Michigan City Is First in the Nation to Be Led by All-Muslim Government: 'Historic Achievement'
A city in Michigan has made history as the first in the nation to be led by an all-Muslim government.
Hamtramck, which consists of a little more than two square miles and has approximately 28,000 residents, sits within Detroit.
Amer Ghalib, an immigrant who was born in Yemen and worked previously in health care, was sworn in on Jan. 2 as the city's first Muslim mayor.
"I feel proud and I feel a big responsibility and this is why we have to work very hard to prove that we, as immigrants, can work and succeed in managerial, public service and political fields in this country," Ghalib told Arab News in a story published Monday.
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His win in November with 37 percent of the vote among four candidates, defeating incumbent Karen Majewski, marked the first time the city has elected a non-Polish mayor in 100 years, according to The Detroit Free Press.
Originally founded by German farmers, Hamtramck was predominantly a Polish immigrant community, sometimes called Little Warsaw. Now, more than half the residents are reportedly Arab-American.
Salwan Georges/For the Washington Post
Its residents speak more than two dozen different languages, making the city's current slogan, — "The world in two square miles" — quite apt.
The city council is made up entirely of Muslim leaders. Five of six members are also Arab and immigrated to the U.S. Councilwoman Amanda Jaczkowski is an American-born convert to Islam.
"We were the qualified candidates," Jaczkowski told Blue Ridge Public Radio in December. "We were the ones who have the most voice for the community that elected us because they trust us to represent what they need from the city."
Ghalib called the all-Muslim government a "historic achievement" but said the faith of Hamtramck's leadership is not a factor when it comes to governing.
"There is no difference, because we are all bound by the city regulations and the country's constitution, with laws and regulations that we cannot violate," he said in the interview with Arab News. "All religions promote virtue and our noble Islam promotes doing good and abandoning evil and respecting others and treating them well."
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Jaczkowski echoed that sentiment, saying in her radio interview she and her colleagues take the U.S. Constitution-guaranteed separation of church and state "very seriously."
Ghalib hopes Arab, Muslim and immigrant representation at Hamtramck's city hall will be a positive example of what people with different stories and beliefs can achieve.
"I think it inspired many of the youth to go for this field and made them confident in themselves and of their abilities and that they have become an inseparable part of the fabric of this society," he told Arab News.
