A stroll down Main Street in Hamtramck, Michigan, feels like a tour around the world.
A sausage shop and an Eastern European bakery sit next to large Yemeni warehouses and a Bengali clothing store.
Church bells ring along with the Islamic call to pray.
“The world in two square miles (5 square kilometers)” is Hamtramck’s slogan and this city is up to par, with around 30 different languages spoken in its area of 5 square kilometers.
This month, this American Midwest city of 28, 000 inhabitants reached a milestone. He elected a fully Muslim mayor and city council, becoming the first city in America to have a Muslim-American government.
Although discriminated against in the past, Muslim residents have integrated into this multicultural city and now represent more than half of its population.
And despite economic challenges and intense cultural debates, Hamtramck residents of different religions and cultural backgrounds coexist in harmony, making the city an important case study for the growth of diversity in future states. United.
But will Hamtramck be a rule or the exception ?
The history of Hamtramck, from its beginnings as a city of German settlers to Today, the first city with a Muslim majority in the United States , is etched on its streets.
There are shops with signs in Arabic and Bengali, embroidered garments from Bangladesh and Jambiyas, a type of short curved sword from Yemen, are seen in store windows .
Muslim residents queue to buy paczki , a kind of stuffed Polish donut of custard.
“It is not unusual to see some with miniskirts and tattoos and others with burqa walking down the same street. We are this, ”says Zlatan Sadikovic, a Bosnian immigrant who owns a café in the center of Hamtramck.
Just a stone’s throw from the outskirts of Detroit, which partly envelops the city, Hamtramck was once part of the epicenter of the American auto industry , dominated by the General Motors plant that straddled its border with ‘Motor City’.
The first Cadillac Eldorado rolled off the assembly line in Hamtramck in the decade of 1987.
Throughout the 20th century, it was known as “Little Warsaw” as Polish immigrants flocked for manufacturing jobs.
The city was one of the stops on the US tour of Pope John Paul II, born in Poland, in 1987. On 1970, until the 90% of the city was of Polish origin .
However, in that decade it began the long decline of car manufacturing in America and younger and wealthier Polish Americans began to move to the suburbs.
The change made Hamtramck one of the poorest cities in Michigan, but affordability attracted immigrants.
During the last 30 years , Hamtramck was transformed again to become a landing strip for Arab and Asian immigrants , especially from Yemen and Bangladesh.
A significant part of the city’s residents today, the 42%, were born abroad. More than half are believed to be practicing Muslims.
The composition of the newly elected government reflects changes demographics in Hamtramck. The council will include two Bengali Americans, three Yemeni Americans, and a Polish-American convert to Islam.
With the 68% of votes, Amer Ghalib will be the first Yemeni-American mayor in the US
“ I am honored and proud, but I know it is a great responsibility, ”said Ghalib of 41 years.
Born in a village in Yemen, moved to the United States at 17 years and first worked in a plastic auto parts factory near Hamtramck.
He later learned English and received medical training. He now works as a healthcare professional.
Rather than being a “melting pot” or a “salad bowl”, Hamtramck is more like a “seven layer cake” where different groups preserve their different cultures while they closely coexist with each other, says council member-elect Amanda Jaczkowski.
“People are still proud of their specific culture. If we assimilate, we would lose the uniqueness. When they live so close to each other, they are forced to overcome those differences, “says Jaczkowski, from 29 years.
But Hamtramck “is not Disneyland,” says Karen Majewski, the outgoing mayor who held office for 11 years before resigning.
“It’s just a small place. And we have conflicts. ”
The friction arose in 2004 after a vote to broadcast the Islamic call to prayer in public. Some residents have argued that the ban on bars near mosques hurts the local economy.
Six years ago, when it became the first American city to elect a Muslim-majority government, the world’s press reported about Hamtramck.
Some media reports at the time painted a picture of a “tense” city with an influx of Muslims. A national TV host asked if Majewski was afraid of being mayor.
There was even speculation that a Muslim-controlled city hall might enforce Islamic law.
“In Hamtramck people roll their eyes at these kinds of comments,” said Majewski, who is “satisfied” that Hamtramck has been a welcoming community and that it is “natural” that new residents vote for those who understand their experience and their languages.
The US Census Bureau The US does not collect information on religion, but an expert group at the Pew Research Center estimates that there were approximately 3. 78 Millions of Muslims living in the U.S. in 2020, which represents approximately 1.1% of the total population .
For 2040, Muslims are expected to become the second largest religious group in the United States, after Christians.
Despite their growing presence, Muslims in The United States has often been subject to prejudice.
Twenty years after the attacks of the 11 September, Islamophobia continues to persecute Muslims and other Arab Americans.
About half of the Muslim adults in the United States told Pew in 2016 who had suffered some kind of personal discrimination, while then-candidate Donald Trump proposed vetoing migrants from Muslim-majority countries in the United States.
The researchers also found that, of all religious groups, Muslims continue to face the most negative views. ace of American society.
More than half of Americans say they do not know any Muslim personally, but those who know a practitioner are less likely to think that Islam promotes more violence than other groups religious.
Hamtramck is a living example of how personal knowledge reduces Islamophobia .
When Shahab Ahmed ran for councilor shortly after the attack of the 11 of September, he faced an uphill battle.
“There were flyers all over the city saying that I was the twentieth kidnapper that did not reach the planes ”, said this Bengali American.
After losing the elections of 2001, Ahmed knocked on the neighbors’ doors to introduce himself.
He ended up being elected two years later, becoming the Hamtramck’s first Muslim municipal official.
Since then, support for the Muslim community has grown in the city.
On 2017, when the Trump administration imposed a veto on the entry of migrants from Muslim-majority countries, city residents rallied to protest.
“Somehow that mobilized and united many people because everyone knows that, to live in Hamtramck, you have to respect others ”, says Razi Jafri, co-director of the documentary film“ Hamtramck, USA ”.
Muslim Americans have also become more visible on the national scene.
On 2007, Minnesota Democrat Keith Ellison became the first Muslim congressman. Today, the US Congress has four Muslim members.
On Election Day this month in Hamtramck, dozens of residents gathered in front of a polling place to greet each other. Many of them displayed their Election Day souvenir, bearing the “I voted” sticker.
According to Jaczkowski, the migrants were very excited to participate.
“ It is very American to be able to bring people together. ”
However, as in the rest of the country, the city is holding intense cultural debates .
In June, when the city government approved hanging a gay pride flag in the city hall, some residents were outraged.
Several of these flags hung outside private businesses and houses were removed, including one outside the clothing store vintage owned by Majewski.
“That sends a really alarming message to people,” he says.
Marijuana has also become a source of controversy.
The opening of three dispensaries in Hamtramck has caused consternation in some Muslim and Polish-Catholic communities.
Other residents are concerned about the lack of women’s political participation in conservative Muslim communities.
On election night, Ghalib, the elected mayor, was surrounded by a Yemeni-American crowd jubilant at a post-election event serving baklava and kebabs . There were more than 100 supporters, all men.
Women participated in his campaign, Ghalib said, but Gender segregation remains traditional, even as it is being challenged by younger generations who have become become more “Americanized.”
Hamtramck also faces the common challenges of the cities of the so-called Belt of Rust : from decaying infrastructure to limited economic opportunities.
Heavy rains during the summer they saturated the city’s pipes and flooded many houses.
High levels of lead were found in samples of the city’s drinking water, attracting national attention. Almost half of the city is below the poverty line.
These examples are some of the pressures you will have to deal with the new leadership of the city.
“What does democracy look like in a city with a Muslim majority? Like everywhere, disorganized and complicated . So when the novelty wears off, there will be work to do, ”says documentary maker Jafri.
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