From Detroit News
by Mark Hicks
Saad Almasmari ran for a seat on the Hamtramck City Council this year with a simple yet powerful goal in mind.
“I like to serve my community,” the 28-year-old Yemeni immigrant said. “I like everything in Hamtramck. … The thing I like most in Hamtramck is the diversity.”
On Tuesday, Almasmari earned the highest number of votes — 1,176, or 22 percent — among the six candidates who sought three, four-year terms on the council.
With his election, Muslims now fill four of the six seats on the panel, he said. It’s now believed to be the first City Council in the country boasting a Muslim majority, said Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Michigan chapter.
“The Michigan Muslim community is becoming more civicly and politically engaged,” Walid said Thursday. “In some areas where Muslims are having an extremely difficult time, we are making progress in this area on a number of different fronts.”
The shift in leadership is another signal that Hamtramck, once known as a predominately Polish Catholic community, has in recent years welcomed a more diverse demographic.
Muslims are “a significant population in the city and they’ve been arriving here and transforming the city for a generation now,” said Sally Howell, a University of Michigan-Dearborn associate professor who has studied the group and written a book, “Old Islam in Detroit: Rediscovering the Muslim American Past.”
“It’s good to see them gain representation equal to their numbers on the City Council. That’s a great opportunity for them and for the city to imagine a new future.”
The election strides come after years of controversy. In 2013, the Al-Islah Islamic Center met resistance from Hamtramck’s Zoning Board over its proposed remodeling of its building. And in 2004, some residents heatedly objected to an ordinance the council ultimately approved to allow mosques to broadcast the Islamic call to prayer onto public streets.
