Biden officials meet with Muslim and Arab American community leaders in Michigan
Biden administration officials traveled to Dearborn, Michigan Thursday for private meetings with Muslim and Arab American community leaders.
Biden administration officials traveled to Dearborn, Michigan, Thursday for private meetings with Muslim and Arab American community leaders, as the president seeks to repair relations with a key constituency upset about his support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
Abbas Alawieh, a Lebanese American and a Democratic strategist, said he was honored to attend the meetings alongside members of the Palestinian American community who advocated for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war and for ending military funding to Israel.
But he described it as a somewhat frustrating process. He added that two of the attendees currently have family members stuck in Gaza.
“The meeting was very tense at different times. There was crying at different times, there was yelling at certain times,” said Alawieh, who used to be Democratic Rep. Cori Bush’s chief of staff. “I think we certainly found that among the senior officials who were there, my impression was that they were interested in a meaningful back and forth, but also that they were not authorized to deliver meaningfully on any of the demands, the primary demands that the community came in with.”
More than half of Dearborn residents are of Middle Eastern or North African descent.
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