Today, the Muslim Delegates and Allies Coalition recommends delegates to the Democratic National Convention vote “no” on the party platform, because it fails to adequately address Israeli human rights violations in occupied Palestine as well as human rights abuses in India-Kashmir, where authoritarian Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stripped nearly two million Muslims of their citizenship while overseeing the construction of mass detention centers for India’s Muslim population.
Though the DNC Platform Committee accepted some of the Coalition’s plank recommendations for eliminating anti-Muslim bigotry, overturning the Muslim travel ban, and ending U.S. funding for the disastrous Saudi war on Yemen, the Committee rejected other critical Coalition foreign policy recommendations, such as ending economic sanctions on Iran and conditioning military aid to Israel on cessation of annexations of Palestinian land. Muslim delegates and their Jewish allies objected to platform language that reads, “Our commitment to Israel’s security, its qualitative military edge, its right to defend itself, and the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding is ironclad.”
CA DNC Delegate Hanieh Jodat Barnes, One of the founding members of Women’s March Los Angeles and Co-Founder of Muslim Delegates and Allies: “The DNC has failed to recognize the importance of Medicare for All amid one of the deadliest pandemics, from which millions of Americans have lost their work based health coverage, yet the language of endless wars remains the same. As Democrats, we should continue speaking truth to power, and urge the DNC to push for a cut on our military budget to fund social programs in our backyard. Unless we heal internally as a nation, we will not display leadership globally.”
FL DNC Delegate Nadia Ahmad, law professor and co-founder of Muslim Delegates and Allies: “We call for new page in U.S. relations with Muslim Americans and Muslims overseas, for a relationship that can be based on trust, appreciation, and mutual advancement instead of disdain, usurpation, and exploitation of natural resources and cheap labor without regard for human dignity. We want an end to imperial U.S. foreign relations and surveillance state policies that disproportionately target Muslims, Arab, and South Asians within the United States and traveling to and from the United States.”
VA Delegate Zeina Hutchinson: “As Palestinian American delegates, we feel that the party leadership’s refusal to affirm our equal rights, the continued marginalization of the Palestinian people, the blind support and the funding for the oppression of our families, and the incessant insults to our voters’ moral sensibilities jeopardize our ability to inspire and mobilize our communities in support of the party and it’s candidates. We will continue to work to insure that in the future the that the party and its leadership reflect the will of the people and uphold human rights for all, including those of the Palestinian people.”
NM DNC Delegate Samia Assed, Board Member of the National Women’s March: “The DNC's full display of censureship of Palestinian American delegate damands is outrageous. The lack of Democratic debate on the Platform Committee floor as it pertains to the annexation amendments, should be alarming to all Party members. A Designed policy of erasure of our voices is unacceptable, we never signed away our Agency.”
CA DNC delegate Marcy Winograd, a long-time peace activist: "To say that our commitment to Israel is ironclad is to enable and condone further Israeli human rights abuses of millions of Palestinians living under military occupation and to look the other way when Israel threatens to annex the Jordan Valley in the West Bank. As a supporter of Jewish Voice for Peace-Action, I say 'not in my name, nor in the name of my party' shall land be stolen or people subjugated.”
Muslim delegates had recommended the platform condition military assistance to other countries based on adherence to human rights, and called for an end to U.S. drone killings in the Middle East, where the U.S. provides countries with minimal humanitarian aid in return for air space from which to bomb other Muslim-majority nations.
The platform was approved last Monday by the Party’s Platform Committee and will be sent this week to National Delegates for their consideration and vote prior to the Convention.
The Coalition welcomes DNC platform updates that include addressing systemic racism, protecting civil liberties, and safeguarding human rights of religious minorities.
The following changes, approved by the Platform Committee today, were among those recommended and advocated by the Muslim Allies and Delegate Coalition.
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Democrats will increase funding and support for security investments and protection at houses of worship, because everyone should be able to pray without fear. We will confront white nationalist terrorism and combat hate crimes perpetrated against religious minorities.
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Democrats also recognize that, to fully confront the legacy of systemic and structural racism, it is time to examine, confront and dismantle the government programs, policies and practices that have unfairly targeted American Muslims as security threats. We condemn the decades-long campaign to demonize and dehumanize the Muslim faith community, which has led to increased rates of violence and discrimination targeting American Muslims or those perceived to be Muslim. We will hold accountable those who engage in or enable violent or other illegal activity targeting religious minorities, including by directing the federal government to address the growing and violent threat of white supremacist, neo-Nazi and anti-government groups.
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We will never amplify or legitimize the voices of racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim bigotry, or white supremacy. Democrats will protect and promote the equal rights of all our citizens—women, LGBTQ+ people, religious minorities, people with disabilities, Native Americans, and all who have been discriminated against in too many ways and for too many generations.
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We will immediately terminate the Trump Administration’s discriminatory travel and immigration bans that disproportionately impact Muslim, Arab, and African people, and invite those whose visas have been denied under these xenophobic and un-American policies to re-apply to come to the United States. We will support legislation to ensure that no president can enact discriminatory bans ever again.
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Democrats celebrate America’s history of religious pluralism and tolerance, and recognize the countless acts of service of our faith communities, as well as the paramount importance of maintaining the separation between church and state enshrined in our Constitution.
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During the Trump Administration, too many of our religious communities have been victimized by acts of intolerance, bigotry, and violence.
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We will reject the Trump Administration’s use of broad religious exemptions to allow businesses, medical providers, social service agencies, and others to discriminate.
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Democrats know it’s time to bring nearly two decades of unceasing conflict to an end.
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Our military engagements, which have spanned from West Africa to Southeast Asia, have cost more than $5 trillion and claimed more than half a million lives.
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Our war in Afghanistan is the longest war in American history, with the youngest U.S. troops now fighting a war that was launched before they were even born. President Trump said he would get the United States out of these wars, but instead he deployed more combat forces, expanded their missions, and stoked regional tensions that unnecessarily endangered American lives and interests.
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Democrats will deliver on this overdue commitment to end the forever wars, and we will do it responsibly—setting priorities, leading with diplomacy, protecting ourselves from terrorist threats, enabling local partners, and bringing our troops home.
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Democrats are committed to a durable and inclusive political settlement in Afghanistan that ensures that al-Qaeda isn’t allowed to reconstitute, the Islamic State (ISIS) isn’t allowed to grow, and the international community can help Afghans safeguard hard-fought gains, especially for women and girls.
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Democrats will end support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen and help bring the war to an end. This war is responsible for the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and it amplifies threats to the region and to our interests. Democrats believe that the United States should support diplomatic efforts—not block them.
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Democrats will not only end the wars that have cost so much American blood and treasure—we will apply their lessons.
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We will only use force when necessary to protect national security and when the objective is clear and achievable—with the informed consent of the American people, and where warranted, the approval of Congress. That is why we will work with Congress to repeal decades-old authorizations for the use of military force and replace them with a narrow and specific framework that will ensure we can protect Americans from terrorist threats while ending the forever wars.
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Rather than occupy countries and overthrow regimes to prevent terrorist attacks, Democrats will prioritize more effective and less costly diplomatic, intelligence, and law enforcement tools. We will right-size our counterterrorism footprint, put it in service of broader regional and overarching foreign policy objectives, and ensure it never undermines the values we seek to uphold. And we will mobilize our partners to make sustained investments that can prevent conflict and help extinguish the flames on which extremists feed.
The Muslim Delegate and Allies Coalition was launched weeks prior to the DNC convention to urge the Democratic Party to take more decisive action to improve U.S.-Muslim relations . The Coalition's platform recommendations had been endorsed by over 100 DNC National delegates from multiple states, including Florida, California, Michigan, Virginia, Texas and New Mexico.
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