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See Something Say Something

How Michigan Muslims Voted

See Something Say Something

Ahmed Ali Akbar

Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality

4.8550 Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2016

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Michigan just went red for first time since 1988. Ahmed calls up BuzzFeed reporter Talal Ansari, who has been following the organizing efforts of Arab Americans to get out the vote in the Michigan cities of Dearborn and Hamtramck, to reflect on how people voted and why. Plus, Ansari speaks briefly with Abdullah Hammoud, who, at 26, would go on to be elected to Michigan's House of Representatives.

Follow Talal at @TalalNAnsari and his reporting at buzzfeed.com/talalansari:

Muslim Americans Fearful That "Islamophobia Is A Winning Message"

Muslims Are Asking What Place They Have In President Trump's America

Follow Ahmed at @radbrowndads.
Follow the show at @seesomething and facebook.com/seesomethingpodcast
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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey guys, this is Ahmed from See Something Say Something.

0:03.0

We're here with a short little piece about Michigan and some Muslim voters there.

0:09.0

I'm actually from Michigan and, you know, I had this suspicion that it was going to go red

0:17.0

and I know it's a very working class state and I know it's a very segregated class state, and I know it's a very segregated state.

0:22.4

So the race politics in Michigan

0:25.7

and the class politics are complicated,

0:27.7

and if you can tap into those things,

0:30.0

which Trump has somehow successfully done,

0:33.2

there's definitely a voter base that will come out.

0:35.7

I had this prediction, like,

0:36.8

I don't know what's gonna happen with the rest of America,

0:39.4

but I did feel like my home state was going to go for Trump.

0:42.7

And I was disappointed, but not totally surprised that it did so

0:47.3

because it didn't seem like the Democrats were meaningfully able to really tap into sort of working class issues

0:53.6

and the issues of race and immigration

0:57.0

and jobs leaving Michigan that are so so key to Michigan's identity.

1:04.0

And of course, you know, there's a big Muslim population there too, but it doesn't look like

1:08.0

they were able to really turn that around. If you see something, you better, you better say something.

1:19.6

Nothing at all, nothing at all.

1:23.6

I'm joined by Dahl Ansari, who is reporting in from Michigan.

1:29.3

He went to go talk to some Michigan Muslim voters.

1:33.7

And I'm going to talk to him about his piece that he just wrote,

...

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