What’s Life Like in America’s First City With a Muslim-Majority City Council?

[eridani]

http://www.thenation.com/article/whats-life-like-in-americas-first-city-with-a-muslim-majority-city-council/

Just after the Paris attacks, right before the San Bernardino shooting, and during a campaign season in which Donald Trump has made bigotry a pillar of his candidacy, Hamtramck, Michigan’s residents voted in the nation’s first Muslim-majority city council in its November elections.

With that news, the international media descended on Hamtramck, a dense and shabby postindustrial town physically surrounded by Detroit. The Washington Post presented a picture of a “tense” city where the “the influx of Muslims…has profoundly unsettled some residents.” CNN asked Hamtramck’s mayor if she’s afraid of her Muslim neighbors, and The Telegraph wrote of the election’s stoking “tensions” in the community. Other news sources recycled and embellished upon those reports, and suddenly Hamtramck became “Shariaville, USA” and “Muslimville, USA,” enacting booze bans and Sharia law.

In reality, there’s not much tension worth mentioning in Hamtramck (pronounced Ham-tram-ick), my home for five years. To the contrary, many of the city’s non-Muslim residents are proud to be a part of a historic first, and reports of tension and conflict are the work of those with an agenda or reporters capitalizing on a hostile national discourse.

That’s not to say the media interest is illegitimate: The Western world is experiencing a wave of Islamaphobia, and people want to know what life is like in an American city where Muslims are in charge. This is the first time in decades that the Polish Catholics haven’t run Hamtramck. Two Bangladeshis were reelected to the six-member city council in the election, while a Yemeni man bounced out an incumbent Polish council member. The three of them join another Muslim council member who was not up for reelection.

[Person 2713]

1. I m sure things are just fine... Sad some are expecting shariaville etc.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

3. While everybody is quaking in fear over Muslim Sharia Law

Christian "Sharia Law" actually exists in some parts of this country.

[NaturalHigh]

5. Really? Name three.

Hyperbole much?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

10. In a general sense

Ever noticed all of the ("Christian&quot religious based laws that are routinely introduced against LGBTs, anti-abortion laws, etc. at the state and local levels. Didn't mean to suggest that they are taking over swaths of the country.

[Person 2713]

11. Right now Jesusville USA is only a theme park but shariaville USA is only in some people's crazyhead

https://www.facebook.com/JesusvilleUSA/

[leftynyc]

7. Where does Christian "sharia" law

exist anywhere in this country. And you must mean it trumps the US constitution or your post is complete bullshit.

[el_bryanto]

8. Trumps the constitution is a pretty high bar to set isn't it?

I'm a Christian myself, but when you look at things like what the Texas School Boards are doing it's hard not to see that as a bit of overreach by Christian Conservatives. There are also plenty of nasty restrictions placed on where clinics that perform Abortions can be - restrictions which are largely in place to placate Conservative Christians.

Bryant

[leftynyc]

9. Not a high bar at all

when you're talking about actual laws. ALL our laws must pass constitutional standards so either "Christian" law based on the bible or "Sharia" law based on the Koran have to constitutional.

[el_bryanto]

12. they have to constitutional, eh?

So Conservative Christians can run everything, and so long as they aren't hauled before the supreme court they are fine?

Bryant

[leftynyc]

13. Hyperbole isn't helping your argument

We still have roe v wade on the books, gays can still marry, I can still stand on my rooftop saying any religion I please is full of shit - where exactly are the conservative christians running anything? And yes, until someone gets off their asses and sues about a law, it will stay on the books until the supreme court decides otherwise. That's the way it's worked for over 200 years.

[pampango]

2. "The Western world is experiencing a wave of Islamaphobia, and people want to know what life is like

in an American city where Muslims are in charge."

The Washington Post presented a picture of a “tense” city where the “the influx of Muslims…has profoundly unsettled some residents.” ... n reality, there’s not much tension worth mentioning in Hamtramck (pronounced Ham-tram-ick), my home for five years. To the contrary, many of the city’s non-Muslim residents are proud to be a part of a historic first, and reports of tension and conflict are the work of those with an agenda or reporters capitalizing on a hostile national discourse.

And, yes, there are a few bigots who are unhappy that our City Council is controlled by Muslims. But there are bigots everywhere, not just here. Those views, however, don’t reflect that of the majority of the city’s population."

Great article, eridani.

[Bluenorthwest]

4. A city once dominated by one anti gay religious group is now dominated by another. What's the change

exactly? Of course The Nation excels in exclusion of LGBT persons and issues from their universe of consideration but still, that town has been very negative toward LGBT thus far.

2008 and aftermath:
In campaign over Hamtramck’s gay rights proposal, outsiders did most of funding
http://www.thehamtramckreview.com/in-campaign-over-hamtramck%E2%80%99s-gay-rights-proposal-outsiders-did-most-of-funding/


Current events:
Hamtramck NAACP President Comes Under Criticism
Residents and civil rights advocates are appalled that Asm “Kamal” Rahman, a leading voice in the successful ballot initiative to overturn a local anti-discrimination ordinance last year, is now sitting on the boards of civil rights groups in southeast Michigan.
A July 22 video (on youtube.com) of Rahman can be seen and heard saying such things as:

“The terms sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. Those are the words we are opposing because, sexual orientation, the meaning is limitless. Sexual orientation does not limit…orientation toward whom? It could be animal, it could be children. Not just man-to-man, but man-to-animal…I know it sounds crude, but this is the fact…

“Get rid of it [Human Rights Ordinance] altogether. Get rid of the discussion … this law will discriminate against people who are non-homosexual, heterosexual people, will be discriminated against.”
http://www.thehamtramckreview.com/hamtramck-naacp-president-comes-under-criticism/

An issue such as this shows that which religion is exploited as excuse for bigotry is not at all important, the bigotry remains the same.

[marmar]

6. What anti-gay religious group dominated Hamtramck before?

A member of the Hamtramck NAACP who happens to be a moron does not indicate "dominance" over a city. This is extremely intellectually dishonest crap.

[KamaAina]

15. I believe the poster is referring to Catholics.

[KamaAina]

14. Maricopa County, AZ NAACP President Comes Under Criticism

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027569185

Spokane, WA NAACP President Comes Under Criticism

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141118437

Neither is Muslim.