Anti-Muslim provocation could deter community from US midterm elections, advocacy group says

A new report from the Muslim Public Affairs Council (Mpac) expresses concern about the escalation of far-right, anti-Muslim provocateurs in the US, whose actions often result in calls for increased law enforcement presence and could therefore end up dissuading Muslim Americans from voting in the midterm elections on 3 November.

The study was carried out by the Center for Security, Technology, and Policy, which tracks Islamophobia across the US.

Mpac said it has documented rallies outside mosques, aggressive confrontations, acts of surveillance, inflammatory online content, and rhetoric claiming an “Islamic takeover" in the US, in what several experts have previously described to Middle East Eye as a climate "worse" than the post-9/11 era.

The report argues that such actions can intimidate Muslim communities, particularly when they occur around election time or religious gatherings for special occasions.

President Donald Trump and his allies have ramped up anti-Muslim rhetoric as they go after progressive Muslims such as Minnesota Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.

Mpac describes a "coordinated campaign" whereby a minority community is portrayed as a threat, followed by activists or media figures mounting public confrontations, at which point videos and allegations circulate online to amplify claims of criminality.

Those narratives are then used to call for more immigration enforcement, policing, surveillance, or federal intervention, the report said.

" As these right-wing provocateurs continue to target Muslim communities, it can contribute to a broader narrative of unrest that the Trump administration might cite to justify extraordinary federal action, such as a national emergency," Mpac has warned.

"This is particularly concerning given that Trump has repeatedly questioned the integrity of US elections and that he’s claimed American elections are vulnerable to foreign manipulation."

The report urges Muslim Americans to avoid engaging with provocative actors, report suspicious activity, know their voting rights, and go vote in groups instead of going alone.

Focal point Michigan

Much of the nine-page report is dedicated to examples of right-wing actors who have made Muslims their key target for intimidation.

Michigan, home to the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the US, has been ground zero for the behaviour Mpac is tracking.

Come 3 November, it could elect the first-ever Muslim to the US Senate in history.

“I’m here to keep a jihadist Muslim Brotherhood member from becoming a United States senator,” Trump told the crowd at his Port Huron, Michigan, rally last week.

Sayed, he added, "wants our country to go to Sharia law, and if he ever pulls that off, he should be the first one that’s tried. I’ll be a witness".

There are no known links between Sayed and the Muslim Brotherhood, an ideological political party largely suppressed in the Middle East.

Earlier this month, Mpac noted that the Hutaree Militia - a Christian nationalist group - held a pro-gun rally in Hillsdale, Michigan, and that comment sections online included multiple posts encouraging the militia to visit Dearborn.

In August, the Ku Klux Klan dropped thousands of flyers in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn Heights, which has a high Muslim population.

Days before that incident, the Department of Justice, now run by Trump's former personal lawyer, Todd Blanche, sent election monitors to Detroit, Hamtramck, Lansing, and East Lansing, while Michigan officials challenged the stated rationale and warned of possible partisan targeting, the report said.

That followed far-right provocateur Jake Lang's rally with fellow outsiders at a Muslim gathering in Dearborn, after which police intervened and arrested 22 people, as well as YouTuber Nate Friedman's release of a documentary alleging an "Islamic takeover of Michigan".

Sayed's primary opponent, Republican Mike Rogers, was also noted by Mpac for using voter-intimidation tactics.

In May, Rogers said he called the Republican National Committee and said, "Let's put police officers, retired or off-duty police officers, as our poll watchers in Detroit, because go ahead, try to intimidate them. Please."