Hamtramck, Michigan, Mayor Amer Ghalib made headlines over the weekend for supporting former President Donald Trump's presidential bid, catapulting the city, America's only Muslim-majority town, into the national spotlight.
Ghalib, who was elected in 2021 to become Hamtramck's first Muslim mayor, was born in Yemen and immigrated to the U.S. in 1997 as a teenager, according to a profile of the mayor posted by Henry Ford University.
He attended Hamtramck High School and worked in a factory before attending what was then Henry Ford Community College and Wayne State University, earning bachelor's degrees in biology and pre-med, and then attending Ross University School of Medicine in Dominica, where he completed a four-year internship but did not complete his residency.
Ghalib spent most of his medical career in Detroit's Hamtramck neighborhood of about 28,000 residents, a city that until recent decades was known primarily as a Polish neighborhood until it saw a large influx of immigrants from the Middle East and eventually became America's first Muslim-majority city.
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Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib, 43, is pictured in his office at Hamtramck City Hall, Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023, in Hamtramck, Michigan. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
He made history by defeating former Hamtramck Mayor Karen Majewski, breaking the city's streak of more than 100 years of having a Polish-American mayor. That same year, Hamtramck became the first city in the nation to have an all-Muslim elected leadership, with six Hamtramck City Council seats won by Muslim candidates.
But Ghalib has courted controversy during his time as mayor, including supporting a 2023 resolution banning the display of the LGBTQ+ flag on city property.
“You do not know our city any more than we do, nor do you know the consequences of opening the door for any group to fly their flag on city property,” Mayor Ghalib said in a statement to critics of the move, as reported by the Detroit Free Press. “All our residents are equally important to us, and we will continue to serve our residents equally, without discrimination, favoritism or preference towards any group. City government will continue to be neutral and fair to our residents.”
Later that year, President Trump sparked further controversy by failing to censure one of his political appointees who was accused of making anti-Semitic remarks.
According to a Hamtramck Review report on the controversy, Nasr Hussein, a member of the Hamtramck Planning Commission, came under fire for questioning whether Israel's current actions in Gaza are a punishment from God to Jews during the Holocaust.
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“Was the Holocaust God's preliminary punishment on the 'Chosen People' for the atrocities they are committing today against innocent Palestinian children and civilians,” Hussein posted on Hamtramck Square, a popular local Facebook page.
HAMTRAMCK, MI – APRIL 16, 2017: Lindsay Tewks, 25, who goes by the Muslim name Amiraldeen Al-Ghazali, walks home from Quranic class in Hamtramck, Michigan on April 16, 2017. Hamtramck, a city surrounded by Detroit, is the first U.S. city to have a majority Muslim population. (Photo by Lindsay Addario/Getty Images)
“This is a heinous act that proves they are just as barbaric and cruel as the Nazis, if not more so (take into account that God is not bound by space or time and they believe in reincarnation),” he added.
“Ask Nasr about that. What do I have to do with his post! I don't need to comment on every opinion of residents, otherwise I would have commented on the posts insulting Islam and other religions that some residents frequently post in the same Facebook group,” Ghalib said when asked by the Hamtramck Review to respond to the post.
As reported by the Detroit Free Press, Gharib and the Hamtramck City Council were in the spotlight again earlier this year when they unanimously approved a resolution requiring the city to avoid investing in Israeli companies or businesses that support “Israeli apartheid,” a full endorsement of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israeli companies.
“For now, the city will do its best to refrain from acquisitions, investments and contracts with companies that support Israeli genocide,” Ghalib said after the vote.
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Still, Trump lobbied hard to secure Ghalib's endorsement, holding a 20-minute private meeting with Hamtramck's mayor before an event in Flint, Michigan, last Tuesday, according to a report from The Detroit News.
Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump, lobbied hard to secure Mayor Amer Gharib's endorsement. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
“He asked me if I could urge people to vote for him, and I told him, 'I'm here to talk to you about that and how we can make that happen,'” Ghalib told The Detroit News, “and I gave him an official letter detailing our concerns and an invitation to come to Hamtramck if possible.”
Ghalib eventually voiced his support, praising Trump on Facebook as a “man of principle.”
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“I do not know whether he will win the election and become the 47th president of the United States, but I believe he is the right choice at this critical time,” Ghalib wrote in Arabic on his Facebook page. “Whatever the outcome, I do not regret my decision and am ready to face the consequences. For this and many other reasons, I express my support and endorsement to former and hopefully next US President Donald Trump.”
Neither Ghalib's office nor the Trump campaign immediately responded to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
