A Muslim american young woman at a Sanders’ event in Dearborn

DEARBORN — Bernie Sanders won the Arab vote in Dearborn, perhaps because he campaigned hard here; or perhaps because of his call to end the blockade on Gaza and his opposition to the Iraq war. Maybe it’s his strong stance against Islamophobia or the fact that Arab Americans are a young community— and young folks of all backgrounds have been enthused about the senator from Vermont.

Although Sanders’ policies make him a natural choice for Arab Americans, mainstream media commentators were bewildered that Arab and Muslim Dearbornites voted for a Jewish candidate.

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell was adamant on pointing out that the “Jewish candidate” is carrying the “Muslim vote.” Peter Weber, a senior editor at The Week, described Dearborn’s vote as, “Just one more strange data point in an election overflowing with them.” 

Even some of Sanders’ supporters cited Dearborn’s results to portray the senator as a unifying candidate.

Dearborn activists denounced the “fuss” about Arab Americans’ support for Sanders.

Palestinian American comedian Amer Zahr, who supports Sanders, said being shocked that Arab Americans favored a Jewish candidate implies an assumption that they are anti-Semitic.

“It’s racist,” Zahr said. “It’s a long standing racist idea — that Arabs and Muslims inherently hate Jews. It’s something that we have been dealing with for a long time in our community. It’s something that has been promoted by the Israeli lobby for a very long time. It’s just false.”

Zahr said Dearborn residents showed that they don’t view candidates by their religion or ethnicity, but by their stances on the issues.

“Bernie’s policies were best for our community, and his Jewishness has nothing to do with that,” Zahr said.

Brian Stone, a candidate for state representative in Dearborn, also said it is racist to think that residents would not vote for Sanders because he is Jewish.

“It’s not fair for anyone to assume that Dearborn is anti-Semitic,” he said. “The Arab American community in general is mischaracterized.”

Stone, an openly gay Navy veteran, added that he knows from personal experience that Dearborn Arabs are not prejudiced. 

“I would never believe anybody who said Arab Americans wouldn’t vote for a candidate because of their race or some other category that they belong to,” Stone said.

He said early support for his campaign has come from Arab Americans because his advocacy for the community, not his identity.

Stone, a Hillary Clinton supporter, acknowledged that Sanders was the most vocal about Arab American issues.

“That’s why he got so much support,” the state house candidate said.

Sally Howell, an Arab American studies professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, said accusations that Arab and Muslim Americans are anti-Semitic have been used to fuel Islamophobia.

Howell said the Arab and Muslim support for Sanders is not surprising. She added that Michigan’s Arabs and Muslims had long been represented by former Senator Carl Levin, a Jewish American who served in the U.S. Senate for 36 years before retiring last year.

“People voted for Levin for generations; that wasn’t news,” Howell said.

She said despite the apparent shock that Arabs voted for a Jewish candidate, it’s simply not true that Arabs are anti-Semitic.

Arab Americans are pro-Palestine, but can draw a distinction between Zionists and Jewish Americans, Howell added.

“They go to schools where their teachers and fellow students are Jewish,” Howell said. “They live in some of the northern (Detroit) suburbs that are majority Jewish. They work with Jews on their jobs. Arabs and Jews are a part of the same community here in Michigan.”

Law professor Khaled Beydoun also voiced his frustration with headlines about the Arab vote within the context of Sanders’ Jewish faith.

“Bernie received 70 percent of our vote because he spoke to our economic, political and social circumstance,” Beydoun wrote on Facebook. “(Sanders) met with us on our turf. And explicitly addressed our community’s greatest concerns — spanning rising Islamophobia to climbing unemployment. This is why Arab and Muslim Americans voted for Bernie Sanders and pushed him past Hillary in Michigan. Not because he is, or isn’t, Jewish.”

Los Angeles-based columnist Tasbeeh Herwees wondered sarcastically if Arabs are supporting Sanders based on his policies.

“Is it perhaps possible….maybe…..there exists no inherent enmity between Arabs & Jews. maybe…….maybe that’s a racist presupposition,” she tweeted.