American conservatives remain divided on the presence and influence of Muslims in society, but there may be a way to forge new ties between these two groups, according to some analysts. There is a strong anti-Muslim thrust in groups near the second administration of President Donald Trump, most clearly seen in the national conservative movement. The NatCon conference, held in Washington, DC in early September, featured a range of Trump administration officials, scholars, and activists weighing in on public issues, with Islam receiving considerable attention. Calvinist pastor and self-proclaimed Christian nationalist Douglas Wilson said that Muslims should have no place in politics and that concentrations of Islamic believers, such as in the city Dearborn, Michigan, should not be allowed to publicly express their religion. In another address, conservative thinker Nathan Pinkoski called for the remigration of Muslim immigrants back to their home countries to encourage a greater Christian presence in public life. Meanwhile, an article on the American Conservative magazine website reports an increase in support for Trump among Muslim voters, increasing from 17 percent in the 2020 election to 31 percent in 2024. Much of this increase “was due to the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza, which alienated Muslims and Arabs in key battleground states,” writes Saqib Sheikh.
He adds that historically, Muslim Americans generally “leaned toward the Republican Party until George W. Bush’s declaration of the War on Terror in 2001, which involved not only multiple invasions of Muslim countries but also enhanced surveillance of Muslims at home. Such policies naturally led Muslims to flee to the Democratic Party.” Sheikh argues that recent events suggest that Muslim Americans, “not a monolithic community by any means, may be open to politically diversifying. This raises interesting prospects of a possible rapprochement with conservative forces who themselves have gone through an evolution during the Trump years as the neoconservative wing has weakened and more populist and war-weary voices have emerged.” This change has become clearer as conservatives have become more split on the issue of Israel and the extent of American involvement in Gaza since the start of Trump’s second term in office. Some of the most prominent critics of Israel are now found on the MAGA right, with a “rising tide of young conservatives [growing] increasingly skeptical of American support for Israel and the risk of American forces being drawn further into the Middle East. This development has drawn the attention of Muslim Americans deeply opposed to Israel’s Mideast wars.”
The new, Israel-critical conservatives have sometimes extended rhetorical olive branches to Muslims as the political benefits of “Muslim-bashing” have diminished. The situation is complicated by the “shift of the conservative base towards forms of identitarianism and Christian nationalism.” The identitarians see Muslims as “invaders whose presence in America and the West was enabled by liberal mass immigration policies,” while the Christian nationalists often view Muslims as a fundamental threat to Judeo-Christian values. But Sheikh adds that the “drift of young conservatives away from support for Israel has also induced skepticism regarding this brand of evangelical conservatism.” He concludes that MAGA conservatives will not embrace left-wing Muslim Americans and many are frequently depicted as being on a “hidden mission to undermine Western civilization, a fear that has visibly resurfaced with the rise of Zohran Mamdani, the Muslim Democratic Socialist and [new mayor of New York City]. Yet Muslim voters differ politically from Muslim elected officials,” and “ordinary Muslim voters have shown a willingness to buck expectations of ‘intersectional’ ethnic-minority leftism, particularly on issues of social conservatism,” making “a broader rapprochement…very much possible.”
(The American Conservative, https://www.theamericanconservative.com/can-maga-conservatives-and-muslim-americans-unite/)
