As the sun set behind the River Oaks Islamic Center, casting an orange glow in the sky, dozens of people gathered one September afternoon in the mosque's carpeted prayer room.
Shoes were stacked high on shelves by the entrance, and inside, Muslims of all ages kneeled and prayed in unison for the day's Maghrib – Islam's sunset prayer. Once they finished and the sky darkened, Aalia Qazi hung out in the center's common space, where chatter and laughter filled the air.
Qazi has been attending the central Houston center for years, and this November will be her second time voting in a presidential election.
She had contemplated skipping, believing neither presidential candidate from the major parties represented her faith. But with so much at stake in the Israel-Hamas war, Qazi wants a candidate who will work toward a ceasefire there.
"I feel like if I don’t, my vote is going to be wasted," Qazi, 23, said. "I don’t know if I’m going to 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 backing Democratic presidential candidates. Israel's war in Gaza is motivating some Muslims to seek alternatives which would be a major shift since 2000 when a majority of them voted for George W. Bush.
A national poll by the Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR, in August, found that a third of American Muslims plan to vote for Stein while another third support Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee. Meanwhile, 10% back former president Donald Trump.
The Muslim vote hasn't been divided in decades. They're also largely undecided; the poll also found that nearly a fifth, just weeks away from Election Day, don't know who they're going to vote for yet.
"I think there is continued increasing disappointment with President Biden's handling of the Gaza situation and his relationship with Netanyahu," said Amatullah Contractor, a senior advisor for the Texas team of Emgage Action, an organization that encourages Muslim Americans to vote.
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.
"We have over 200 Islamic centers and prayer spaces across the city, spanning 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 opinions of Muslims in Houston are a good bellwether for those across the country.
"There is a huge variation on how the Muslim community is feeling nationwide," said White. "Locally, I think we'll see that 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 multiple candidates this year. In 2020, 86% of Muslims voted for Biden, according to an Emgage poll, largely because they disapproved of former President Donald Trump.
"Civil rights and human rights are such a big part of the Islamic faith," said Contractor.
Emgage created the Million Muslim Voters campaign which helped turn out more than one million voters in 2020, and plans to register 2 million for 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 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 towards what's going on in Gaza and the genocide," said Sajid, 24.
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.
"At least I won't have the guilty 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 both of them, it would probably be Trump just because of how terrible the genocide has been under the Democratic Party and how hypocritical Kamala Harris has been in all of her statements."
Harris has called for a ceasefire. Stein, however, 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 mainstream Democratic talking points, according to Pew Research.
Contractor with Emgage Action said "access to healthcare, as well as immigration" along with "gun violence prevention, are all sort of things that weigh top of mind for Muslim voters."
But the war in Gaza is an issue some aren't willing to compromise on.
"I think this time more than ever, this election more than ever, neither side is good enough – not even near," Sajid said.
Sajid, like Qazi and White, hasn't decided who will get his vote in November — but knows that he will cast a ballot.
It's not a stretch to say winning voters like him could decide the election. Muslim voters may have given the margin of victory to Biden in swing states such as Georgia and Pennsylvania.
White said American Muslims have a difficult decision to make in November, but more than anything, 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.
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