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Identity

Who Are the Muslims Supporting Donald Trump?

Are there that many Muslim fans of The Apprentice?

Photo via Flickr user Gage Skidmore

When the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released its 2016 voter survey this week, the first few results in the report were illuminating, if not all that surprising. For 73 percent of registered Muslim voters, Islamophobia is the number one concern, up from third place in 2014. About the same percentage of Muslim voters plan to vote for one of the two Democrats running for president in 2016. But after Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, the third most popular candidate was a little surprising: It turns out, 7.47 percent of Muslims support Donald Trump.

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Trump, if you haven't been following the election, has called for a "shutdown of Muslims entering the United States," and is in favor of surveillance techniques that target people based on their religion, if that religion is Islam. It's safe to say the real estate tycoon and TV personality has adopted a posture toward Islam that speaks to the 14.6 percent of Americans who are "generally fearful" of Muslims. But even fellow conservatives have called Trump "a fascist" for his comments about American Muslims.

So if you're Muslim, what's the appeal of voting for the guy?

"He is anti-establishment, and he comes from the outside. I think one could—from the outside—bring a new perspective to things, and really shake things up in Washington," said Saba Ahmed, president and founder of the Republican Muslim Coalition, who famously wore an American Flag headscarf while being interviewed by Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly last fall.

Ahmed believes a greater Muslim presence in the GOP would help quash growing Islamophobia, both within the party and in the United States at large. "The rise of anti-Islamic sentiment is partially due to the voice of Muslim Americans being missing in the Republican Party," she told me.

Republican Muslims are yet another in a long line of counterintuitive political blocs in the US, like, for instance, the pro-Israeli Muslim group called the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, or the Log Cabin Republicans, the best-known organization representing gay conservatives in the US. But the idea of Muslims putting their support behind someone as outspoken as Trump is about trashing Muslims seems exceptionally strange—and Ahmed acknowledges that.

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"We are very alarmed by his anti-Islamic rhetoric, and hope to see that change as the campaign goes on," she told me. "But from an economic standpoint, and [because of] his business skills, we would love to see him as our Republican nominee."

"He's worked with Muslims all his life, he has properties all over the Middle East, and he has significant business dealings in the Islamic world," she added.

It's not just Ahmed. A Facebook group called "Muslims for Trump" exists, and while it rarely gets updated, its anonymous creator published a long, wordy manifesto earlier this week. It's a little light on details about Trump's policy proposals, but the author does claim not to have heard "a single remark of hatred made by Mr. Trump. No one who has come forth has managed to provide a single example."

As for why Trump makes a good candidate, the post is as vague as it is verbose: "We must continue to voice our support, qua Muslims, for an America with a history and an identity, an America who celebrates her Christian heritage loudly and proudly," is the closest the writer gets to an explanation.

The Facebook page attracts sympathetic Muslims—though not necessarily ardent Trump supporters. "I find Trump's 'no need to always be politically correct' stance refreshing. I also like his apparent 'telling like it is' demeanor," Nash Khatri, an electrical engineer who has commented on the page, told me in a Facebook message. "I also think he is no dummy, and who knows? He may make a good president."

Other Muslim Republicans aren't so sure about Trump. "I do think he has an ability to put his finger on a pulse regarding what the issues are for Americans and on how social media driven marketing works nowadays," said Sarah Cochran, a representative of the Muslim civic group Emerge USA. However, she added, "I wouldn't vote for him."

Ahmed also had some criticism of her preferred candidate. "I think he has been hurt in the polls by having a very arrogant attitude," she told me, adding that she thinks Trump needs to "humble down." But while she'd like Trump to change, she said she would still pull the lever for him in November should he become the Republican Party's Islamophobic presidential nominee.

"We believe that Islamic values are in line with the Republican party, and there's no way for us to go back to Democrats, or independents for that matter," she said.

Follow Mike Pearl on Twitter.