On Thursday, The Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights hosted Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential candidate, for an evening of community discussion. 

Stein, 73, a three-time Green Party presidential candidate, said as president she would immediately call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

“The president can make a phone call and stop this genocide right now,” said Stein, who is from a Jewish background and graduated from Harvard Medical School. “Joe Biden has all the power in the world not only to assert his moral influence, but also to stop the transfer of weapons because whether congress has appropriated money or not, the president could stop the continuous transfer of weapons.”

Stein said the Green Party does not accept corporate or donations from Super PACs. She also said she’s been involved in reform against big money in politics. She said that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) should be classified as a foreign lobbying organization. AIPAC is a lobbying group that advocates pro-Israel policies to the legislative and executive branches of the United States.

“Greens are, above all, dedicated to getting big money out of politics and ending the cultural influence,” she said. “We (the U.S) have a system of legalized bribery… It’s very clear that what drives policy is campaign contributions is money from lobbyists.”

Stein said she and the Green Party support electoral reform to rank choice voting. 

Jill Stein answers community questions at the Islamic House of Wisdom on Thursday evening. – Videograb

“Green Party does not seek to dominate the political landscape,” she said. “Our goal is multi-partisan democracy, without the money, with the people back in. Get the big money out, and let’s go to work here. We’ve got a world to save.”

She said she has maintained consistent stances and has been an anti-war activist since her high school years, fighting against the wars in Vietnam and Iraq. She told an audience of local Arab and Muslim Americans that she declined running in political races with the Democratic Party, though the party could have helped with financing her campaign.

“I’m not a young person trying to make my way in the world,” she said. “I’m someone at the other end, trying to just do right by our community. And I would say that we’re all sticking our necks out here to be taking the positions that we’re taking, and I don’t think any of us do this casually. And at the end of the day, we need to work together. The sooner the better.”

Stein said it was an honor to be in Dearborn.

“So many of us have looked to Dearborn for your courage, for your vision, for your really elevating the hope and the vision of the nation in this very precarious urgent moment when we are watching a genocide roll out on iPhones and our TVs and our computer screens in incredible detail,” she said. “As America becomes aware that this is blood on our hands, we are not simply accomplices.”  

Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi, the spiritual leader of the Islamic House of Wisdom (IHW), one of the largest Muslim institutions in the state of Michigan, introduced Stein and spoke about the values of the Green Party: ecological wisdom, social justice, grassroots democracy, non violence, community-based economics and global responsibility.

“The whole world is watching America,” Elahi said. “When we travel to other countries, we don’t want to feel shame of being part of the nation that is involved in all this genocide. When we have example (leaders) like Dr. Stein, it gives us so much honor and integrity and pride that America is not just Trump and Biden and this and that. America is bigger than that.” 

The doctor and environmental advocate joins a chorus of outsiders competing for the Oval Office as discontent with Biden reaches new levels few months from Election Day.

Stein’s last national bid in 2016 sparked considerable anger from Democrats, who argued she contributed to the election of Donald Trump by taking away votes from Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in close swing states, including Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Clinton allies accused her of being a spoiler that year.