Green Party nominee Jill Stein to visit Harris Co. mosques this week, making case to Muslim voters – Houston Public Media

Third-party Presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein will be making two stops in Harris County this week – both of which are in local mosques.

Stein, with the Green Party, will be visiting the Maryam Islamic Center in Sugar Land on Wednesday, and then on Thursday, the North Zone Islamic Center in Spring, according to her candidacy website.

Both events start at 7:30 p.m.

Stein will be accompanied by her running mate, Butch Ware, who is Muslim.

It’s not surprising that Stein is visiting mosques in the area because she has found momentum among Muslim voters, who are gravitating toward her over her stance on the war in Gaza. A national poll by the Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR, in August, found that Muslim voters are split between Stein and Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris.

Daisy Espinoza / Houston Public Media

The Houston region is home to the state’s largest Muslim population according to Will White, director of CAIR’s Houston chapter. He estimates that nearly half a million Muslims live in the Houston-Woodlands-Sugar Land metro area. This would make Harris County the most concentrated area of Muslims in the southern United States.

And according to CAIR’s national poll, a third of American Muslims plan to vote for Stein, while another third support Harris. Meanwhile, 10% back former president Donald Trump.

The war has pushed some Muslim voters toward third parties because some say neither of the major party candidates represent their opinions on Israel’s war in Gaza.

Aalia Qazi, who attends the River Oaks Islamic Center, said she’s looking for a candidate who will work toward a ceasefire there — which is why she plans to cast her ballot for Stein in November.

“Faith plays an important role in my decision because of the guilt factor,” Qazi said. “At least I won’t have like, the guilty conscience of voting for people who support genocide.”

While the United Nations hasn’t declared the war a genocide, it called the attacks on civilians unconscionable and accuses the Israeli government and Hamas of 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 health ministry.

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