biden said about Trump’s ideas: “Wielding the politics of fear and intolerance — like the proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States, profiling Muslim Americans, slandering entire religious communities as complicit in terrorism, calls into question America’s status as the greatest democracy in the history of the world.”

In this campaign, Biden has stated that anti-Muslim bias hurts our economy, betrays our values and can serve as a powerful terrorist recruiting tool. Prohibiting Muslims from entering the country is morally wrong, and there is no intelligence or evidence that suggests that it makes our nation more secure. Biden says the ban is yet another abuse of power by the Trump Administration designed to target primarily black and brown immigrants.

We’re all threatened by Trump’s actions, yet there are differences in how we think we should defeat him. Like any group of religious people, Muslims hold a variety of views on something as important as choosing a Democratic presidential nominee. Sen. Sanders has significant support, but almost one-third support Biden; he’s in second place for Muslim American support.

Let me share a few specific reasons why Biden is a better choice for Muslims:

• Biden, despite enormous hurdles, remains the strongest candidate against Trump in the general election. Friends, now is not the time to take a chance on radical ideas or the flavor of the month. Look at what Trump did to us in these four years; we have no margin for error.
• More than 15% of Michigan’s medical doctors are Muslim. Experts say Sanders’ nationalized health care plan would result in a 40% cut in payments to doctors. Biden wants to build on the Affordable Care Act by giving Americans more choice, reducing health care costs and making our health care system less complex to navigate.
• Muslims own over 35,000 businesses in the Wolverine State. I owned a small business and worked hard with my team every day to make it a success. I can tell you Biden is for the small businessman; Sanders is not. The Chamber of Commerce gives Sanders a very low 19% on business policy.

In 1796 President John Adams said, “The United States of America…has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims.”

This is the tradition we must preserve this year.

Joe Biden has worshipped with Muslims; he understands and respects our culture, our conscious and our heritage. Biden will work across the aisle, as he has done before, to get legislation passed that will benefit all Americans — including Muslim Americans.

I urge you to join me, Khizr Khan and other Muslim Americans in supporting Joe Biden.