Muslims now hold four of the council’s six seats.
Courtesy of wdiv.com
By Raif Karerat
Hamtramck, Mich. has become the first locality in the United States to elect a Muslim majority city council.
While the foundations of the city were laid by German immigrants in the early 1900s, then became predominantly Polish, but the past few decades have seen a new wave of immigrants make Hamtramck their home, many of whom have been Muslims from Yemen, Bangladesh, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, according to the Associated Press.
Voters granted Abu Musa and Anam Miah another term in office, while Saad Almasmari was elected for the first time. Now four of the six City Council members will be Muslim.
Anam grew up in Hamtramck, after moving to the U.S. with his family when he was six-years-old.
“It is different,” he told ABC affiliate WXYZ while describing Hamtramck today, “but we have a lot of Polish tradition still in our community and we embrace all that tradition along with different cultural traditions. It’s a melting pot and we love it.”
While there will be more diversity on the city council, the cadre wants their constituents to know that the overarching goal of serving the public still remains the same.
“We are going to represent everybody. We are going to serve everybody, Christians, Jewish, Muslims, everybody,” Almasmari told local television station WDIV.
“I work for every single individual,” iterated Abu Musa to WXYZ. “It is my goal to make everybody happy in my ability.”
This post first appeared on The American Bazaar