Soon after Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders won the Michigan primary and it was revealed that Sanders had won the vast majority of the Arab and Muslim vote in Michigan, the mainstream American media was in a frenzy. They could not understand how Bernie Sanders, a Jew, could win the votes of the majority of the Muslim population in Michigan which is home to one of the largest concentrations of Muslims per capita in the United States.
According to the provincial view of the mainstream media, it is believed that Muslims have a hatred towards Jews so how can they support a Jew. This is a misconception that has been pushed on the American populace in order to make the American population believe that the Muslims namely the Arabs and Jews have been fighting ever since the time of Ishmael and Isaac. This is in fact not true and is part of the propoganda that has been pushed in order to demonize Muslims and Palestinians to allow for the annexation of Palestinians in their native lands.
Before 1948, it is well known from people that are from Palestine that the Muslims and Jews actually lived in peace with each other. This is not the only time in history that the Muslims and Jews have coexisted and lived in peace with each other. Salahadeen, the great general of the Third Crusade had as his personal physician, a Jew. Also in Andalusia it was very common for Jewish and Muslims to write books of medicine, art, music, and other arts together, collaborating and benefiting with each other in the pursuit of knowledge.
Also when the Christians were expelling the Jews from Europe the Jews actually went to the Ottoman Empire for protection where they were able to flourish and live life peacefully. They were even allowed the use of their own courts to settle disputes. With the knowledge of this history, it has always been problematic to modern day Muslims that they have been cast by the American media as a group that just hates and slaughters Jews when this is not the case.
This brings me to Bernie Sanders.
I am an American Muslim and I can say 100% that every Muslim that I know personally supports Bernie Sanders. Upon further observation this makes perfect sense.
Bernie Sanders has a message of unity. He has spoken out against the rampant Islamophobia that most GOP candidates used in order to gain more support. The worse things that the GOP candidates would say to demonize Muslims, the more popular they became in the GOP race. In order to be a factor within the GOP the GOP candidate must use scapegoats to be the cause of all American problems and the solution is to stop Muslims from entering the country.
Dr. Ben Carson was the first to use Islamophobia for his gain. He said that a Muslim should not be allowed to be the President of the United States because they are loyal to Sharia law and not to the Constitution.
Donald Trump was next. This man has suggested that all Muslims be banned from the USA. That they should wear identifying markers, and would even consider putting us in concentration camps.
Marco Rubio, seen as the establishment candidate of the GOP has stated that the Muslims and Arabs hate us because of our freedoms. Either he does not know or does not care that Muslims and Arabs in general are sick of seeing their countries bombed in the name of Democracy while their resources are being taken. The view overseas is that all Americans want to kill all Arabs. This is due to Fox News and other media sources giving platforms to Islamophobes like Ann Coulter making statements such as, “Convert all Muslims to Christians in the Muslim world starting with their leaders, and if they do not convert, kill them”.
Hillary Clinton, the current favorite to win the Democratic nomination is not liked or respected in the Muslim world. Everyone overseas knows very well that she was behind giving weapons to terrorist groups to dispose of leaders that she did not agree with. Case in point is the late leader of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi. He had renounced WMD’s and was working towards having a better relationship with the West. However it is believed overseas that he was collecting gold in order to create a unified central African Bank and to make all African currencies to be based on a gold standard. This was seen as a threat to the establishment, so he had to go.
Hillary is also seen as very dishonest, that she is not sincere. She has a persona about her as a woman that only cares about power and will lie, kill, and do anything in order to maintain this power. A Google search of the Clinton body count of the Clinton family associates that have died of mysterious causes will show this.
When the American embassy in Benghazi was attacked, Hillary Clinton had blamed it on a video made about the Prophet. She did not say that there was in fact never an embassy or consulate in Benghazi, but was actually a CIA station. The American Ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens was giving weapons to terrorist groups, which upset a lot of Libyans.
Bernie Sanders is seen by me and other Muslims as a man with integrity. He has a track record of fighting for the people going back his entire political career. His message has always been the same, to take the power away from the corporations to influence American politics and instead give it back to who should have the power, the people.
His ethnicity does not matter to me or to any Muslim that I know. We do not care that he is Jewish. What we care about is the integrity of the candidate and where his loyalty lies. His loyalty has been with the American people regardless or ethnicity, socio-economic background, or religion. He never belittled us because we were Muslim. He never demonized us, but gave us the respect that we deserve as Americans and as fellow human beings.