Hamtramck, Michigan, Mayor Amer Ghalib made headlines over the weekend by endorsing former President Donald Trump’s newest bid for president, placing the U.S.’ solely Muslim-majority city within the nationwide highlight.
Ghalib, who grew to become Hamtramck’s first Muslim mayor after being elected in 2021, was born in Yemen and immigrated to the U.S. as a youngster in 1997, in response to a profile of the mayor posted by Henry Ford Faculty.
He attended Hamtramck Excessive Faculty and labored at a manufacturing unit, ultimately occurring to attend then-Henry Ford Group Faculty and Wayne State College, the place he earned his bachelor’s diploma in biology and pre-med. He later attended the Ross College Faculty of Drugs in Dominica, the place he accomplished 4 years however didn’t full his residency.
Ghalib spent most of his profession as a medical skilled in Hamtramck, an enclave of Detroit with about 28,000 residents. The city was often called a principally Polish settlement till current many years, with a big inflow of Center Japanese immigrants ultimately making it the nation’s first Muslim-majority metropolis.
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Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib, 43, is photographed in his workplace at Metropolis Corridor in Hamtramck, Michigan, on Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Submit through Getty Photos)
He made historical past when he defeated former Hamtramck Mayor Karen Majewski, breaking an over 100-year streak of town being represented by a Polish-American mayor. The town additionally grew to become the primary within the nation with an all-Muslim elected management that very same yr, with Hamtramck’s six metropolis council seats being gained by Muslim candidates.
Nevertheless, Ghalib has additionally attracted controversy throughout his time as mayor, together with his help of a 2023 decision that banned the show of LGBTQ+ flags on metropolis property.
“You have no idea our metropolis greater than we do, and you’ll not know the results of opening the door for each group to fly their flag on metropolis properties,” Ghalib stated in a press release to critics of the transfer in a Detroit Free Press report. “Our residents are all equally essential to us, and we’ll proceed to serve them equally with out discrimination, favoritism or preferential therapy to any group. The town authorities will keep NEUTRAL and IMPARTIAL towards its residents.”
Later the identical yr, he attracted extra controversy when he did not condemn one in every of his political appointees who was accused of creating antisemitic feedback.
In accordance with a report on the controversy from the Hamtramck Evaluate, Hamtramck Plan Fee member Nasr Hussain got here underneath fireplace for questioning whether or not Jewish individuals have been being punished by God in the course of the Holocaust for actions Israel is now taking in Gaza.
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“Was the Holocaust God’s advance punishment of the ‘Chosen Folks’ for the savagery they’re committing immediately towards the harmless Palestinians kids and civilians,” Hussain posted on the favored native Fb web page, “Hamtramck Sq..”
HAMTRAMCK, MI – APRIL 16, 2017: Lindsay Tukes, 25, whose Muslim identify is Amiraldeen Alghazali, rides residence from her class on the Quran in Hamtramck, Michigan, on April 16, 2017. Hamtramck, a metropolis surrounded by Detroit, grew to become the primary metropolis in america with a Muslim-majority inhabitants. (Photograph by Lynsey Addario/Getty Photos)
“A heinous act proving that they’re as savage and merciless because the Nazis themselves, and even worse.(Think about that God isn’t confined by house or time and that they consider in reincarnation.),” he added.
“You possibly can ask Nasr about that. What do I’ve to do together with his posts! I don’t should touch upon each resident’s opinion, in any other case I might have commented on some posts that insult Islam and different religions, that are posted regularly by some residents on that very same Fb group,” Ghalib responded when requested by the Hamtramck Evaluate to answer the submit.
Ghalib and the Hamtramck Metropolis Council entered the highlight once more earlier this yr, when town voted unanimously to approve a decision that required town to keep away from investing in Israeli firms or these supporting “Israeli apartheid,” in response to a report from the Detroit Free Press, a sweeping present of help for the boycott, divestment and sanctions motion that has focused Israeli firms.
“For now, town will do its finest to chorus from shopping for, investing or contracting with firms that help the Israeli genocide,” Ghalib stated after the vote.
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Nonetheless, Trump lobbied laborious for Ghalib’s endorsement, in response to a report within the Detroit Information, holding a personal 20-minute assembly with the Hamtramck mayor previous to his occasion in Flint, Michigan, final Tuesday.
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump lobbied laborious for Mayor Amer Ghalib’s endorsement. (AP Photograph/Frank Franklin II)
“He requested me if I can endorse him and ask individuals to vote for him? I informed him: ‘I’m right here to speak about that and the way we are able to make it occur,'” Ghalib informed the Detroit Information. “I then handed him an official letter with some particulars about our considerations and to ask him to come back to Hamtramck if doable.”
Ghalib would ultimately come by means of with that endorsement, taking to Fb to reward Trump as “a person of rules.”
“Although it’s trying good, he could or could not win the election and be the forty seventh president of america, however I consider he’s the suitable alternative for this crucial time,” Ghalib wrote in Arabic on his Fb web page. “I’ll not remorse my determination it doesn’t matter what the result can be, and I’m able to face the results. For this, and for a lot of different causes, I announce my help and endorsement for the previous, and hopefully, the subsequent president of america, Donald Trump.”
Neither Ghalib’s workplace nor the Trump marketing campaign instantly responded to Fox Information Digital requests for remark.
