Image source: Facebook Drbadr.haiderah
CV NEWS FEED // The Democratic mayor of the country’s only majority-Muslim city – located in the battleground state of Michigan – endorsed Republican nominee Donald Trump for president over Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
Last year, the Muslim mayor – who has been described as a social conservative – provoked the ire of leftist activists when he defended a successful local initiative to prevent the flying of pro-LGBTQ Pride flags on city property.
“President Trump and I may not agree on everything but I know he is a man of principles,” Hamtramck, Michigan Mayor Amer Ghalib wrote on Facebook on Sunday. “Though it’s looking good, he may or may not win the election and be the 47th president of the United States, but I believe he is the right choice for this critical time.”
Ghalib is an immigrant from Yemen who came to the United States when he was a teenager.
He noted that he will “not regret” crossing party lines to back Trump “no matter what the outcome would be,” adding that he’s “ready to face the consequences.”
“For this, and many other reasons, I announce my support and endorsement of the former, and hopefully, the next president of the United States, Donald Trump,” the mayor stated.
“Now, let the Caravan begin its journey,” Ghalib added. “This is just the starting point.”
Trump posted a screenshot of Ghalib’s Facebook post to TRUTH Social.
The New York Post reported that Ghalib, 45, “met with Trump for 20 minutes” in another part of Michigan last Tuesday.
At the meeting, the former president “asked for the Muslim politician’s endorsement,” noted The Detroit News, citing Ghalib himself as their source. Ghalib also said that Trump asked him to “ask people to vote for him.”
The mayor told The Detroit News that he and Trump “talked about various topics including the debates, the polls updates, the statistics of votes in Michigan and Wayne County, the Arab American concerns and the Yemeni Americans in particular.”
“We also talked about the situation in Yemen,” Ghalib added. The country has been embroiled in a deadly civil war for the last decade.
Hamtramck has an estimated population of just under 28,000 and is surrounded almost completely by the city of Detroit.
Home to a significant number of immigrants from Yemen, Bangladesh, Bosnia, and Pakistan, Hamtramck made history as the first American city with a majority of residents identifying with the Muslim faith.
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The city’s voters first elected Ghalib as mayor in 2021 – the same year they elected an all-Muslim city council.
In the 2021 election, Ghalib defeated incumbent Mayor Karen Majewski in a massive landslide. The then-challenger received 68% of the vote to Majewski’s 31%.
A Democrat and self-professed Catholic, Majewski is a supporter of Harris and President Joe Biden. In a recent interview with a South African newspaper, Majewski suggested that Trump and his supporters are a “threat to democracy and our way of life in our country.”
Prior to her stunning defeat at the hands of Ghalib, she had served as Hamtramck’s mayor for 16 consecutive years.
Many on the American left initially celebrated the wave of victories by Muslim political candidates in Hamtramck “as a sign of Hamtramck’s progressiveness,” The Washington Post reported last September:
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.
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However, left-wing figures notably turned on Ghalib and Hamtramck’s all-Muslim council last year, when the city passed legislation to ban pro-LGBTQ flags from being flown on city property.
As The Washington Post reported in September 2023, the legislation “angered allies and members of the LGBTQ+ community, who say that the support they provided the immigrant groups has been reciprocated with betrayal.”
The six-member council’s vote was unanimous and took place in June – which pro-LGBTQ activists claim to be “Pride Month.”
Ghalib defended the move, stating at the time: “We’re not targeting anybody. We are trying to close the door for other groups that could be extremist or racist.”
The Post’s report described Ghalib as a “socially conservative Muslim.” It also noted that “the resolution banned not only the rainbow flag but all flags except for the U.S., state, city and POW/MIA banners.”
>> MUSLIM AND CHRISTIAN PARENTS SOUGHT TO PROTECT THEIR KIDS FROM PRO-LGBTQ BOOKS <<
The state of Michigan – which could potentially decide this year’s election outcome – has a significant Muslim community.
In addition, the fellow key battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, also have sizable Muslim populations.
Over the past few election cycles, Muslim voters – many of whom are social conservatives like Ghalib – have been significantly trending to the right.
Middle East Eye reported in November 2022:
In the 2022 midterm election, 28 percent of Muslim voters voted Republican, which is an 11 percent increase from the 2018 midterms, Wall Street Journal exit polling revealed.
…
The new findings are consistent with previous elections. In an Associated Press exit poll, it was shown that more Muslims voted for Donald Trump in 2020, compared to 2016.
At the time, Habiba, a young female Muslim voter who recently switched her party affiliation from Democratic to Republican, told The Middle East Eye: “The Democratic Party doesn’t align with our Islamic values.”
Habiba added that when she had voted for Democrats, she “felt like I was compromising my beliefs.”
