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Arab and Muslim candidates key to outcome of US midterm elections

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Dr. Mehmet Oz, a Muslim TV medical personality of Turkish heritage, is the Republican candidate in Pennsylvania’s Senate race. (AFP)
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Updated 06 November 2022
RAY HANANIA
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Arab and Muslim candidates key to outcome of US midterm elections

  • Republicans bid to take House and Senate from Democrats
  • Celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz could become first Muslim senator
Updated 06 November 2022
RAY HANANIA

CHICAGO: For President Joe Biden, a Democrat, the midterm elections are crucial and challenging. Traditionally, the party that controls the White House at this stage usually loses control of the House and the Senate. Now the Republicans are perched to take both from the Democrats in Tuesday’s elections.

Arab and Muslim Americans will play an important role in helping to define the outcome, reinforcing congressional seats they now control while expanding their community’s role in local state and municipal offices.

Here is an overview of some of the important contests to watch:

In Pennsylvania’s US Senate race, Dr. Mehmet Oz, a Muslim TV medical personality of Turkish heritage, is the Republican candidate. He faces Democrat John Fetterman, the state’s lieutenant governor since 2019. Polling shows Oz leading Fetterman in the election, although Fetterman this week received an endorsement from TV powerhouse Oprah Winfrey. Winfrey originally helped Oz launch his own career as a TV personality when he first appeared on her show in 2004. Oz began hosting “The Dr. Oz Show” in 2009.

If Oz wins, he will become the first Muslim US senator. Five Arab Americans have served in the US Senate. All five are of Lebanese heritage although one was part Palestinian, and three Republicans.

According to the US Census, there are at least 84,472 residents who identify as Arab who come from Egypt, Iraq and Morocco, and 83,817 who identify as Muslim from the Arab world and Asia. Pennsylvania is one of six states including Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin and Nebraska that Donald Trump won in 2016 but that flipped for Biden in 2020.

Arab and Muslim Americans will have a strong say in Tuesday’s elections in races for Congress, state legislator and local municipal contests.

 

Since the 1950s, there have been 28 Arab Americans who have or continue to serve in the US House of Representatives. The majority have been Lebanese.

 

In California’s new 48th District, Republican incumbent Congressman Darrell Issa faces a challenge from newcomer Democrat Stephen Houlahan. Issa is expected to retain his seat. Issa served from 2001 until 2019 but came out of retirement to win the office, defeating fellow Arab American Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar in 2020.

Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, a Democrat who is Christian Assyrian, is seeking reelection in California’s new 16th District. She faces a challenge from Republican Rishi Kumar.

In Michigan, Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, elected in 2019, is facing a minor challenge in the newly drawn 12th District from Republican Steven Elliot and Working Class Party candidate Gary Walkowicz. Tlaib is Palestinian.

As Michigan has the second-largest concentration of Arab Americans, voter excitement will be focused on local state legislative and municipal contests. They include several candidates running for the Michigan State House including several Democrats, Alabas Farhat in the 3rd District, Ghassan (Gus) Tarraf in the 4th District, Bilal Hammoud in the 15th District, Abraham Aiyash in the 9th District and Aisha Farooqi in the 57th District. The 3rd, 4th and 15th districts include parts of Dearborn. Aiyash is seeking reelection and is the first American of Yemeni origin to hold a legislative seat there.

Pollster and political consultant Dennis Denno is running with the backing of the Democratic Party for a vacancy on the eight-member Michigan State University board of trustees. There are also many school board candidates including Nadia Berry and Hassan Beydoun for full terms, and Danielle Elzayat and Hassan Nasser for partial terms on the Crestwood school board.

In Illinois, Republican Congressman Darin LaHood, who is Lebanese American, is expected to easily hold his seat in the new 16th District against Democratic challenger Elizabeth Haderlein.

Harvard graduate Abdelnasser Rashid defeated a veteran Democratic incumbent to win the party nomination for the 21st House District which covers the influential southwest suburban region of Chicago, which has one of the largest concentrations of Palestinian Americans. Democrat Nabeela Syed is running for the Illinois House 51st District legislative seat and is being challenged by Republican Chris Bos.

 In Iowa, Democrat Sami Scheetz is running to become the state’s first Arab American state representative, in the 78th District.

In Minnesota, Democratic Congresswomen Ilhan Omar in the 5th District and Betty McCollum in the 4th District, some of the most effective voices in championing Arab and Muslim American issues in Congress, are not expected to easily defeat their challengers. Omar is being challenged by Republican Cicely Davis, and McCollum is being challenged by Republican May Lor Xiong.

However, recent polling shows Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison may lose his reelection bid to his Republican challenger Jim Schultz. Ellison is the state’s first Muslim attorney general and first to win a statewide office there.

In Louisiana, Congressman Garret Graves, a Republican of Lebanese heritage, is seeking reelection in the 6th District, challenged by Republican Brian Beizer and Libertarian Rufus Craig. No Democrat is running.

Topics: US

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UK police ban Palestine Action protest outside parliament

Updated 3 sec ago
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UK police ban Palestine Action protest outside parliament

Updated 3 sec ago
LONDON: British police have banned campaign group Palestine Action from protesting outside parliament on Monday, a rare move that comes after two of its members broke into a military base last week and as the government considers banning the organization.
The group said in response that it had changed the location of its protest on Monday to Trafalgar Square, which lies just outside the police exclusion zone.
The pro-Palestinian organization is among groups that have regularly targeted defense firms and other companies in Britain linked to Israel since the start of the conflict in Gaza.
British media have reported that the government is considering proscribing, or effectively banning, Palestine Action, as a terrorist organization, putting it on a par with Al-Qaeda or Daesh.
London’s Metropolitan Police said late on Sunday that it would impose an exclusion zone for a protest planned by Palestine Action outside the Houses of Parliament — a popular location for protests in support of a range of causes.
“The right to protest is essential and we will always defend it, but actions in support of such a group go beyond what most would see as legitimate protest,” Met Police Commissioner Mark Rowley said.
“We have laid out to Government the operational basis on which to consider proscribing this group.”
Palestine Action’s members are alleged to have caused millions of pounds of criminal damage, assaulted a police officer with a sledgehammer and, in the incident last week, damaged two military aircraft, Rowley added.

Italy against suspending EU-Israel accord, foreign minister says

Updated 7 min 13 sec ago
Reuters
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Italy against suspending EU-Israel accord, foreign minister says

Updated 7 min 13 sec ago
Reuters

ROME: Italy is against a suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement over alleged human rights violations in Gaza, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Monday.
“Our position is different from that of Spain,” Tajani said on the sidelines of a meeting with EU colleagues in Brussels, referring to Spain’s support for a suspension of the deal.
Tajani said it was important to keep relations open with Israel, saying that this had facilitated the evacuation of some civilians out of Gaza.

Topics: EU Israel Gaza Italy

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In Norway’s Arctic, meteorologists have a first-row seat to climate change

Updated 23 min 39 sec ago
AFP
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In Norway’s Arctic, meteorologists have a first-row seat to climate change

Updated 23 min 39 sec ago
AFP

TROMSO: In the cold of the Norwegian Arctic, meteorologist Trond Robertsen manually recorded precipitation levels for over two decades, witnessing firsthand the effects of climate change.
At 66, Robertsen retired after enduring spartan conditions during missions that totalled eight years on two islands of the Svalbard archipelago: Bjornoya (Bear Island) and Hogen.
To reach the remote Bjornoya, where the only humans are the nine employees of the small weather station, the meteorologists have to fly in by helicopter as they are rotated on a six-month basis.
“The idea is to not stay too long, because it’s a different rhythm, and you are isolated,” Robertsen told AFP.
It is demanding work.
“It’s a 24/7 occupation,” he said. “We are doing it all day, all night.” The team worked shifts to cover all hours of the day, he explained.
Weather observation starts in the early morning at 6:00 am.
“It’s manually done, then you have to go outside and check the bucket that is collecting precipitation,” said Robertsen.
“During wintertime you have to melt the snow and ice into water” to determine how much has fallen.
The data is then transmitted the Norwegian Meteorological Institute in Tromso and Oslo.
“This tiny little observation is actually quite crucial for the weather forecasting systems up north, because observations are so sparse from that area.”
Bjornoya sits in the middle of fishing grounds, and the weather reports published twice a day are closely followed by the fishing boats in the area.


Since his first missions to the Arctic in the 1990s, Robertsen has witnessed the changing climate.
“When I started going up north, there was a lot of ice. In the later years, it’s less ice and fewer polar bears. You can see the climate change,” he said.
Polar bears have been classified as a vulnerable population since 1982 on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species, with the loss of Arctic sea ice the most pressing threat against the species.
However, their precise numbers, are almost impossible to assess.
In winter, employees of station always venture out in pairs and have to be armed due to the presence of polar bears, but according to Robertsen it’s rarer to encounter them today.
In April, during his last mission to the island, Robertsen had an accident while doing carpentry: he slipped and ended up cutting one finger clean off and half of another.
Due to tough weather conditions, he had to wait some 26 hours before being evacuated by helicopter and transported to a hospital.
“It was a heavy snowstorm coming in, only the day after the helicopter came,” he recounted.
Looking back, Robertsen does not regret the years spent under the austere living conditions.
“The Arctic has given me so many experiences and memories so it is a small fee to pay back with my left little finger and part of my ring finger,” he said.

Topics: Norway climate change

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More evacuation orders issued as firefighters battle major wildfire on the Greek island of Chios

Updated 33 min 20 sec ago
AP
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More evacuation orders issued as firefighters battle major wildfire on the Greek island of Chios

Updated 33 min 20 sec ago
AP

ATHENS: Greek authorities sent new evacuation notifications for two areas near the main town of the eastern Aegean island of Chios Monday morning, as firefighters struggled to control a major wildfire raging on the town’s outskirts for a second day.
The fire department said 190 firefighters were battling the blaze Monday. They were backed up by 35 vehicles, five helicopters and two water-dropping planes. Strong winds in the area since Sunday have hampered firefighting efforts.
Push alerts have been sent to mobile phones in the area urging people to evacuate a total of 16 villages, settlements and neighborhoods on the outskirts of Chios town since the blaze broke out on Sunday.
The fire started in three separate locations. Authorities have sent a specialist fire department arson investigation team to the island to look into the causes.
Wildfires are frequent in Greece during its hot, dry summers, but authorities have said climate change has been fueling bigger and more frequent blazes.
In 2018, a massive fire swept through the seaside town of Mati, east of Athens, trapping people in their homes and on roads as they tried to flee. More than 100 people died, including some who drowned trying to swim away from the flames.

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Sri Lanka seizes $76m smuggled drugs this year

Updated 47 min 16 sec ago
AFP
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Sri Lanka seizes $76m smuggled drugs this year

Updated 47 min 16 sec ago
AFP

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s anti-narcotics drive has resulted in the seizure of more than three tonnnes (6,600 pounds) of illegal drugs with a street value of $76 million this year, officials said Monday.
Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala said most of the illegal drugs originated in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and were being smuggled into the island by sea.
He said there were an estimated 400,000 addicts in the nation of 22 million people.
“We need to reduce demand while keeping up detections,” Wijepala told reporters in Colombo.
Police chief Priyantha Weerasooriya said the drugs seized had a street value of 23 billion rupees ($76 million). That was close to the 28 billion rupees’ worth of drugs seized in the whole of 2024.
More than 1,000 people were arrested for drug dealing and smuggling, he added. They included a 38-year-old Thai woman, arrested at Colombo airport on May 30 carrying nearly 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of cocaine, the largest detection of the drug at an entry point to the South Asian nation.
Also last month, three others — from Britain, India and Thailand — were arrested trying to smuggle in nearly 60 kilograms (132 pounds) of synthetic cannabis.
All four suspects, including the Thai woman arrested with cocaine, could face life imprisonment if convicted.
Sri Lankan authorities have previously seized large quantities of heroin off the country’s shores, suggesting the island is being used as a transit hub for narcotics destined for other locations.
In October, a Sri Lankan court sentenced 10 Iranian men to life imprisonment after they pleaded guilty to heroin smuggling.
Sri Lanka’s largest single seizure of narcotics occurred in December 2016, when Customs found 800 kilos of cocaine in a transshipment container of timber destined for India.

Topics: Sri Lanka

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