Popular Detroit Muslim leader ejected from Kamala Harris rally

The Kamala Harris campaign kicked out a prominent Muslim Democrat from the vice president’s rally in Royal Oak on Monday, further driving a wedge between the Democratic Party and Arab and Muslim Americans.

Ahmed Ghanim, a Democrat, says he accepted an invitation to the event and was seated in the Royal Oak Music Theatre when a campaign organizer ordered him to leave.

“She took me to the door, and she closed it, and I found two police officers waiting there, and she said, ‘You have to leave right now,’” Ghanim tells Metro Times. “I asked why she was kicking me out. She wouldn’t answer. I was very calmly asking why I was being kicked out.”

He continues, “I was just wearing a suit and a white shirt. I said, ‘OK,’ and I left. The police officer said, ‘You either leave now or I’ll put you in the back of my car.’”

Ghanim, who immigrated to the U.S. from Egypt in 2001 and is vehemently opposed to U.S. support for Israel’s military actions, says he still has been given no reason why he was removed from the event.

Ahmed Ghanim is a Democrat and popular Muslim rights activist.

Ghanim became popular among progressives and other factions after co-founding Metro-Detroit Political Action Network, a group that formed after the inauguration of Donald Trump. The network rallied against Trump’s Muslim travel ban and branched out to fight other racial, environmental, and economic injustices.

In August, Ghanim lost in the Democratic primary election to U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, a third-term moderate Democrat who has been a staunch supporter of Israel. Pro-Israel groups, some of them funded by Republican megadonors, have lavished her with political donations.

Over the past four years, United Democracy Project, a political action committee affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), spent more than $4 million on ads in support of Stevens, according to campaign finance records. The ads make no mention of Israel.

In an interview with Metro Times in May, Ghanim criticized Stevens as “genocide enabler.”

He repeatedly called on Democrats to be more welcoming to Muslim and Arab Americans and said there’s plenty of room in the party for diverse opinions on Israel’s conduct.

Ghanim says he and many other Muslims feel alienated by the Democratic Party and that Harris’s campaign will be impacted by it.

“They keep saying they want the Muslims and the Arabs, but we aren’t even welcome at an event,” Ghanim says. “They know me. I ran there. It’s my district. I canvassed all over Royal Oak.”

He adds, “If that happened to me, imagine what would happen to any other Muslim.”

Ghanim posted about his experience on social media and said a lot of Muslim and Arab Americans are angry with Democrats because of it.

“There are hundreds of Muslims who saw that, and they feel like they are unwelcome in this party, so why bother?” Ghanim says.

At a campaign rally in the Detroit area this summer, Harris shut down antiwar protesters, saying, “I am speaking now. … If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that, otherwise I’m speaking.” Leaders from the Uncommitted Movement, a group formed in Michigan that aims to pressure the Democratic Party to change course on Israel, also said Harris repeatedly declined to meet with them, causing them to refrain from offering her an endorsement.

And at the Democratic National Convention in August, the party refused to let Georgia state Representative Ruwa Romman speak at the convention. A Palestinian American and Democrat, Romman was forced to give her speech from a sit-in protest outside the convention.

Meanwhile, Trump visited Hamtrack’s Muslim leaders last week in an effort to win over Arab American voters. Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib, a Muslim immigrant from Yemen who campaigned on banning LGBTQ+ pride flags from city property, endorsed Trump in September.

“Trump was in Hamtramck eating with the Muslims with traditional Yemeni food,” Ghalib says. “That’s the difference between the two campaigns in Michigan.”

Muslim and Arab Americans have a large population in southeast Michigan, and many of them are refusing to support Harris because of her support of Israel, which has spent the past year launching U.S.-backed attacks throughout the Middle East, including on Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran, killing more than 40,000 people and stoking fears of a widening regional war.

The Michigan chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI), a leading Muslim advocacy group, spoke out about Ghanim’s treatment at the event.

“As Donald Trump ramps up his outreach to the Muslim and Arab communities, the Harris campaign removes, under threat of arrest, a Muslim community leader who merely responded to an invitation,” Basim Elkarra, Executive Director of CAIR Action, added. “This disturbing action on the part of the Harris campaign sends a dangerous message of exclusion to the Muslim community.”

In a statement late Monday afternoon, the Harris campaign didn’t say why Ghanim was removed but said he’s welcome at future events.

“The campaign was swiftly informed by Emgage Action of yesterday’s incident and looked into it,” the statement reads, referring to a Muslim American advocacy group. “Our campaign regrets this action and its impact on Dr. Ghanim and the community, and he is welcome at future events. We value our relationship with the Muslim American community and are committed to ensuring all community and political spaces are welcoming and respectful to every American.”