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Sunday, November 15, 2015

Michigan Town Elects What May Be Nation's First Muslim-Majority City Council

Hamtramck residents have elected a Muslim majority to the city's six-member city council, symbolizing the demographic changes that have transformed the city once known for being a Polish Catholic enclave.

In Tuesday's election -- with six candidates running for three seats -- the top three vote-getters were Muslim, while the bottom three were non-Muslim. Two of the Muslim candidates, Anam Miah and Abu Musa, are incumbent city councilmen, while newcomer Saad Almasmari, the top vote-getter, also was elected. The seat of another Muslim incumbent councilman, Mohammed Hassan, was not up for re-election, and incumbent City Councilman Robert Zwolak came in fifth place.

Some believe the city is the first in the U.S. with a Muslim majority on its city council. Four of the six council members will be Muslim: three of them of Bangladeshi descent and one Yemeni.

"Hamtramck has made history," said Hamtramck community leader Bill Meyer. "The election was far from close, with the three Muslim winners each gaining over 1,000 votes, while the other three candidates garnered less than 700 votes each."

Councilman Musa, who came in second place, told the Free Press that he will work to represent everyone in the city regardless of background.

"I'm a very good Muslim," said Musa, an immigrant from Bangladesh. "I try my best to pray five times (a day), but when I get elected, every single ethnic votes for me, not (only) the Muslim vote for me, but Christians, every single ethnic group, African-Americans, Polish. I'm a good friend of the Polish."

"I represent every single citizen in Hamtramck," he said. "I'm serving all city of Hamtramck."

Formerly known for its Polish population, Hamtramck is now about 24% Arab (mostly Yemeni); 19% African American; 15% Bangladeshi; 12% Polish; and 6% Yugoslavian (many Bosnian), according to U.S. Census figures.

The percentage of residents who are Muslim is unclear since the U.S. Census does not ask about religion. Estimates of the Muslim population range from one-third to more than one-half of city residents.

Almost all of the Yemeni Americans in Hamtramck are Muslim, while the growing Bangaldeshi-American community in Hamtramck has Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists. The city has a Bangladeshi Hindu temple and Bangladeshi mosques.

On Friday, Gov. Rick Snyder attended the opening of Bangla Town, an area that will celebrate Bangladeshi-American culture in Hamtramck and bordering Detroit neighborhoods. About 41% of the city are immigrants, the highest percentage among cities in metro Detroit. Pope John Paul II, who was Polish, visited Hamtramck in 1987; a statue of him commemorating his visit is in a city park.

Three of the Muslims on Hamtramck's City Council are of Bangladeshi descent, while Almasmari is of Yemeni descent. The council's only other Arab-American Muslim in its history was Abdul Algazali, who died in February.

The issue of Islam has sometimes come up in recent years as the Muslim population grows. After contentious debate, the city allowed in 2004 the Muslim call to prayer to be broadcast publicly five times a day from mosques through loudspeakers.

The call to prayer has drawn complaints from residents who say it's loud and intrusive, waking them up early and bothering them. City Council candidate Susan Dunn, who came in fourth place, raised the issue during the campaign, prompting a response from Almasmari during a city council meeting last month.

"We all want to live peacefully and respectfully," he said to the council during the October meeting, according to a video he posted to his Facebook account. "Our special thing is ... the diversity in this town."

Almasmari said the call to prayer "is not as loud as (Dunn) thinks." Moreover, if "we are considering the call to prayer as noise," then so would "the loud music all night long while we are sleeping."

"We as Muslims respect our neighbors and we don't like to bother anybody," he said. "As the Prophet Mohammed said: he who believes in Allah and the last day, let him not harm his neighbors."

Meyer, who is not Muslim, said that Muslims in Hamtramck "have helped bring stability, security and sobriety while lessening the amount of drugs and crime in the city."

Source

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

get ready for shariah law in Michigan...

Anonymous said...

I want to see what it looks like a year from now!

Anonymous said...

and so it begins ....

Anonymous said...

Maybe, but why are you worried about it? Do you live there?

Anonymous said...

I guess that's one more place to cross off my bucket list! I was always intrigued by the name.

Anonymous said...

sad day for America.

Anonymous said...

Who wants it. I say wait a year and drop about thirty daisey cutters on it.

Anonymous said...

Pay no attention this this... Starbucks having red cups should be worthy of WAR!

Rejects.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps it's what is called democracy. Look it up.

Anonymous said...

Coming to a town near you.

Anonymous said...

1:54 - that's a 'To whom it may concern' kind of weapon - good choice!

Anonymous said...

And it can happen heren Maryland. Montgomery co is full of them. They're already impacting law there. This is what happens when a community slow and quietly fills up with a culture. It's the equivalent of a roach infestation.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Maybe, but why are you worried about it? Do you live there?

November 10, 2015 at 1:15 PM

You are a F*****g ignorant A-hole!! You just don't get it do you! You are part of the problem and you need to get out of our country!!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Perhaps it's what is called democracy. Look it up.

November 10, 2015 at 2:17 PM

Liberal Douche Bag! I know you don't have to look that up!!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
And it can happen heren Maryland. Montgomery co is full of them. They're already impacting law there. This is what happens when a community slow and quietly fills up with a culture. It's the equivalent of a roach infestation.

November 10, 2015 at 3:06 PM

That is correct and they pay absolutely NO TAXES in that county or this country. They are the minority majority that the rich Montgomery County Libtards are gracefully working to pay taxes for. They are the majority that uses the school system for free and they are the ones demanding common core and teach Allah!

Anonymous said...

Hahahahaahaahaa........what a bunch of paranoid Eastern Shore idiots posting on here.

Anonymous said...

4:31 PM, nothing paranoid about this at all, it's happening and there will be no stopping it or are you too dumb to see that?

Anonymous said...

Wow, talk about losing your heads!

Anonymous said...

i have friends who live in Michigan and Minnesota, and theyve all said the influx of middle eastern people is shocking....all over the area.
they suspect it has to do with Canada and the great lakes being a highway for them to enter, legally, or illegally.
this is coming stright from them...NOT eastern shore people guessing or taking swings at them.
its a FACT.
believe it or not.
ive seen it with my own eyes, and until youve been there, you have no idea what you're talking about.
get ready people...

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Hahahahaahaahaa........what a bunch of paranoid Eastern Shore idiots posting on here.

November 10, 2015 at 4:31 PM

I bet you don't have the balls to say that to one of our faces you chicken sh!t Lefttard!!

Anonymous said...

I can't wait for the civil war to erupt and that is why I am stocking up. Lock and Load buddy!!

Anonymous said...

If anyone thinks this is ok then they don't belong in this country. They are traitors!

Anonymous said...

Have you been across the bridge? That's the problem with our country. Folks like you! Not near me. Not a problem. WRONG! If it is allowed in one place. Just one. Then it can be argued and forced upon you and your town. Better see what the Muslims are doing in Rockville MD!

Anonymous said...

Not to mention most funding from the terrorist organizations funnel through Montgomery county! Yup. F.B.I acknowledges this fact.

Anonymous said...

I think it will turn out okay in that town and I wish them well. I know a lot of Muslims who are not into this radical stuff at all. They are very laid back.

We have radicals in every religion, in every color. When we see calm, decent folk in any religion, in any color, how about we celebrate that so we can all band together when the radicals wage war?

Anonymous said...

Because a Muslim will NEVER take the side of a non-Muslim against "radical" Muslims.

And because "radical" (aka "good") Muslims are THE problem. Not "radical Lutherans" or "radical Jehovah's Witnesses" or "radical Episcopalians".

MUSLIMS.

Anonymous said...

7:36 Just like the confederate soldiers.

Anonymous said...

3:14 nailed it a 'good' slime will never side against a 'bad' slime - for fear of two things....:

1. The 'bad' slime will kill them

2. It violates their holy book!

Once they are cornered - and we have seen it many times - even in the libtard media, they will refuse to refute the radicals...then they should be carted off to GITMO or simply made to disappear!

Claudia Balzac said...

The caterwauling of the "call to prayer" is the death knell of freedom and the American Dream...unless you are a Muslim male.

I find it offensive.

They can easily use a personalized alarm on their phones to privately squall the "call to prayer", since they all have the same "schedule".

Anonymous said...

Ms. Ballsack
It offends some of us to hear church bells ringing every Sunday too.