Muslim-Majority City Council Elected in Michigan Hamtramck is believed to be first U.S. city with the distinction; 4 of 6 seats filled by Muslims By Kris Maher
http://www.wsj.com/articles/muslim-majority-city-council-elected-in-michigan-1447111581
“I’m proud to be an American Muslim, but we were elected by everyone in Hamtramck and we’re going to serve everyone,” said Saad Almasmari, a 28-year-old Yemeni-American who was elected to the council by receiving the most votes of the six candidates on the ballot. Mr. Almasmari, who moved to the U.S. in 2009 and became a citizen in 2011, expects to take office in early January.
After last week’s election, four of the city council’s six seats will be filled by Muslims, including three who are from Bangladesh. One of those council members was an incumbent not up for re-election.
A city of 22,000 that is surrounded on all sides by Detroit, Hamtramck was once a haven for immigrants who were mainly Polish and Catholic. But more recently, churches have given way to mosques. The Polish population has dropped to about 11% today from 90% in 1970s. Since 2004, the Muslim call to prayer has been broadcast to the city’s streets.
Arab immigrants, mostly from Yemen, now make up 24% of Hamtramck’s population, according to the Census Bureau. Other Muslim immigrants have come from Eastern Europe and Asia. By some estimates, the city’s Muslim population has surpassed 50%.
“They’re the new majority, and those numbers are being reflected at the ballot box,” said Sally Howell, an associate professor of history at the University of Michigan-Dearborn who published a history of the Muslim communities in Detroit last year.
Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Michigan chapter, said he isn’t aware of any other city council in the U.S. that is majority-Muslim.
Like other municipalities in Michigan, Hamtramck has struggled financially, and Gov. Rick Snyder named two emergency managers in recent years to repair the city’s finances. It is still in receivership, and city officials are overseen by a board appointed by the governor. But many say the influx of immigrants to Hamtramck has helped the local economy rebound: Restaurants attract workers from Detroit for lunch, and others are drawn to the area’s clothing and grocery stores. “This is a commercial island in a sea of emptiness,” Ms. Howell said.
Mr. Snyder, a Republican, on Friday attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Bangladeshi American Public Affairs Committee in a Hamtramck neighborhood known as Banglatown for its concentration of Bangladeshi immigrants.
Hamtramck’s recent immigrants have faced resistance, including initial opposition to publicly broadcasting the call to prayer, but the city has largely avoided becoming a focus of anti-Muslim sentiment, like Dearborn 15 miles to the west. Last month, protesters squared off in Dearborn, with some carrying guns and posters that read, “Stop the Islamization of America.” The city of 96,000 has long attracted Arab-Americans—an estimated 40% of Dearborn residents trace their history to the Middle East, including Muslims and Christians.
Meanwhile, some Hamtramck residents say the city-council election won’t change much.
Greg Kowalski, chairman of the Hamtramck Historical Commission, said the city has always celebrated its diversity and has residents from China, Ukraine, the Philippines and Albania. He said his grandparents emigrated from Poland, and he is 100% Polish. “Before the Poles were here the Germans were here, and before that the French were here,” he said. “Life is going to go on as usual.”
Write to Kris Maher at kris.maher@wsj.com
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