Dearborn (Michigan): Dearborn, a city in the American state Michigan, elected its first Arab Muslim American Mayor Tuesday.
Abdallah Hammoud, 31-year-old state representative, defeated Gary Woronchack, a former local official.
Dearborn Mayoral election result was declared Tuesday.
Abdullah Hammoud won 55 percent of the total votes to secure the mayoral post in the city known for its vast population of Muslims and Arabs.
Abdullah, whose parents immigrated to the United States from Lebanon, will succeed John B O’Reilly, who did not seek re-election after being diagnosed with an undisclosed illness.
When Abdullah Hammoud takes office early next year, he also will become the first Muslim and the first person of colour to lead the city of nearly 110,000 residents, one of the largest in the mid-western state of Michigan.
In the victory speech, Abdullah Hammoud spoke of a “new era” in Dearborn, a city known for its large Arab and Muslim community.
“To the young girls and boys who have ever been ridiculed for their faith or ethnicity, to those of you who were ever made to feel that their names were unwelcome, and to our parents and to our elders and to others who are humiliated for their broken English and yet still persisted", Hammoud said.
"Today is proof that you are as American as anyone else", the Mayor-elect, who has a master’s degree in business administration and a master’s in public health from Michigan University, said.
Dearborn was recently in news when thousands of Americans thronged the streets demanding “Free Palestine” and condemning US President Joe Biden’s Israel policy.
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