TMO Editor’s Note: This is a research project, one of three sponsored by the TMO Foundation, a not-for-profit organization.
This article is by Ms. Nargis Rahman, a journalism student at Wayne State University, an article which considers the political progress made in Hamtramck, a suburb of Detroit–an examplary city, a model for other cities where the Muslim population is substantial.
Dearborn, Michigan is often known as the Muslim capital of the United States. Just beyond the former home to Henry Ford who led the automobile industry, there’s a growing population of Muslims who have set an example in community and political involvement.
Hamtramck, Michigan is a small 2.1 sq. mile city nestled between Detroit and Highland Park, cities which have both gone through economic hurdles long before the national economic downfall.
Once a thriving Polish town, housing nearly three times as many people in the early 1920s, it has now become an international town with 20,512 people of Bosnian, Arabic, Bangladeshi, Polish, and other origins.
Historian Dr. Thaddeus Radzilowski of the Piast Institute, a national center for Polish and Polish-American studies, said Polish immigrants came to pursue a better life in the United States since the early 1900s.
“Polish immigrants came to the U.S. because of hunger, poverty, foreign oppression, and religious persecution and to make a better life,” he said.
Many of the first Polish Americans died in Hamtramck, after building an “institutionally complete community,” he said.
This community attracted immigrant populations, including the Bangladeshi community in the late 1990s during the second migration, from Queens, New York.
According to the American Institute of Bangladesh Studies, the first migration took place in the 1960s when Bangladeshis fled the country to avoid political and religious persecution before the country’s independence from Pakistan.
The growth in populations lead to building institutions, which indicates a population will stick around said Dr. Radzilowski.
Institutions, such as places of worship, have increased in Hamtramck in the last decade with four mosques in Hamtramck: Al Islah Islamic Center, the Bosnian American Center, Masjid Imam Algazali, and Islamic Center of Hamtramck, which cater to the city’s Bangladeshi, Bosnian and Yemeni Muslims.
The Islamic Center of North Detroit (Masjid Al-Falah), Masjidun-Nur, Baitul Mukarram Masjid, Masjid Mu’ath Bin Jabal in Detroit border Hamtramck, attracting much of Hamtramck’s Muslim population, while the Muslim Center in Detroit is just minutes away.
There are nearly 20 churches, according to the Hamtramck Library website.
There is also one Buddhist ashram and a Hindu temple in Hamtramck, said Dr. Radzilowski.
A scent of Hamtramck
Visitors will soon be immersed in the scents of traditional foods from more than 20 ethnicities, voices of people with over 80 languages and welcomed by close-knit neighborhoods.
According to Dr. Radzilowski, Hamtramck is nearly half Muslim, with 44-47% Muslims, 46-54% of combined Christian groups, and less than 1 percent Jewish people. There is about 4-6% of the population with no professed religious group.
He said the numbers come from a combination of studying the 2000 Census and the ancestry of immigrants who tend to be from certain religious groups, as part of the Piast Institute, which doubles as a Census information center.
The Census does not directly calculate religions.
‘Do to others as you would want them to do’
In a city where residents can walk out onto their front porches and are almost guaranteed to see someone who doesn’t look like them on their street – religion isn’t always a major factor.
Sharon Buttry of Ministry of Missions at Acts 29 Fellowship, a Christina non-profit group, said the three major religious groups come together under the umbrella of the golden rule: Do to others as you would want them to do.
This extends into righteous acts; care for the poor, widows, orphans, and the needy, Buttry said.
“You look through two things: the golden rule and bring about community spirit of respect, despite differences,” she said.
Such a moment came when the city was divided between the Call to prayer, the right to announce prayer times on public speakers for Muslim prayer times, in April 2004 by a noise ordinance.
The call to prayer, Adhan
Issued by Al-Islah Islamic Center through Councilmember Shahab Ahmed, the Call to Prayer, or adhan, became a major reason to divide the city just six years ago.
In a nutshell, the Call to prayer amended the noise ordinance in April 2004, allowing prayer calls to be made by Hamtramck mosques for prayers that fall between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., “for a duration not to exceed five minutes.”
The city council unanimously voted to pass the ordinance. The voting then went to the public. The ordinance passed by a 55 percent majority, according to the Associated Press.
Citizens of Hamtramck were torn apart.
Ahmed said the ordinance gave power to the people to vote on how the prayer calls should be made, in terms of times and noise level.
“If someone makes a complaint, it could change the noise ordinance,” he said.
Non-Muslims believed it was unconstitutional to allow mosques to broadcast their faith to citizens, who were not all Muslims.
Neighbors in Hamtramck said the Call to Prayer woke them up and they didn’t understand what was being said in Arabic.
The mosque passed out flyers that translated and explained the Call to prayer.
That wasn’t enough.
Abdul Motlib, president of Al-Islah Islamic Center said, the City Hall was full of protesters in the public hearing for the ordinance in a video about the ordinance, for the Building Islam in Detroit project.
Motlib didn’t think it was a big deal, as Muslims traditionally heard these prayer calls “for [the past] 1400 years.”
Muslims said the Call to prayer is like the Church bells heard from a handful of churches around the city.
Former city councilman Abdul Algazali said, the issue was nothing personal against Churches.
He said all Muslims have to believe in Jesus Christ – but as a Prophet rather than God or son of God – in order to have faith.
“To complete religion, one must believe in Jesus,” said Algazali, referring to his respect for Christianity.
Council members Catrina Stackpoole and Tom Jankowski believe the issue still rubs people the wrong way.
Stackpoole said there is no uniformity on the issue.
Some people do not mind the diversity in town and say ‘What’s another ethnic group,’ while others are afraid of letting the minority become majority, said Stackpoole.
“It’s intruding on people’s lives but people are still not interested in ‘war,’” said Stackpoole, of citizens who oppose the Call to prayer.
“It’s not going to help the city if we have an ethnic-religious conflict,” she said.
Jankowski, who was Mayor at the time of the conflict, said non-Muslims don’t like the Call to prayer.
He said, at the time community leaders from the Muslim community said, “We don’t need this,” referring to the point of contempt.
“There was a small group that pushed and a city council who wanted to be re-elected, insisted it was the way to go. It caused a lot of problems and bad press,” Jankowski said.
He said the situation wasn’t handled right, pushing away from people visiting Hamtramck.
Although the issue was never challenged in court, Jankowski said it goes on.
Looking back, Jankowski asks himself “Was it worth the fight?”
“There’s some people who resent it; who hear it and cringe,” he said.
Secretary of Al-Islah, Masud Khan, told the New York Times he understood the insecurity felt by the people in 2004.
‘’It’s human nature,” he said.
‘’You feel an invasion. It could happen to me also.”
The story was picked up by national newspapers including the New York Times, USAToday.com, CBS News and the newswire service, Associated Press.
Councilmember Ahmed, who was the only Muslim on the board at the time, had to persuade the city council to okay the ordinance. He said it was like political suicide to try and convince political opponents on a religious matter. But he did it anyway.
“Politicians want to stay away from religion,” he said.
Mayor of Hamtramck, Karen Majewski, who was city council president at the time, said the council unanimously voted in total to allow the controversial prayer calls.
Majewski said any time an immigrant population comes into the city, changes are bound to happen. Not everyone will like them.
According to the Bringing Islam in Detroit (BIID) program, Researcher and Assistant Professor of history at the University of Michigan, Dearborn, Sally Howell, said Detroit mosques have been broadcasting the call to prayer since the 1970s. Dearborn has broadcasted the adhan since the 1980s.
Imam Hamood of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn said, although the city’s mosques can say the adhan on loudspeaker, not all do.
Like in Hamtramck, prayer calls can be put to a halt if neighbors complain.
Similarly Masjid Al-Falah in Detroit does not have the authority to recite the adhan, due to neighbors’ complaints.
Imam Abdul Latif of Masjid Al-Falah said having the prayer call on loudspeaker does not significantly increase mosque membership, although membership increases gradually on its own.
“They [people] don’t come to the masjid because of the adhan,” he said.
“If we start giving adhan non-Muslims will leave from this community and that’s not good,” Latif said.
He said one particular neighbor said she felt safe among the Muslims, although she is against the loudspeaker calls.
“We don’t want to bother them,” he said, referring to keeping unity among interfaith groups.
Unity is just what was lacking when the call to prayer created tension in the Hamtramck community.
Ahmed, who is serving his third time on the Hamtramck City Council, needed FBI protection from April-November 2004 from anonymous callers and threats, which flooded his driving school and law office, Shondhan Enterprise Inc. in Hamtramck.
“What does he look like? What is his car model? When does he come and go?” his secretaries were asked, Ahmed said.
The tension topped-off the November 2001 elections when Ahmed lost in the city council elections after the 9/11 attacks.
With a grim face, Ahmed remembered the hatred spread in the community in the forms of flyers “with made up stories” about him. He said his supporters’ windows were messed up.
This time (after the call to prayer threats) Ahmed called the FBI in Detroit.
“They came within minutes. They had been watching the whole time,” he said.
The protection ended seven months after the ordinance was in action.
Looking ahead, Ahmed said the battle paved a path for other Muslims and Bangladeshis on board.
“It should get better for the community if it doesn’t divide. I was alone then, now I don’t have to explain myself,” he said, referring to the time on the board when he was the only Muslim and Bangladeshi member.
Buttry, a resident of Hamtramck, said religious freedom was healthy for the city.
“I promoted the Call to prayer and have respect for religious liberty of different faiths other than mine,” said Buttry, a Baptist Christian.
“When I lived on Holbrook Street, I could hear the Call to prayer from three mosques,” she said.
Ahmed enjoys the prayer calls, which can usually be heard all five times during longer summer days, and sometimes in Ramadan.
“People hear the Call to prayer during fasting [Ramadan] to break fast or stop eating to begin fast,” he said with a smile.
Survival of the Fittest: Election of November 2009
Voting has never been the same in Hamtramck as last November when three candidates were elected into office – former mayor Tom Jankowski, Mohammed Hassan, and Kazi Miah, the youngest member to get the highest votes in the city’s elections; 1,652 across different ethnicities and religions.
Miah, 30, who said he is in it for all, was surprised by the large turnout of voters who chose him to represent the city.
“I got elected in a city that’s traditionally known as a Polish town. It’s a testament to residents of Hamtramck who are not looking at ethnic origin,” Miah said.
He said it is a time when everyone has to work together to help the city from economic downfall.
“I love my religion and will always love my religion but it will not get in the way of making decisions,” Miah said.
Councilwoman Catrina Stackpoole said of the 10,000 registered voters, about 3,000 voted.
According to Councilmember Ahmed, much of those were from the Muslim community.
Jankowski, who said he saw some of the ballots said, many people voted “straight Muslim candidates,” meaning they only voted for Muslims.
Despite the straight ballots, Algazali lost a mayoral seat by 123 votes to Mayor Karen Majewski, who is serving her second term, reported The Hamtramck Review.
The numbers of Muslims in a city does not always get a candidate a government seat.
Stackpoole said in the last election, with three options for Muslim councilmen and one for mayor in Hamtramck, there were limited options for non-Muslim voters.
To overcome religious and cultural barriers Tlaib said, all candidates, Muslim or not, need to stay in touch with their community’s needs.
All politicians, “must maintain accessibility for effective representation,” by talking to people, she said.
Miah said, he tackled this issue by doing door-to-door campaigning and putting a face behind his words. The youngest member on board had a Facebook fan page and website for younger members to tap into politics.
People need to keep in touch with the council as much as the council with them, by attending all city council meetings, which now has meeting minutes posted online by Hamtramck Star, a local news blog, Miah said.
Talking with council members helps the community.
Ismam, a resident of Hamtramck, said, it is convenient that three of the six council members speak Bangla and can be found at local institutions.
Stackpoole said Muslims need to integrate into the community at more than the basic levels of interactions.
Stackpoole encourages Bangladeshi and Yemeni women to jump into the pool of politics. She hopes both Muslim and non-Muslim women can get together in the same room, and “get talking” about issues, despite many who choose or have to stay home.
Hamtramck resident Ismam Ahmed, 22, said Muslim woman like his mom would be able to get politically involved, but culturally Bangladeshi woman are more reserved or modest.
“That doesn’t mean she can’t get involved. My father or I would not prevent her,” he said.
There are a few exceptions to the cultural norm, including Sheikh Hasina Wazed, the prime minister and president of the Awami League in Bangladesh, and head of the Bangladesh National Party, Khaleda Zia.
If people from different communities can talk, it will help the city, Stackpoole said.
Bill Meyer, former chair of the Hamtramck Human Relations Committee, said, there are few people making decisions for the city.
“The current administration hasn’t opened arms to everyone,” Meyer said.
“We need more people to get involved without special interests to come together,” he said.
Dearborn City Council: Councilwoman Suzanne Sareini
In Dearborn, Mich. there are nearly 29,000 Arabs, making up about 26.5 percent of the total population in the city, according to the 2000 Census and the Piast Census Information Center.
A small percentage of them voted in the November 2009 elections said, Khalil Hachem, former election reporter for the Ann Arbor News.
The Arab American News reported there are 59,000 registered voters in Dearborn.
Last year city council candidate Ali Sayed lost after having 627 votes more than councilwoman Suzanne Sareini in the precincts.
Hachem said, about 3,000 of 17,000 Arab Americans voted in the November 2009 elections, which may have contributed to Sayed’s loss.
People have a problem voting in Dearborn, he said.
“They don’t participate. If they did, they would fill every office in Dearborn,” Hachem said.
He said, theories including fear of freedom of press and lack of knowledge of the system contribute to the lack of voters voting.
Hachem said, the community needs to vote to allocate resources for the city.
“You can’t lobby anyone if your people don’t vote,” he said.
Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Michigan estimates 90 percent of the Arab American population in Dearborn is Muslim.
Suzanne Sareini is the only Muslim on the Dearborn City Council.
Sareini, who has been serving on the council since 1989, says she has “weathered the storm” she first encountered when running for a council seat.
“It’s nothing like how it was 20 years ago,” Sareini said, referring to people who opposed having her on the Dearborn City Council.
Being born and raised in Dearborn, she didn’t think she was any different than the other candidates until she ran for city council.
“It was a rude awakening,” Sareini said.
People have prejudice and assumptions, she said.
“I always kept a professional demeanor, causing criticism from the Arab American community,” Sareini said.
She says, “it’s a night and day difference” having her on city council as a representative of Arab Americans and Muslim, as it “makes people watch what they say.”
With a common language and culture, there are certain people who feel more comfortable talking to her.
Sareini said, the Dearborn community is light-years ahead, as the Arab Americans are participating more in the government, something she says the small-business community did not pursue in earlier years.
Sareini is serving her sixth term on the Dearborn City Council, and running for state representative in district 15.
Sareini says being Muslim is not what makes her stand out.
“You have to represent the community at large,” she said.
She would rather focus on the important issues for the city, what she says are the same across the board, Muslim or not, including garbage control, schools, and “not looking at anyone special.”
Walid said, those running for office should not be voted-in on the basis of their faith.
They might not be “plugged in the religious community,” Walid said.
Walid, who does lectures and events in Dearborn said, he does not recall seeing or meeting Sareini in religious meetings or lectures.
Sareini said she may have not met Walid due to a generational gap of what she calls “a young active group.”
“It is to their credit they are active but I probably know their parents. I would be happy to meet him (Walid) and attend events,” Sareini said.
Sareini said, she is active in the Muslim community and attends the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, where she has gone since a child.
Dearborn Heights, an extension of Muslims in Dearborn
Dearborn Heights, a city branching off from Dearborn, has about 58,888 people based on the 2006-2008 American Community Survey, and the Piast Institute.
The population is one-third of Arab-descent, predominately Muslim, said councilmember Tom Berry.
Dr. Radzilowski said some Arab people use the category “white” for racial distinction, making it hard to determine who Arabs are on the Census. The racial data shows there are 91.2 percent “white” people in Dearborn Heights, while there are 91.6 percent “white” in Dearborn.
Based on the 2000 Census data and the Piast Institute, 4,578 identified themselves as Arab, out of 67,253 people surveyed.
Berry, the only Muslim on the city council of seven, said by being Muslim he is not necessarily helping the community. Understanding the city’s needs and being representative of those needs is important.
“I don’t know it’s so much that is important that you’re Muslim. What is more important is that anybody who is on the council understands the need of the community,” Berry said.
He said in Dearborn Height there is a challenge to have people become more assimilated to the neighborhood ordinances.
“We need our people to understand the importance of the ordinances and the ways set in the city,” he said.
One way to meet the needs of the city is by speaking Arabic.
Berry said Hassan Bazzi, one of the city’s ordinance officers, goes to people’s homes and explains what people can and cannot do in Arabic. It helps the Arab-Muslim community understand the rules and get needs met, Berry said.
“It’s not just somebody pushing something [ordinances] on them,” he said.
Other Muslims in the city’s government include the Director of the Building and Engineering Department Mohamed Sobh, Director of the Community and Economic Development Commission Ron Amen, and the 20th District Court Judge David Turfe.
Berry said just like in other cities, you have to push people to vote in Dearborn Heights.
Votes may get Kathy Abdel-Hak, a Muslim, on the council after the August primaries.
According to her campaign website, www.kathleenabdel-hak.com, Abdel-Hak says she is running for better management of city programs, technological advances, and open government.
Judge David Turfe of Dearborn Heights said he is proud to be Muslim and a representative of the city’s 10-15 percent Muslim population.
Turfe, who goes to institutions in Dearborn said, Muslims in Dearborn Heights feel like an extended part of the community.
“Some politicians do not service our needs,” in terms of cultural understanding and some things we need he said.
Turfe said that’s “our own fault, we have 15,000 voters we can’t elect anyone.”
Turfe said, although Muslims should be representative in city councils of Dearborn and Dearborn Heights, where there are large concentrations of Muslims, if someone is representing the needs of the community, they don’t have to be Muslim.
“Certainly we want to be represented in terms of the numbers of the percentages of who’s representing the city but at the same time if you have other people in the council who are representing the needs of the city… We only want people to do what’s best for their constituency, Muslim, Christian, Jew or whoever,” Turfe said.
Muslims may not be fit for the job, he said.
“If we have a Muslim in that position and they’re not doing the best job that will make us look bad,” Turfe said, something which he believes the Muslim community cannot afford with the already present negative stereotypes of Islam.
“You shouldn’t vote for someone because they are for say, Arab American, but because you truly believe this person is best for the job…if they’re not doing the best, they’re not going to blame the person, they’re going to blame the whole community. We’re not strong enough to overcome that.”
He said the Dearborn Heights community takes care of each other.
“It’s a great community. When someone’s sick or someone is need, someone always rally around the people,” Turfe said.
The long-time resident of Dearborn Heights, Turfe said, he is proud of all the institutions in the city, including 40 churches, three Jehovah Witness institutions, and one mosque, the Islamic House of Wisdom.
Walid said both Hamtramck and Dearborn have high concentration of Muslims and Islamic tenants.
They have different ethnic groups and immigration migration times, he said.
Walid said, the Dearborn community is good at getting active in protests but they lack the political power from the basic levels.
“Perhaps when it comes to local politics or local issues be it a city elections or state elections – that portion of the community is galvanized to get involved in the situation,” Walid said.
Without the city council to cater to the community’s major needs, the Arab American Chaldean Council, which has over 40 outreach programs, and the Arab Community Center for Economic Social Services (ACCESS), which has six locations in Dearborn and one in Hamtramck, provide social services to their respective communities.
“If a tragedy happens there’s call for activism or emotional reaction for protests in front of city council. When it comes to shaping the political environment like the city council or school boards or state representatives then there’s considerably less concern,” Walid said.
Walid said political action starts at a grass roots level and works its way up to state and federal levels to affect policy.
Walid cautions people when voting just for Muslim candidates.
Candidates are representative of the entire municipality, not just of their Muslim community, Walid said.
He said in Hamtramck there is more cooperation among different Muslim groups (compared to Dearborn), including the Bangladeshi and Yemeni communities, when it comes to voting.
State representative Rashida Tlaib said, Muslim candidates have to be the best candidate for all kinds of people. They need to do their best and work for everyone, she said.
“Do a great job for the people who voted for you,” Tlaib said, noting that by doing a great job, Muslim officials represent the larger Muslim community.
It’s not all about religion
In Hamtramck, where everyone is facing a rough economic downturn, it’s not all about religion.
As long as politicians are doing what’s best for the city, it doesn’t matter what religion they are, said School Board President Titus Walters.
Whether someone is Christian or Muslim shouldn’t affect the way they make decisions for the city, Walters said.
As a Christian, I think I do what God wants me to do, as another may say Allah wants them to do,” said Walters, acknowledging almost half the city is Muslim.
Majewski said council members have to vote with their conscious when they have access to certain information, which may not always match up with the community’s expectations.
She said, they have to look at the good for the whole city, not always their own group.
Such a moment came when Councilmember Ahmed voted for the human rights ordinance in 2008,while Councilmember Algazali voted against it, along with the majority of the religious leaders and citizens who opposed the ordinance.
The ordinance set to give those in the LGBT community equal housing opportunities.
It was voted down by the public in the elections.
Algazali said he often found himself on opposite sides with the other Muslim councilmember, but he still cast his vote to represent the community.
A different view in Hamtramck may help.
Council members Stackpoole and Jankowski said Kazi Miah “won across boards,” in the November 2008 elections.
Both Stackpoole and Jankowski said, Miah represents the city’s needs with fresh eyes.
Miah says, he doesn’t want people patting him on the back because he is Muslim.
Rather he says, “People should think 30 times before you say Islam. It’s not a joke, it’s a way of life.”
There have been and are over 20 Muslim elected officials on federal, state and local levels in the United States, according to a compilation by The Muslim Observer in November 2008.
Early this month, Mohammed Hameeduddin was sworn in as mayor in Teaneck, New Jersey in a historical city of Orthodox Jews, according to the New York Times.
Other notable Muslim elected officials include Councilman Amir Omar of Richardson, Texas, who the first Muslim to be voted in office in the northern Texas, and State Representative Rashida Tlaib, who won a democrat seat in the last election as the first Arab American woman and second Muslim to win in Michigan.
Businesses in Hamtramck
Conant, Hamtramck is a bustling street branching off into major streets Caniff and Carpenter in Detroit.
It is only a distant memory of “for rent” signs, shacked up buildings and people moving away.
Now, the dubbed “Bangladesh Avenue” is dotted with Bangladeshi clothes stores, groceries, restaurants and services.
Councilmember Ahmed, who pushed for the ethnic recognition, put together this initiative last year.
“As a major avenue, the Polish couldn’t do that,” Ahmed says of the recognition achieved by the Bangladesh community’s work into bringing back to life the almost-dead business haven.
Councilmember Jankowski said Muslim businessmen have brought mainly dollar stores, restaurants, and sari [clothes] stores to restore the city.
“Most of those businesses were closed up and Bangladeshi people opened-up stores. That street became revived,” Jankowski said.
“The Bangladeshi came in quick and hard within a couple of years it just exploded,” he said, until businesses flopped due to poor revenues. Owners were unable to make their payments.
“There it sits until it’s repaired,” he said.
In one way, Jankowski believes the shops have divided the community into Muslims and non-Muslims.
“My sister is not going to buy a sari. My buddy Mahfuz is not going to buy a pork chop. We struggle with that,” Jankowski said.
He said other populations, such as the Yemeni community, have survived with little shops.
Co-owner of Al-Haramain International Foods, Ali Alaudi, who is Yemeni, said his store is for all.
“We try to bring everybody here. If someone people ask me for something I go look for it,” he said.
Alaudi said, when you do well for the city, it benefits everyone.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re Muslim or non-Muslim. Work for everyone. Work with the law for the betterment of Hamtramck,” he said.
Beata Bochińska, employee at The Polish Market in Hamtramck, said the grocery store has attracted a lot more than Polish people after moving onto the busy downtown street of Joseph Campau.
With a Polish background and a mix of newer cultures in Hamtramck, Councilmember Stackpoole said the city can use its history to make revenues.
“History draws people,” Stackpoole said.
The city’s rich Polish roots bring in people on Paczki Day (Fat Tuesday). If there were no such holidays, the shops would be empty, she said.
But she says, the city needs to “add a touch of international” to it, referring to marketing purposes.
We need an understanding between Polish, non-Polish, Muslim, non-Muslim, artists, musicians, and poets, she said.
Model “Muslim City”
Walid says Hamtramck is a place where Muslims needs’ can be met without leaving the city, “From places of worship to cultural activities to shopping for foods.”
He said the city has a diverse mix of other cultural and religious groups, which helps the development of children.
“There is a population of Muslims who also other faiths who live around which allows the children to have a healthy self image about being Muslims, at the same time arouse them to interact with other people so they are not in a cocoon,” said Walid.
Walid said one of the problems he has heard about the Dearborn community include the Arab population’s residing in mainly the South and East parts of the city, with predominately white Americans (non-Arab) in the western part.
He said this leads to the community segregation, causing people to not be able to function outside of the city and with other cultural groups.
Hamtramck is a little better in that regard, he said.
Bochińska said the mix is helpful when people get along in the city.
Buttry, who lives in the city said, sometimes she finds herself in the post office with 15 other cultures.
“It’s not like you’re interacting. You just happen to be in the same space,” Buttry said.
Still Councilmember Miah of Hamtramck says the city is a true melting pot.
“It’s diverse unlike any other city in the U.S.,” he said, with close-knit neighbors.
Walid said Dearborn may have a higher concentration of Muslims per capita, however, “Hamtramck has more of a Muslim character about it more than Dearborn as far as the actual manners of people.”
“Dearborn is not necessarily representative of Islam just because a lot of Muslims live there,” he said, referring to mainstream Sunni views.
Historically, the Arab population of Dearborn and Dearborn Heights has a lot of Lebanese and Syrian Arab backgrounds, who are Shi’I Muslims, whereas those in Hamtramck are Yemeni and Sunni Muslims, said Walid.
They are ethnically, religious and culturally different, Walid said.
According to the Piast Institute and the 2000 Census, there are just over 17,305 Lebanese who live in Dearborn, while 3,136 live in Dearborn-Heights. There are also high concentrations of German, Italian, English, Polish and American residents in the cities.
Hamtramck had among its high populations, 5,263 Polish, 2,158 Arabs, 2,403 Yugoslavian residents, and pockets of Ukrainian, German and Italian residents, according to the 2000 Census and the Piast Institute.
Walid predicts the Muslim population of Hamtramck may be closer to 75 percent in the next 10 years due to higher birth rates in the Muslim families and immigration into the city.
“The older Polish community and Ukrainian community have been slowly leaving Hamtramck while the Yemeni and Bangladeshi communities are growing,” he said.
Dr. Radzilowski said they are moving into the suburbs.
Hamtramck Councilmember Jankowski said, one day before he ran for mayor in 2004, he stepped out onto his porch and saw every type of person.
“I started to not recognize my city anymore,” Jankowski said, but “You gotta roll with it. You can’t live on memory.”
When asked if there is a Muslim mayor in the city’s future, Walid said it is possible depending on the candidate, if they are able to mobilize the community.
He advises the community to be “savvy on the issues not just the religious affiliation.”
Jankowski said, the city can move forward if council members go out to their communities and ask them to work together.
“Personally I like the mix on the city council; I hope my colleagues will go back on the communities and tell them, ‘you have to get involved and we have to start walking in the same direction here,” Jankowski said of public safety, economic development and housing.
Buttry agrees, saying someone said Hamtramck has strong family values, with family orientation expressed at large in the city.
Buttry said with many small businesses and hard-working families, Hamtramck has something great to offer.
She says the key to success in the city also lies on the shoulders of the council members, who must be role models to the city’s youth, inspiring them to build relationships in the community.
Hamtramck has become home to a growing population of Muslims who are vocalizing their concerns, stepping up to office and paving paths for other communities with a large Muslim population to follow.
Notably, the community has put forth five Muslim council members in the past decade. The community now stands by as three Muslim candidates; Shahab Ahmed, Akm Rahman and Abdul Algazali from Hamtramck battle for a spot as state representative in the November elections.
For more information on Hamtramck, please visit www.hamtramck.us, hamtramckstar.com, and the hamtramckreview.com.
Nargis Rahman is a journalism student at Wayne State University. Rahman has written for Wayne State’s student newspaper, The South End, The Muslim Observer and The Hamtramck Citizen. She has interned at Fox 2 News, Detroit, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Michigan. Rahman looks forward to a career in community journalism in the Greater Detroit area. Rahman grew up in Hamtramck and now lives in Detroit.
This article is by Ms. Nargis Rahman, a journalism student at Wayne State University, an article which considers the political progress made in Hamtramck, a suburb of Detroit–an examplary city, a model for other cities where the Muslim population is substantial.
Dearborn, Michigan is often known as the Muslim capital of the United States. Just beyond the former home to Henry Ford who led the automobile industry, there’s a growing population of Muslims who have set an example in community and political involvement.
Hamtramck, Michigan is a small 2.1 sq. mile city nestled between Detroit and Highland Park, cities which have both gone through economic hurdles long before the national economic downfall.
Once a thriving Polish town, housing nearly three times as many people in the early 1920s, it has now become an international town with 20,512 people of Bosnian, Arabic, Bangladeshi, Polish, and other origins.
Historian Dr. Thaddeus Radzilowski of the Piast Institute, a national center for Polish and Polish-American studies, said Polish immigrants came to pursue a better life in the United States since the early 1900s.
“Polish immigrants came to the U.S. because of hunger, poverty, foreign oppression, and religious persecution and to make a better life,” he said.
Many of the first Polish Americans died in Hamtramck, after building an “institutionally complete community,” he said.
This community attracted immigrant populations, including the Bangladeshi community in the late 1990s during the second migration, from Queens, New York.
According to the American Institute of Bangladesh Studies, the first migration took place in the 1960s when Bangladeshis fled the country to avoid political and religious persecution before the country’s independence from Pakistan.
The growth in populations lead to building institutions, which indicates a population will stick around said Dr. Radzilowski.
Institutions, such as places of worship, have increased in Hamtramck in the last decade with four mosques in Hamtramck: Al Islah Islamic Center, the Bosnian American Center, Masjid Imam Algazali, and Islamic Center of Hamtramck, which cater to the city’s Bangladeshi, Bosnian and Yemeni Muslims.
The Islamic Center of North Detroit (Masjid Al-Falah), Masjidun-Nur, Baitul Mukarram Masjid, Masjid Mu’ath Bin Jabal in Detroit border Hamtramck, attracting much of Hamtramck’s Muslim population, while the Muslim Center in Detroit is just minutes away.
There are nearly 20 churches, according to the Hamtramck Library website.
There is also one Buddhist ashram and a Hindu temple in Hamtramck, said Dr. Radzilowski.
A scent of Hamtramck
Visitors will soon be immersed in the scents of traditional foods from more than 20 ethnicities, voices of people with over 80 languages and welcomed by close-knit neighborhoods.
According to Dr. Radzilowski, Hamtramck is nearly half Muslim, with 44-47% Muslims, 46-54% of combined Christian groups, and less than 1 percent Jewish people. There is about 4-6% of the population with no professed religious group.
He said the numbers come from a combination of studying the 2000 Census and the ancestry of immigrants who tend to be from certain religious groups, as part of the Piast Institute, which doubles as a Census information center.
The Census does not directly calculate religions.
‘Do to others as you would want them to do’
In a city where residents can walk out onto their front porches and are almost guaranteed to see someone who doesn’t look like them on their street – religion isn’t always a major factor.
Sharon Buttry of Ministry of Missions at Acts 29 Fellowship, a Christina non-profit group, said the three major religious groups come together under the umbrella of the golden rule: Do to others as you would want them to do.
This extends into righteous acts; care for the poor, widows, orphans, and the needy, Buttry said.
“You look through two things: the golden rule and bring about community spirit of respect, despite differences,” she said.
Such a moment came when the city was divided between the Call to prayer, the right to announce prayer times on public speakers for Muslim prayer times, in April 2004 by a noise ordinance.
The call to prayer, Adhan
Issued by Al-Islah Islamic Center through Councilmember Shahab Ahmed, the Call to Prayer, or adhan, became a major reason to divide the city just six years ago.
In a nutshell, the Call to prayer amended the noise ordinance in April 2004, allowing prayer calls to be made by Hamtramck mosques for prayers that fall between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., “for a duration not to exceed five minutes.”
The city council unanimously voted to pass the ordinance. The voting then went to the public. The ordinance passed by a 55 percent majority, according to the Associated Press.
Citizens of Hamtramck were torn apart.
Ahmed said the ordinance gave power to the people to vote on how the prayer calls should be made, in terms of times and noise level.
“If someone makes a complaint, it could change the noise ordinance,” he said.
Non-Muslims believed it was unconstitutional to allow mosques to broadcast their faith to citizens, who were not all Muslims.
Neighbors in Hamtramck said the Call to Prayer woke them up and they didn’t understand what was being said in Arabic.
The mosque passed out flyers that translated and explained the Call to prayer.
That wasn’t enough.
Abdul Motlib, president of Al-Islah Islamic Center said, the City Hall was full of protesters in the public hearing for the ordinance in a video about the ordinance, for the Building Islam in Detroit project.
Motlib didn’t think it was a big deal, as Muslims traditionally heard these prayer calls “for [the past] 1400 years.”
Muslims said the Call to prayer is like the Church bells heard from a handful of churches around the city.
Former city councilman Abdul Algazali said, the issue was nothing personal against Churches.
He said all Muslims have to believe in Jesus Christ – but as a Prophet rather than God or son of God – in order to have faith.
“To complete religion, one must believe in Jesus,” said Algazali, referring to his respect for Christianity.
Council members Catrina Stackpoole and Tom Jankowski believe the issue still rubs people the wrong way.
Stackpoole said there is no uniformity on the issue.
Some people do not mind the diversity in town and say ‘What’s another ethnic group,’ while others are afraid of letting the minority become majority, said Stackpoole.
“It’s intruding on people’s lives but people are still not interested in ‘war,’” said Stackpoole, of citizens who oppose the Call to prayer.
“It’s not going to help the city if we have an ethnic-religious conflict,” she said.
Jankowski, who was Mayor at the time of the conflict, said non-Muslims don’t like the Call to prayer.
He said, at the time community leaders from the Muslim community said, “We don’t need this,” referring to the point of contempt.
“There was a small group that pushed and a city council who wanted to be re-elected, insisted it was the way to go. It caused a lot of problems and bad press,” Jankowski said.
He said the situation wasn’t handled right, pushing away from people visiting Hamtramck.
Although the issue was never challenged in court, Jankowski said it goes on.
Looking back, Jankowski asks himself “Was it worth the fight?”
“There’s some people who resent it; who hear it and cringe,” he said.
Secretary of Al-Islah, Masud Khan, told the New York Times he understood the insecurity felt by the people in 2004.
‘’It’s human nature,” he said.
‘’You feel an invasion. It could happen to me also.”
The story was picked up by national newspapers including the New York Times, USAToday.com, CBS News and the newswire service, Associated Press.
Councilmember Ahmed, who was the only Muslim on the board at the time, had to persuade the city council to okay the ordinance. He said it was like political suicide to try and convince political opponents on a religious matter. But he did it anyway.
“Politicians want to stay away from religion,” he said.
Mayor of Hamtramck, Karen Majewski, who was city council president at the time, said the council unanimously voted in total to allow the controversial prayer calls.
Majewski said any time an immigrant population comes into the city, changes are bound to happen. Not everyone will like them.
According to the Bringing Islam in Detroit (BIID) program, Researcher and Assistant Professor of history at the University of Michigan, Dearborn, Sally Howell, said Detroit mosques have been broadcasting the call to prayer since the 1970s. Dearborn has broadcasted the adhan since the 1980s.
Imam Hamood of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn said, although the city’s mosques can say the adhan on loudspeaker, not all do.
Like in Hamtramck, prayer calls can be put to a halt if neighbors complain.
Similarly Masjid Al-Falah in Detroit does not have the authority to recite the adhan, due to neighbors’ complaints.
Imam Abdul Latif of Masjid Al-Falah said having the prayer call on loudspeaker does not significantly increase mosque membership, although membership increases gradually on its own.
“They [people] don’t come to the masjid because of the adhan,” he said.
“If we start giving adhan non-Muslims will leave from this community and that’s not good,” Latif said.
He said one particular neighbor said she felt safe among the Muslims, although she is against the loudspeaker calls.
“We don’t want to bother them,” he said, referring to keeping unity among interfaith groups.
Unity is just what was lacking when the call to prayer created tension in the Hamtramck community.
Ahmed, who is serving his third time on the Hamtramck City Council, needed FBI protection from April-November 2004 from anonymous callers and threats, which flooded his driving school and law office, Shondhan Enterprise Inc. in Hamtramck.
“What does he look like? What is his car model? When does he come and go?” his secretaries were asked, Ahmed said.
The tension topped-off the November 2001 elections when Ahmed lost in the city council elections after the 9/11 attacks.
With a grim face, Ahmed remembered the hatred spread in the community in the forms of flyers “with made up stories” about him. He said his supporters’ windows were messed up.
This time (after the call to prayer threats) Ahmed called the FBI in Detroit.
“They came within minutes. They had been watching the whole time,” he said.
The protection ended seven months after the ordinance was in action.
Looking ahead, Ahmed said the battle paved a path for other Muslims and Bangladeshis on board.
“It should get better for the community if it doesn’t divide. I was alone then, now I don’t have to explain myself,” he said, referring to the time on the board when he was the only Muslim and Bangladeshi member.
Buttry, a resident of Hamtramck, said religious freedom was healthy for the city.
“I promoted the Call to prayer and have respect for religious liberty of different faiths other than mine,” said Buttry, a Baptist Christian.
“When I lived on Holbrook Street, I could hear the Call to prayer from three mosques,” she said.
Ahmed enjoys the prayer calls, which can usually be heard all five times during longer summer days, and sometimes in Ramadan.
“People hear the Call to prayer during fasting [Ramadan] to break fast or stop eating to begin fast,” he said with a smile.
Survival of the Fittest: Election of November 2009
Voting has never been the same in Hamtramck as last November when three candidates were elected into office – former mayor Tom Jankowski, Mohammed Hassan, and Kazi Miah, the youngest member to get the highest votes in the city’s elections; 1,652 across different ethnicities and religions.
Miah, 30, who said he is in it for all, was surprised by the large turnout of voters who chose him to represent the city.
“I got elected in a city that’s traditionally known as a Polish town. It’s a testament to residents of Hamtramck who are not looking at ethnic origin,” Miah said.
He said it is a time when everyone has to work together to help the city from economic downfall.
“I love my religion and will always love my religion but it will not get in the way of making decisions,” Miah said.
Councilwoman Catrina Stackpoole said of the 10,000 registered voters, about 3,000 voted.
According to Councilmember Ahmed, much of those were from the Muslim community.
Jankowski, who said he saw some of the ballots said, many people voted “straight Muslim candidates,” meaning they only voted for Muslims.
Despite the straight ballots, Algazali lost a mayoral seat by 123 votes to Mayor Karen Majewski, who is serving her second term, reported The Hamtramck Review.
The numbers of Muslims in a city does not always get a candidate a government seat.
Stackpoole said in the last election, with three options for Muslim councilmen and one for mayor in Hamtramck, there were limited options for non-Muslim voters.
To overcome religious and cultural barriers Tlaib said, all candidates, Muslim or not, need to stay in touch with their community’s needs.
All politicians, “must maintain accessibility for effective representation,” by talking to people, she said.
Miah said, he tackled this issue by doing door-to-door campaigning and putting a face behind his words. The youngest member on board had a Facebook fan page and website for younger members to tap into politics.
People need to keep in touch with the council as much as the council with them, by attending all city council meetings, which now has meeting minutes posted online by Hamtramck Star, a local news blog, Miah said.
Talking with council members helps the community.
Ismam, a resident of Hamtramck, said, it is convenient that three of the six council members speak Bangla and can be found at local institutions.
Stackpoole said Muslims need to integrate into the community at more than the basic levels of interactions.
Stackpoole encourages Bangladeshi and Yemeni women to jump into the pool of politics. She hopes both Muslim and non-Muslim women can get together in the same room, and “get talking” about issues, despite many who choose or have to stay home.
Hamtramck resident Ismam Ahmed, 22, said Muslim woman like his mom would be able to get politically involved, but culturally Bangladeshi woman are more reserved or modest.
“That doesn’t mean she can’t get involved. My father or I would not prevent her,” he said.
There are a few exceptions to the cultural norm, including Sheikh Hasina Wazed, the prime minister and president of the Awami League in Bangladesh, and head of the Bangladesh National Party, Khaleda Zia.
If people from different communities can talk, it will help the city, Stackpoole said.
Bill Meyer, former chair of the Hamtramck Human Relations Committee, said, there are few people making decisions for the city.
“The current administration hasn’t opened arms to everyone,” Meyer said.
“We need more people to get involved without special interests to come together,” he said.
Dearborn City Council: Councilwoman Suzanne Sareini
In Dearborn, Mich. there are nearly 29,000 Arabs, making up about 26.5 percent of the total population in the city, according to the 2000 Census and the Piast Census Information Center.
A small percentage of them voted in the November 2009 elections said, Khalil Hachem, former election reporter for the Ann Arbor News.
The Arab American News reported there are 59,000 registered voters in Dearborn.
Last year city council candidate Ali Sayed lost after having 627 votes more than councilwoman Suzanne Sareini in the precincts.
Hachem said, about 3,000 of 17,000 Arab Americans voted in the November 2009 elections, which may have contributed to Sayed’s loss.
People have a problem voting in Dearborn, he said.
“They don’t participate. If they did, they would fill every office in Dearborn,” Hachem said.
He said, theories including fear of freedom of press and lack of knowledge of the system contribute to the lack of voters voting.
Hachem said, the community needs to vote to allocate resources for the city.
“You can’t lobby anyone if your people don’t vote,” he said.
Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Michigan estimates 90 percent of the Arab American population in Dearborn is Muslim.
Suzanne Sareini is the only Muslim on the Dearborn City Council.
Sareini, who has been serving on the council since 1989, says she has “weathered the storm” she first encountered when running for a council seat.
“It’s nothing like how it was 20 years ago,” Sareini said, referring to people who opposed having her on the Dearborn City Council.
Being born and raised in Dearborn, she didn’t think she was any different than the other candidates until she ran for city council.
“It was a rude awakening,” Sareini said.
People have prejudice and assumptions, she said.
“I always kept a professional demeanor, causing criticism from the Arab American community,” Sareini said.
She says, “it’s a night and day difference” having her on city council as a representative of Arab Americans and Muslim, as it “makes people watch what they say.”
With a common language and culture, there are certain people who feel more comfortable talking to her.
Sareini said, the Dearborn community is light-years ahead, as the Arab Americans are participating more in the government, something she says the small-business community did not pursue in earlier years.
Sareini is serving her sixth term on the Dearborn City Council, and running for state representative in district 15.
Sareini says being Muslim is not what makes her stand out.
“You have to represent the community at large,” she said.
She would rather focus on the important issues for the city, what she says are the same across the board, Muslim or not, including garbage control, schools, and “not looking at anyone special.”
Walid said, those running for office should not be voted-in on the basis of their faith.
They might not be “plugged in the religious community,” Walid said.
Walid, who does lectures and events in Dearborn said, he does not recall seeing or meeting Sareini in religious meetings or lectures.
Sareini said she may have not met Walid due to a generational gap of what she calls “a young active group.”
“It is to their credit they are active but I probably know their parents. I would be happy to meet him (Walid) and attend events,” Sareini said.
Sareini said, she is active in the Muslim community and attends the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, where she has gone since a child.
Dearborn Heights, an extension of Muslims in Dearborn
Dearborn Heights, a city branching off from Dearborn, has about 58,888 people based on the 2006-2008 American Community Survey, and the Piast Institute.
The population is one-third of Arab-descent, predominately Muslim, said councilmember Tom Berry.
Dr. Radzilowski said some Arab people use the category “white” for racial distinction, making it hard to determine who Arabs are on the Census. The racial data shows there are 91.2 percent “white” people in Dearborn Heights, while there are 91.6 percent “white” in Dearborn.
Based on the 2000 Census data and the Piast Institute, 4,578 identified themselves as Arab, out of 67,253 people surveyed.
Berry, the only Muslim on the city council of seven, said by being Muslim he is not necessarily helping the community. Understanding the city’s needs and being representative of those needs is important.
“I don’t know it’s so much that is important that you’re Muslim. What is more important is that anybody who is on the council understands the need of the community,” Berry said.
He said in Dearborn Height there is a challenge to have people become more assimilated to the neighborhood ordinances.
“We need our people to understand the importance of the ordinances and the ways set in the city,” he said.
One way to meet the needs of the city is by speaking Arabic.
Berry said Hassan Bazzi, one of the city’s ordinance officers, goes to people’s homes and explains what people can and cannot do in Arabic. It helps the Arab-Muslim community understand the rules and get needs met, Berry said.
“It’s not just somebody pushing something [ordinances] on them,” he said.
Other Muslims in the city’s government include the Director of the Building and Engineering Department Mohamed Sobh, Director of the Community and Economic Development Commission Ron Amen, and the 20th District Court Judge David Turfe.
Berry said just like in other cities, you have to push people to vote in Dearborn Heights.
Votes may get Kathy Abdel-Hak, a Muslim, on the council after the August primaries.
According to her campaign website, www.kathleenabdel-hak.com, Abdel-Hak says she is running for better management of city programs, technological advances, and open government.
Judge David Turfe of Dearborn Heights said he is proud to be Muslim and a representative of the city’s 10-15 percent Muslim population.
Turfe, who goes to institutions in Dearborn said, Muslims in Dearborn Heights feel like an extended part of the community.
“Some politicians do not service our needs,” in terms of cultural understanding and some things we need he said.
Turfe said that’s “our own fault, we have 15,000 voters we can’t elect anyone.”
Turfe said, although Muslims should be representative in city councils of Dearborn and Dearborn Heights, where there are large concentrations of Muslims, if someone is representing the needs of the community, they don’t have to be Muslim.
“Certainly we want to be represented in terms of the numbers of the percentages of who’s representing the city but at the same time if you have other people in the council who are representing the needs of the city… We only want people to do what’s best for their constituency, Muslim, Christian, Jew or whoever,” Turfe said.
Muslims may not be fit for the job, he said.
“If we have a Muslim in that position and they’re not doing the best job that will make us look bad,” Turfe said, something which he believes the Muslim community cannot afford with the already present negative stereotypes of Islam.
“You shouldn’t vote for someone because they are for say, Arab American, but because you truly believe this person is best for the job…if they’re not doing the best, they’re not going to blame the person, they’re going to blame the whole community. We’re not strong enough to overcome that.”
He said the Dearborn Heights community takes care of each other.
“It’s a great community. When someone’s sick or someone is need, someone always rally around the people,” Turfe said.
The long-time resident of Dearborn Heights, Turfe said, he is proud of all the institutions in the city, including 40 churches, three Jehovah Witness institutions, and one mosque, the Islamic House of Wisdom.
Walid said both Hamtramck and Dearborn have high concentration of Muslims and Islamic tenants.
They have different ethnic groups and immigration migration times, he said.
Walid said, the Dearborn community is good at getting active in protests but they lack the political power from the basic levels.
“Perhaps when it comes to local politics or local issues be it a city elections or state elections – that portion of the community is galvanized to get involved in the situation,” Walid said.
Without the city council to cater to the community’s major needs, the Arab American Chaldean Council, which has over 40 outreach programs, and the Arab Community Center for Economic Social Services (ACCESS), which has six locations in Dearborn and one in Hamtramck, provide social services to their respective communities.
“If a tragedy happens there’s call for activism or emotional reaction for protests in front of city council. When it comes to shaping the political environment like the city council or school boards or state representatives then there’s considerably less concern,” Walid said.
Walid said political action starts at a grass roots level and works its way up to state and federal levels to affect policy.
Walid cautions people when voting just for Muslim candidates.
Candidates are representative of the entire municipality, not just of their Muslim community, Walid said.
He said in Hamtramck there is more cooperation among different Muslim groups (compared to Dearborn), including the Bangladeshi and Yemeni communities, when it comes to voting.
State representative Rashida Tlaib said, Muslim candidates have to be the best candidate for all kinds of people. They need to do their best and work for everyone, she said.
“Do a great job for the people who voted for you,” Tlaib said, noting that by doing a great job, Muslim officials represent the larger Muslim community.
It’s not all about religion
In Hamtramck, where everyone is facing a rough economic downturn, it’s not all about religion.
As long as politicians are doing what’s best for the city, it doesn’t matter what religion they are, said School Board President Titus Walters.
Whether someone is Christian or Muslim shouldn’t affect the way they make decisions for the city, Walters said.
As a Christian, I think I do what God wants me to do, as another may say Allah wants them to do,” said Walters, acknowledging almost half the city is Muslim.
Majewski said council members have to vote with their conscious when they have access to certain information, which may not always match up with the community’s expectations.
She said, they have to look at the good for the whole city, not always their own group.
Such a moment came when Councilmember Ahmed voted for the human rights ordinance in 2008,while Councilmember Algazali voted against it, along with the majority of the religious leaders and citizens who opposed the ordinance.
The ordinance set to give those in the LGBT community equal housing opportunities.
It was voted down by the public in the elections.
Algazali said he often found himself on opposite sides with the other Muslim councilmember, but he still cast his vote to represent the community.
A different view in Hamtramck may help.
Council members Stackpoole and Jankowski said Kazi Miah “won across boards,” in the November 2008 elections.
Both Stackpoole and Jankowski said, Miah represents the city’s needs with fresh eyes.
Miah says, he doesn’t want people patting him on the back because he is Muslim.
Rather he says, “People should think 30 times before you say Islam. It’s not a joke, it’s a way of life.”
There have been and are over 20 Muslim elected officials on federal, state and local levels in the United States, according to a compilation by The Muslim Observer in November 2008.
Early this month, Mohammed Hameeduddin was sworn in as mayor in Teaneck, New Jersey in a historical city of Orthodox Jews, according to the New York Times.
Other notable Muslim elected officials include Councilman Amir Omar of Richardson, Texas, who the first Muslim to be voted in office in the northern Texas, and State Representative Rashida Tlaib, who won a democrat seat in the last election as the first Arab American woman and second Muslim to win in Michigan.
Businesses in Hamtramck
Conant, Hamtramck is a bustling street branching off into major streets Caniff and Carpenter in Detroit.
It is only a distant memory of “for rent” signs, shacked up buildings and people moving away.
Now, the dubbed “Bangladesh Avenue” is dotted with Bangladeshi clothes stores, groceries, restaurants and services.
Councilmember Ahmed, who pushed for the ethnic recognition, put together this initiative last year.
“As a major avenue, the Polish couldn’t do that,” Ahmed says of the recognition achieved by the Bangladesh community’s work into bringing back to life the almost-dead business haven.
Councilmember Jankowski said Muslim businessmen have brought mainly dollar stores, restaurants, and sari [clothes] stores to restore the city.
“Most of those businesses were closed up and Bangladeshi people opened-up stores. That street became revived,” Jankowski said.
“The Bangladeshi came in quick and hard within a couple of years it just exploded,” he said, until businesses flopped due to poor revenues. Owners were unable to make their payments.
“There it sits until it’s repaired,” he said.
In one way, Jankowski believes the shops have divided the community into Muslims and non-Muslims.
“My sister is not going to buy a sari. My buddy Mahfuz is not going to buy a pork chop. We struggle with that,” Jankowski said.
He said other populations, such as the Yemeni community, have survived with little shops.
Co-owner of Al-Haramain International Foods, Ali Alaudi, who is Yemeni, said his store is for all.
“We try to bring everybody here. If someone people ask me for something I go look for it,” he said.
Alaudi said, when you do well for the city, it benefits everyone.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re Muslim or non-Muslim. Work for everyone. Work with the law for the betterment of Hamtramck,” he said.
Beata Bochińska, employee at The Polish Market in Hamtramck, said the grocery store has attracted a lot more than Polish people after moving onto the busy downtown street of Joseph Campau.
With a Polish background and a mix of newer cultures in Hamtramck, Councilmember Stackpoole said the city can use its history to make revenues.
“History draws people,” Stackpoole said.
The city’s rich Polish roots bring in people on Paczki Day (Fat Tuesday). If there were no such holidays, the shops would be empty, she said.
But she says, the city needs to “add a touch of international” to it, referring to marketing purposes.
We need an understanding between Polish, non-Polish, Muslim, non-Muslim, artists, musicians, and poets, she said.
Model “Muslim City”
Walid says Hamtramck is a place where Muslims needs’ can be met without leaving the city, “From places of worship to cultural activities to shopping for foods.”
He said the city has a diverse mix of other cultural and religious groups, which helps the development of children.
“There is a population of Muslims who also other faiths who live around which allows the children to have a healthy self image about being Muslims, at the same time arouse them to interact with other people so they are not in a cocoon,” said Walid.
Walid said one of the problems he has heard about the Dearborn community include the Arab population’s residing in mainly the South and East parts of the city, with predominately white Americans (non-Arab) in the western part.
He said this leads to the community segregation, causing people to not be able to function outside of the city and with other cultural groups.
Hamtramck is a little better in that regard, he said.
Bochińska said the mix is helpful when people get along in the city.
Buttry, who lives in the city said, sometimes she finds herself in the post office with 15 other cultures.
“It’s not like you’re interacting. You just happen to be in the same space,” Buttry said.
Still Councilmember Miah of Hamtramck says the city is a true melting pot.
“It’s diverse unlike any other city in the U.S.,” he said, with close-knit neighbors.
Walid said Dearborn may have a higher concentration of Muslims per capita, however, “Hamtramck has more of a Muslim character about it more than Dearborn as far as the actual manners of people.”
“Dearborn is not necessarily representative of Islam just because a lot of Muslims live there,” he said, referring to mainstream Sunni views.
Historically, the Arab population of Dearborn and Dearborn Heights has a lot of Lebanese and Syrian Arab backgrounds, who are Shi’I Muslims, whereas those in Hamtramck are Yemeni and Sunni Muslims, said Walid.
They are ethnically, religious and culturally different, Walid said.
According to the Piast Institute and the 2000 Census, there are just over 17,305 Lebanese who live in Dearborn, while 3,136 live in Dearborn-Heights. There are also high concentrations of German, Italian, English, Polish and American residents in the cities.
Hamtramck had among its high populations, 5,263 Polish, 2,158 Arabs, 2,403 Yugoslavian residents, and pockets of Ukrainian, German and Italian residents, according to the 2000 Census and the Piast Institute.
Walid predicts the Muslim population of Hamtramck may be closer to 75 percent in the next 10 years due to higher birth rates in the Muslim families and immigration into the city.
“The older Polish community and Ukrainian community have been slowly leaving Hamtramck while the Yemeni and Bangladeshi communities are growing,” he said.
Dr. Radzilowski said they are moving into the suburbs.
Hamtramck Councilmember Jankowski said, one day before he ran for mayor in 2004, he stepped out onto his porch and saw every type of person.
“I started to not recognize my city anymore,” Jankowski said, but “You gotta roll with it. You can’t live on memory.”
When asked if there is a Muslim mayor in the city’s future, Walid said it is possible depending on the candidate, if they are able to mobilize the community.
He advises the community to be “savvy on the issues not just the religious affiliation.”
Jankowski said, the city can move forward if council members go out to their communities and ask them to work together.
“Personally I like the mix on the city council; I hope my colleagues will go back on the communities and tell them, ‘you have to get involved and we have to start walking in the same direction here,” Jankowski said of public safety, economic development and housing.
Buttry agrees, saying someone said Hamtramck has strong family values, with family orientation expressed at large in the city.
Buttry said with many small businesses and hard-working families, Hamtramck has something great to offer.
She says the key to success in the city also lies on the shoulders of the council members, who must be role models to the city’s youth, inspiring them to build relationships in the community.
Hamtramck has become home to a growing population of Muslims who are vocalizing their concerns, stepping up to office and paving paths for other communities with a large Muslim population to follow.
Notably, the community has put forth five Muslim council members in the past decade. The community now stands by as three Muslim candidates; Shahab Ahmed, Akm Rahman and Abdul Algazali from Hamtramck battle for a spot as state representative in the November elections.
For more information on Hamtramck, please visit www.hamtramck.us, hamtramckstar.com, and the hamtramckreview.com.
Nargis Rahman is a journalism student at Wayne State University. Rahman has written for Wayne State’s student newspaper, The South End, The Muslim Observer and The Hamtramck Citizen. She has interned at Fox 2 News, Detroit, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Michigan. Rahman looks forward to a career in community journalism in the Greater Detroit area. Rahman grew up in Hamtramck and now lives in Detroit.
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