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HAMTRAMCK, Mich. — ...last year, a Muslim who emigrated from Yemen as a teenager became mayor — the city’s first leader in nearly a century with no Polish roots — alongside what is believed to be the nation’s only all-Muslim city council. Many residents in this tiny enclave just north of downtown Detroit saw these changes as a sign of the Hamtramck’s progressiveness. The Muslim community that had previously experienced discrimination, including voter intimidation and resistance to mosques’ public call to prayer, had finally taken its seats at the table. Yet the ethnic, cultural and religious diversity that made Hamtramck...

A Michigan city with an all-Muslim council that made waves banning LGBTQ+ Pride flags on public buildings has removed two members of a city commission for breaking the new law. Hamtramck, population 27,000, is an enclave surrounded by Detroit. More than 40 percent of residents were born in other countries, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and a significant share are of Yemeni or Bangladeshi descent. On Tuesday, the council unanimously approved removing Russ Gordon and Cathy Stackpoole from the Hamtramck Human Rights Commission for flying the rainbow flag over a public sidewalk, with a member saying they 'defied the...

The animals Muslims will slaughter in Hamtramck, Michigan, for their torturous “religious celebration” must be Halal, a Jihad money-making scheme to spread Sharia worldwide. The revised ordinance requires those who barbarically slaughter the animals to “notify” the City ahead of time and to perform their slaughter in a way more or less compliant with health regulations. The City has also over-written many health codes by allowing the slaughter of animals in the Halal fashion at a person’s residence. The City requires that Muslims block the viewing of the slaughter from members of the general public who do not wish to...

<p>Days after helping ban gay pride and other flags from Hamtramck property in a move he said aims to keep the city neutral, Mayor Amer Ghalib is being accused of selective enforcement for allowing a Black pride flag to fly at a city park.</p>

In 2015, many liberal residents in Hamtramck, Michigan, celebrated as their city attracted international attention for becoming the first in the United States to elect a Muslim-majority city council. They viewed the power shift and diversity as a symbolic but meaningful rebuke of the Islamophobic rhetoric that was a central theme of then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign. This week many of those same residents watched in dismay as a now fully Muslim and socially conservative city council passed legislation banning Pride flags from being flown on city property that had – like many others being flown around the...

Many liberals celebrated when Hamtramck, Michigan, elected a Muslim-majority council in 2015 but a vote to exclude LGBTQ+ flags from city property has soured relations In 2015, many liberal residents in Hamtramck, Michigan, celebrated as their city attracted international attention for becoming the first in the United States to elect a Muslim-majority city council. They viewed the power shift and diversity as a symbolic but meaningful rebuke of the Islamophobic rhetoric that was a central theme of then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign. This week many of those same residents watched in dismay as a now fully Muslim and...

A Michigan city with an all-Muslim government has banned LGBTQ+ flags from public areas after a bizarre hourslong meeting that saw displays of passion from both sides. A woman wearing a clown nose made a speech at the meeting - which was so well attended people were listening from the hallways - mocking the council and its majority-Muslim population during the public comment portion of the Hamtramck City Council before kissing a woman standing next to her Tuesday night. 'Sure, many Hamtramck residents have fled countries where being gay is a death sentence, but nothing says we have to make...

After hours of debate and hearing from residents, Hamtramck City Council has passed the resolution to ban LGBTQ+ Pride flags unanimously. The meeting started at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 14, followed by hours of public comment. There were big displays of public disapproval of the proposed resolution, which was followed by public displays of affection as two women kissed each other after speaking on the podium. The resolution proposed by Mayor Pro-Tem Muhammad Hassan stated the city would not allow any religious, ethnic, racial, political, or sexual orientation group flags to be flown on the city’s public property. The...

The all-Muslim Hamtramck City Council on Tuesday banned LGBTQ Pride flags from being flown on all city properties, drawing criticism that the diverse city chose bigotry over inclusivity. The so-called "neutrality flag resolution" also prohibits the display of religious, ethnic, racial, and political flags and states that the city won’t provide “special treatment to any group.” The unanimous vote followed more than three hours of public comments and months of impassioned debate. Dozens of supporters and opponents crowded into the council chambers and hallway at City Hall to speak out. “I am a Lebanese person, and I support the American...

HAMTRAMCK, Mich. (AP) — Residents of a Detroit-area community with a large Muslim population can sacrifice animals at home for religious reasons. The Hamtramck City Council explicitly approved the practice, 3-2, Tuesday, another step in recognizing a cultural shift in a city whose 20th century history was shaped by Polish immigrants. Muslims often slaughter animals, typically goats or sheep, or pay someone to do it for them during the holy holiday of Eid al-Adha. Meat is shared with family, friends and the poor.

Hamtramck, Michigan (CNN)For decades, Hamtramck was known as Michigan's "Little Warsaw," a city of just two square miles of tightly-packed houses and factories, spitting distance from downtown Detroit. The Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla visited once, back in 1969, before he became Pope. A statue of Wojtyla, arms outstretched, still casts a shadow over what's now called Pope Park, where a huge mural of Polish folk dancers stretches almost an entire city block. In the 99 years since its incorporation, every mayor of Hamtramck has been Polish American. That ends January 2....

The six-member City Council of Hamtramck will consist of all Muslims starting in January, another historic first for the metro Detroit city known for its sizable immigrant population. The newly elected mayor, Amer Ghalib, 42, is also Muslim, which means all of the city's elected officials will be Muslim. In Tuesday's election, three candidates who are all Muslim were elected and will join three current City Council members who are also Muslim. Five of them are immigrants and one is a convert to Islam with ancestral roots in eastern Europe. Advocates with Muslim groups and experts say they do not...

When you place an order for delivery, you want the food to get to you fresh and fast. However, on Tuesday night, a group of colleagues received a delivery from a Jet’s Pizza in Hamtramck, Michigan, and the bill was not typical. It had a racist receipt attached. On the receipt the customers were labeled as “White Trash.” WXYZ spoke with one of the customers who posted the receipt on social media. Jason Charboneau says he’ll never go back to the establishment after the way he and his co-workers were treated. "It becomes a hurtful thing. It’s like you have...

General Motors Co on Monday pulled the plug on the Chevrolet Volt hybrid and the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant that builds it, both examples of a costly gamble that is not paying off. GM’s widely touted factory of the future, forced on a town desperate for jobs and hailed decades later by former resident Barack Obama, is set to wind down over the next few years, leaving beleaguered Hamtramck wondering what happened. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said at a news conference Monday that he told GM chief executive Mary Barra Monday that “we moved thousands of people out of that neighborhood...

When Detroit's semipro soccer team needed a bigger stadium to accommodate its growing fan base, it did something unusual. Instead of seeking tax breaks or subsidies to support its ambitions, it turned to private supporters, mostly fans. It did so with the help of the Michigan Invests Locally Exemption or MILE Act. Detroit City FC raised $741,250 from 527 investors to refurbish Hamtramck’s Keyworth Stadium. The team’s first game at its new home, on May 13, was a sellout with 7,410 tickets sold. That was more than double the 3,500 tickets it was limited to selling when the team played...

Shortly before dawn in Hamtramck, Michigan, the first call to prayer reverberates through the narrow rows of snow-dusted white clapboard houses as American flags flutter on porches in the chill wind off Lake Erie. Around the corner from the Al-Islah Mosque the five daily calls can be heard at the Martha Washington bakery. As customers trickle in one non-Muslim woman refers to it as "that noise". She's also not a fan of the niqabs now regularly seen in the high street.

The nation’s first, but certainly not last, majority-Muslim city council has just been elected in Hamtramck, Michigan. Immediately one of the Muslims has caused controversy by showing himself to be somewhat less than the tolerant multiculturalist that he was no doubt assumed to be. Will we see any supremacist and pro-Sharia initiatives from this city council? Only if they decide to “show the Polish and everybody else.” The local multiculturalists, however, are still willfully unaware of Islamic supremacism and confident that everyone can work together.

4 of 6 Hamtramck City Council members are Muslim The Polish flocked to Hamtramck in the 1900s and evidence of the city's Polish roots remain. However, over the last few decades a new wave of immigrants, primarily from the Middle East, South Asia and Southeastern Europe, has dramatically changed the face and culture of this community. Now, the Hamtramck City Council is going to reflect that diversity. "We are very proud and we are very happy for that achievement, what we have done in this city, for our city," said Jamal Alturki, a voter. Voters gave Abu Musa and Anam...

DETROIT (WWJ) – Prosperous suburbs surrounding Detroit — and even the struggling enclaves within — are working to distance themselves from a city in financial ruin. In Hamtramck, one City Council candidate is taking that idea to the extreme. Richard Fabiszak has proposed that Hamtramck build a 12 or 14-foot wall around the city, keeping out Detroiters, and requiring state-issued identification to get in. “That sounds crazy to me,” one Hamtramck resident told WWJ Newsradio 950′s Sandra McNeil. “I never heard of such a thing. That sounds like something you’d see in a movie — some kind of science fiction...

According to Newsweek's Jonathan Alter, the president recently told friends, "All I want for Christmas is an opposition I can negotiate with." Well, he had one, briefly, so long as he was willing to cave in to its demands to bust the budget with a massive gift of more than $130 billion in tax cuts to the wealthiest 2 percent of the country and the gutting of the estate tax. That cleared the decks for other "victories" and "compromises" and led to widespread insider approval of Obama's ability to "make the system work." Like 13-year-olds at the movies, pundits love...