Arab and Muslim candidates running for public office April 1, 2025

Here is a list that I will constantly update of Arab and Muslim Americans who are running for public office in Cook, Will and DuPage Counties in Northern Illinois. If any are missing please send to me

By Ray Hanania

FREE/Politics, Arabs, Muslims, candidates/Sunday, Feb. 23, 2024

The exclusion of Arabs and Muslims from the U.S. Census creates a very difficult roadblock to many of the benefits that are bestowed by the government on the various recognized ethnic, racial and religious groups.

Although the U.S. Census has created the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) category, it is so broad that it includes everyone from Iran to Israel, and Arabs and Muslims are actually de-emphasized and underplayed in data rather than distinguished and easily identified.

I think MENA was actually pushed on the Arab and Muslim community to further push our communities into oblivion and make us irrelevant and undermine our power.

We saw that when using the power of the U.S. Census, Illinois legislators divided the former 3rd Congressional District, which had one of the largest concentrations of Arab and Muslim voters of the nation’s 450 congressional districts, into five sections merging them with neighboring districts.

What Illinois did, under anti-Arab Governor J.B. Pritzker, was to undermine the political power of Arabs and Muslims as a voting block.

Members of the Arab American Democracy Coalition who hosted the annual AADC Candidate’s Forum & Brunch Feb. 16, 2025.

Arabs and Muslims, because they are excluded from being officially recognized by the U.S. Census, are denied Federal funding to support their cultural activities. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars are given to nearly every other recognized ethnic and racial group including Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, and more. But not Arabs and not Muslims who are treated as pariahs by American politicians, especially in Illinois.

But the exclusion also undermines Arab and Muslim political and election strength, The US Census and the category “MENA” essentially prevent the public from easily identifying Arabs and Muslims who are running for public office.

The system forces us to struggle to get the information that is easily available for most other ethnic and religious groups.

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"If you want to change America's immoral international policies on Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and the Middle East, you have to start at the lowest rungs of American politics. You must win office in school districts, library boards, fire districts, park districts, cities and villages, and more. Those are the places where Arabs and Muslims can easily educate the American public most effectively to understand the truth of what is happening on the national and international levels."

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Despite that, I was able to glean through public records to identify many (but not all) of the Arabs and Muslims who are running for public office in the April 1, 2025, local general elections.

These elections are so important because they involve offices that have foundational influence over the larger national and international policies and they have the most impact on the opinions and views of grassroots Americans in villages, school districts and counties.

If you want to change America’s immoral international policies on Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and the Middle East, you have to start at the lowest rungs of American politics. You have to win office in school districts, library boards, fire districts, park districts, cities and villages, and more. Those are the places where Arabs and Muslims can easily educate the American public in the most effective manner to understand the truth of what is happening on the national and international levels.

You have to earn the respect of Americans in their backyards before you can educate them on what is happening nationally and internationally.

That is counter-intuitive for most Arabs and Muslims who are passionate and emotional over the horrific violence and war crimes against our people in the Middle East. The mainstream news media suppresses those reports and exaggerates the violence against others to make us look more and more like the perpetrators and advocates of violence when we are not.

Arabs and Muslims support peace, justice, and the rule of law. We oppose violence but are angered when violence is thrust upon us by governments like that of Israel which does a better job of not only managing public perceptions through the news media and communications but also heavily influencing elections through PACs that distribute millions in campaign donations to buy off our members of Congress.

But we can’t give up and we have to persevere. We have to sift through the divisions in our community created mainly by outsiders who hope to weaken us by keeping us divided.

Here is a list I have compiled of Arabs and Muslims seeking public office. The difficulty of course is that Arabs and Muslims who have non-Arab or Muslim last names may not be included. If you notice someone not on the list, please send the information to me so I can correct the listing.

CLICK THIS LINK TO VIEW PDF DOCUMENT

The Arab community came together at a meeting of the Arab American Democracy Coalition on Ferb. 16, 2025 where Arab American candidates attended and other mainstream American politicians like former State Rep. Cyril Nichols spoke up to show support.

CLICK THIS LINK TO VIEW THE VIDEO OF THE SPEAKERS