Abdullah Hammoud, the son of Lebanese immigrants, was born and raised in Dearborn, the place he was elected mayor on Tuesday. With the victory, he additionally turns into the town’s first Muslim mayor.
Regardless of the town’s massive Arab neighborhood, it has by no means been led by an Arab- or Muslim-American.
“It is only a humbling expertise. It is humbling that on this city, individuals are keen to vote for somebody primarily based on the course through which they lead, not within the course through which they pray,” Hammoud, 31, advised CNN. “It is humbling as a result of it reveals that somebody like me, who has a reputation like Abdullah Hussein Hammoud, does not have to vary or shrink back from their identification to attain success.”
Hammoud is serving his third time period as state consultant for Michigan’s fifteenth District, which incorporates Dearborn. He was first elected in 2016 and has since been re-elected twice.
He’ll take workplace as mayor in January.
“It’s a enormous deal for the Arab neighborhood in Michigan and nationwide,” Sally Howell, director of the Middle for Arab American Research on the College of Michigan-Dearborn, advised CNN. “The symbolic capital of Arab America, Dearborn, Michigan, lastly has an Arab American mayor to talk on behalf of this distinctive inhabitants. Illustration issues.”
Hammoud says he is able to get to work and instantly start tackling points that have an effect on his metropolis, together with local weather change.
“There is a clock on the wall, and there is the query of when is the following heavy rain that is going to set in that is going to steer into the following catastrophic flooding, just like what we skilled prior to now summer season when practically 20,000 properties skilled some kind of flooding,” Hammoud stated.
“Now we have to instantly begin adjusting the local weather disaster by placing forth daring and modern proposals,” he stated.
Hammoud says he hopes his win sends a message to Dearborn’s youth — particularly those that are focused due to their variations — that nothing is out of attain.
“By no means shrink back from who you might be,” he stated. “Be pleased with your title, be snug in your identification, as a result of it will take you locations in case you work onerous, you are passionate and also you encourage folks.”
