New Black Muslim group wants to put pressure on Biden — but not abandon him
A new national organization called the Black Muslim Leadership Council is hoping to pressure elected officials, including President Joe Biden, to call for a permanent ceasefire in the Middle East.
WASHINGTON — A new national organization called the Black Muslim Leadership Council is hoping to pressure elected officials, including President Joe Biden, to call for a permanent cease-fire in the Middle East. Details of the group were shared first with NBC News.
But the organization is also making clear that many of its members are focused on U.S. domestic challenges and do not support abandoning the president at a time when a movement by another group of Muslims is pushing to do just that.
Salima Suswell, founder and chief executive of the Black Muslim Leadership Council, said the group will be focused both on the thousands of civilians killed in Gaza during the war between Israel and Hamas, and on domestic issues such as mobilizing voters in swing states and pushing lawmakers to lay out policies to improve the lives of Black Muslims living across the United States.
Biden is facing a backlash for his refusal to demand a permanent cease-fire in the war, and other Muslim groups are seeking to grow an effort they have dubbed “abandon Biden,” which calls for people not to support the president at the ballot box in uncompetitive primaries and potentially in the fall election.
“I am focused on building and definitely not abandoning,” Suswell said. “I believe that we need to continue to have open dialogue and conversations because this is how democracy works. And so, my duty first is to my community, and it is my job to fight for my community to ensure that the government is working for us. And so Biden, along with every other political leader at home and globally, needs to hear what we need as a community right now.”
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