I'm Endorsing No One For President

Kamala Harris Won't Have My Vote

These past few months have been awful for many Americans of conscience. What we face cannot compare to what Gaza—and now Lebanon—endure. But that is part of why our decision come November 5th weighs so heavily. For the better part of a year, I’d gone back and forth, agonized. I certainly couldn’t vote for Trump. But how could I vote for Biden? Briefly, I hoped Harris would be better. But she’s not been.

At Wisdom of Crowds, Shadi Hamid and I debated our American and Muslim responsibilities this fall. While Shadi argues American Muslims must still vote for Kamala Harris, I explain why I’m not voting for any candidate for President—and explain how I came to terms with that decision (and the civic, patriotic and moral obligations we still have, no matter who we do or do not vote for.)

Debate: Should Americans Vote for the Lesser of Two Evils?

This was a challenging, emotional and contentious debate, but it was always sincere, thoughtful, and searching, focused never on winning points but instead on making sense of what feels really, really hard. Both of us believe God will judge us for what we do (or do not do). Which is what makes this conversation so rare, so important and hopefully a template too, for more such public engagements.

I’m hardly the kind of person who is going to condemn someone for where their conscience sincerely takes them: Individual accountability is at the heart of Islam.

And democracy.

So long as we’re making an effort, after all, if we’re genuinely trying to do good, open to hearing different perspectives, then God willing we are doing what we were made to. That’s why I hope this conversation is a benefit to you, to those who might still be wrestling with this decision, or for those who can’t see what so many American Muslims and others of conscience do: That this war is deeply, profoundly wrong.

That we can’t cast our votes for a candidate so comfortable with the deaths of so many innocent people, overlooking and thereby endorsing a war we didn’t vote for, provide no check on, and which seems to have no end other than elimination. A war so wrong that many of us do not see a substantive moral difference between Trump and Harris. Please go ahead and read. And share.

In a few days’ time, we’ll be releasing a podcast that carries this conversation forward.

May God guide us to do what is right, to end this war, to honor the responsibility of democracy, to stand up for those who are wronged, to bring justice and dignity and prosperity to the world, and to be a source of good for those in our live, for our community, for our country, and for the wider world. May God protect us, look after us, and show us the way forward.