HAMTRAMCK, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – On June 13th, the Hamtramck city council’s six-member chamber voted unanimously to prohibit flags of any racial, ethnic, religious or sexual-oriented group on city property which includes City Hall, parks and libraries. It is called the “Resolution to Maintain and Confirm the Neutrality Of the City of Hamtramck Towards Its Residents.”
City council members had said that allowing a Pride flag could lead to other groups asking for “radical or racist” flags to be flown in the city.
Mayor Amer Ghalib told Fox 2 News the only exceptions to the resolution are the American flag, state and city flags and POW MIA and added, “We are confirming the neutrality of the City of Hamtramck, we decided to stay neutral.”
That didn’t sit well with many pro-LGBTQ+ residents who showed up at the Muslim-led City Council meeting and spoke on the issue during the gathering which lasted more than three hours. One woman at the meeting said, “This is a historic moment, a moment where the basic rights of the LGBTQ community is under attack.”
Also during the meeting, two female protesters, one wearing a clown nose, embraced each other and locked lips in protest of the new flag ordinance – in front of the city council and the audience, including children.
The new flag resolution also didn’t sit well with Hamtramck Human Relations Commission members Russ Gordon and Cathy Stackpool who decided to display the flag anyway by flying it on a city pole over a public sidewalk for several hours on July 9th. On July 11th, the City Council made another unanimous vote – this time to remove both Gordon and Stackpoole from the Human Relations Commission.
Council member Khalil Refai told Fox News, “This Council believes in fairness, neutrality towards our residents, and the rule of law, amongst other things for this community. We passed a resolution recently to do just that, and two of our sworn commissioners outright defied it, and did what they wanted.”
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On Wednesday, July 12th, Mayor Ghalib was on The Tudor Dixon Podcast which is hosted by former Michigan GOP gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon. During the podcast, the mayor called the group that put up the flag “militia.”
The mayor told Dixon, “I was passing by and I saw people videotaping and taking pictures and some militia gathering around the flagpole, and I took action…The city took it down within a couple of hours, but [came] to find out who led this process, it was the chair of the [Human Relations Commission], the former mayor [Karen Majewski], a group of politicians that one day they used to lead this city, and now they are acting like a militia … No responsibility, very irresponsible action. No respect for law and order.”
He explained the vote on not allowing controversial flags on city property by telling Dixon, “The city thought that we just need to be neutral and to represent everyone equally, because all these groups in this city belong. There are minorities and they need support in one way or the other, and some of them are subject to discrimination in one way or the other as well. So I need to treat people equally. Everyone is equally important to me, and therefore we pass(ed) the resolution to confirm the neutrality of the city toward its residents.”
Ghalib is the first Muslim mayor of Hamtramck and he leads the first all-Muslim council. The city council is reported to be the only one in the country where all of the elected officials are Muslim.
During the interview with the mayor, Dixon asked about the politics of the Muslim community and about a shift away from the Democratic party. Ghalib said, “Muslims are conservative. They give high value to their faith and their families and their freedom, the three Fs. But I will say they put faith and family first and, and some people will sacrifice some of their freedoms in order to protect their faith and family structure.”
During the podcast, Ghalib also took aim at Michigan Democrat Attorney General Dana Nessel, who joined hundreds of pro-LGBTQ+ protesters in June who gathered outside of Hamtramck City Hall because of the flag ban. Nessel had said that banning the pride flag sends a message of intolerance, hatred and bigotry. She added, “As Martin Luther King Jr. so aptly observed: ‘The hottest place in hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict. Anyone who accepts evil, without protesting against it, is one who cooperates with it.’”
Nessel continued, “And make no mistake: homophobia, transphobia, are indeed forms of evil just as much as Islamophobia is.”
Ghalib told Dixon, “So since I took my office, I only see one obstacle in my way, and it’s created by some radical groups in the left wing here, led basically by the former mayor and the former power structure in my city supported by high elected officials in the state and other places…So what are they (Democrats) doing to prevent that shift? They’re doing nothing. They are actually putting more pressure on us. They are sending some elected officials to protest in our city and to threaten us.”
What the mayor calls a “militia” that he says is threatening his city may continue to show up in his community for a while as the organizers have promised a year of protest. Gracie Cadieux, one of the organizers of the protest, told WXYZ Detroit that the end goal is to “Kick off Pride 365, we’re intending for a year of civil disobedience, protest, community engagement, and mutual aid here in Hamtramck.”
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