Daisy Espinoza / Houston Public Media

As the sun set behind the River Oaks Islamic Center, casting an orange glow on the sky, dozens of people gathered on a September afternoon in the mosque’s carpeted prayer room.

Colleen DeGuzman

Shoes were piled high on the shelves at the entrance, and inside, Muslims of all ages knelt and prayed in unison for today’s Maghrib – The sunset prayer of Islam. Once they were done and the sky darkened, Aalia Qazi hung out in the center’s common area where chatter and laughter filled the air.

Qazi has been at the downtown Houston center for years, and this November will be her second time voting in a presidential election.

She had considered skipping, believing none of the major party presidential candidates represented her beliefs. But with so much at stake in the Israel-Hamas war, Qazi wants a candidate who will work for a ceasefire there.

“I feel like if I don’t, my vote will go to waste,” said Qazi, 23. “I don’t know if I’ll vote for Biden or Kamala or Trump. I think I might vote for Jill Stein.”

Dr. Jill Stein, a third-party candidate for the Green Party, may have garnered enough Muslim-American support to break the community’s two-decade streak of supporting Democratic presidential candidates. Israel’s war in Gaza motivates some Muslims to seek alternatives that would be a big change since 2000 when a majority of them voted for George W. Bush.

A national survey by the Council on American Islamic Relationsor CAIR, in August, found that one-third of American Muslims plan to vote for Stein while another third support Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee. Meanwhile, 10% support former President Donald Trump.

The Muslim vote has not been divided for decades. They are also largely uncertain; the survey also showed that almost a fifth, just weeks away from election day, do not know who they are going to vote for yet.

“I think there is a continued growing disillusionment with President Biden’s handling of the Gaza situation and his relationship with Netanyahu,” he said. Amatullah entrepreneura senior advisor to Texas team of Emgage Actionan organization that encourages Muslim Americans to vote.

Colleen Deguzman

The Houston region is home to the state’s largest Muslim population, according to Will Whitedirector of CAIR’s Houston Chapter. He estimates that nearly half a million Muslims live in the Houston-Woodlands-Sugar Land metro area.

“We have over 200 Islamic centers and places of prayer across the city, stretching all the way from Huntsville down to Galveston and from Beaumont all the way to Sealy,” White said

That would make Houston the most concentrated area of ​​Muslims in the southern United States, which is why White says the views of Muslims in Houston are a good source for those across the country.

“There’s a huge variation in how the Muslim community feels across the country,” White said. “Locally, I think we’ll see the same variation.”

Both White and Contractor agree that faith plays a central role in Muslims’ shift away from Democrats and their split in support among several candidates this year. In 2020, 86% of Muslims voted for Biden, according to to an Emgage surveylargely because they disliked former President Donald Trump.

“Civil rights and human rights are such a big part of the Islamic faith,” said Entrepreneur.

Emgage created Campaign for millions of Muslim voters as helped get more than a million voters in 2020, and plans to register 2 million by 2024.

This year, many are voting again with their faith.

“Islam has always taught us to hyper-fixate on peace, to fight discrimination at whatever level we can,” said Shayan Sajid of Sugar Land.

Sajid attends and volunteers at the Maryam Islamic Center, and he feels strongly about the war.

“This time our main concern, our main priority – our hearts, our brains, our everything – is against what’s going on in Gaza and the genocide,” Sajid, 25, said.

• Maryam Islamic Center in Sugar Land, where Shayan Sajid has attended and volunteered for years. (Photo: Daisy Espinoza/Houston Public Media)

• The Maryam Islamic Center in Sugar Land has served as a polling place in Harris County for years. (Photo: Daisy Espinoza/Houston Public Media)

• Shayan Sajid, 24, is an undecided voter. (Photo: Daisy Espinoza/Houston Public Media)

• Shayan Sajid, 24, is an undecided voter and says the war in Gaza is why he is conflicted. (Photo: Daisy Espinoza/Houston Public Media)

• The Koran is Islam’s central religious text, and Shayan Sajid said it teaches Muslims to advocate justice and peace. (Photo: Daisy Espinoza/Houston Public Media)

• Shayan Sajid, 24, is an undecided voter. (Photo: Daisy Espinoza/Houston Public Media)

• The prayer hall of Maryam Islamic Center, which is also known as Muṣallá. (Photo: Daisy Espinoza/Houston Public Media)

• An artwork found at the Maryam Islamic Center in Sugar Land, which reads “O Allah, open for me the gates of Your mercy.” (Photo: Daisy Espinoza/Houston Public Media)

Although the UN has not declared the war a genocide, it called it the attacks on unscrupulous civilians and accuses the Israeli government and Hamas for violating international humanitarian law. Hamas is the armed Palestinian group that killed over 1,200 Israelis on October 7, 2023 and continues to hold many hostages.

Since then, 40,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

“At least I won’t have the bad conscience of voting for people who support genocide,” Qazi said, later adding “I don’t want to vote for Trump and I don’t want to vote for Kamala. If I had to decide between the two of them, it would probably be Trump just because of how horrific the genocide has been under the Democratic Party and how hypocritical Kamala Harris has been in all her statements.”

Harris has called for a truce. However, Stein has found momentum among Muslim voters because she has called the war a genocide.

Other key issues important to Muslim voters may continue to align with standard Democratic talking points, according to Pew Research.

Entrepreneur with Emgage Action said that “access to health care, as well as immigration” along with “prevention of gun violence, are all kinds of things that weigh up for Muslim voters.”

But the war in Gaza is an issue on which some are unwilling to compromise.

“I think this time more than ever, this election more than ever, that neither side is good enough — not even close,” Sajid said.

Sajid, like Qazi and White, has not decided who will get his vote in November – but knows he will.

It is not easy to say that winning voters like him can decide the election. Muslim voters may have given the margin of victory to Biden in swing states like Georgia and Pennsylvania.

White said American Muslims have a tough decision to make in November, but most of all, he wants the community to vote.

“I don’t care how they vote, I don’t care who they vote for. I don’t care what party they vote for — I just want them to vote.”

Election day is November 5.