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The Detroit News - August 04, 2007
Primary may show Muslims' influence
Gregg Krupa
HAMTRAMCK, MI -- This small city of immigrants is quickly regaining its reputation.
Once a refuge for Catholic immigrants mostly from Poland and Ukraine, who staked their claim to the American dream in this 2.2-square-mile municipality, Hamtramck is now providing the same haven for Muslims from Bangladesh, Bosnia and Yemen.
And the dream is coming to fruition, again. There is a chance that, for the first time in the United States, a majority of members of the legislative body of a municipality will be Muslims, according to national Muslim and Arab organizations.
Four Muslims are in the Tuesday primary. If they are among the six of 12 candidates to emerge for the general election in November, they would have a chance of joining a fifth Muslim, Councilman Abdul Algazali, who is up for re-election in 2009, on the six-member council.
"The new immigrants are getting involved in the American political system," said Shahab Ahmed, a two-term councilman up for re-election. "And the Muslim community is getting the idea that instead of involving themselves only with the politics of their individual communities, they are involving themselves in the local politics with the governments of the city and the state. And we are seeing that process, now, in this election."
Joining recent immigrants who are Muslims on the ballot is incumbent Councilman William Hood, who also is a Muslim. Abusayed Mafuz, publisher of the local Bangla Amar newspaper, and Delawar Hussain are also on Tuesday's ballot.
"This is not about Muslims, alone," Mafuz said. "This is about representing all people. That's my mission. I want to build a relationship with all people to unite, to create opportunities and the sort of city we all want to have."
Indeed, observers are quick to point out that the candidates who are Muslim are not generally allied.
A striking consequence of the ascendancy is that the grandsons and grand-daughters of the previous wave of immigrants are beginning to see it as not only healthy for civic life, but a boon…..
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070804/POLITICS01/708040373/1041/LIFESTYLE04
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