veiled4allah: First non-white elected to Hamtramck City Council

For years, it seemed to many ethnic minorities that they were unwelcome in this heavily Polish enclave. But last week, Bangladeshi-American Shahab Ahmed broke through the divide. He became the first non-white to be elected to the Hamtramck City Council, the Detroit Free Press reported.

"It's not a victory only for me. It's victory for those who were stopped in 1999," Ahmed told the newspaper. "In the end, we won -- they lost."

Following complaints of discrimination in the 1999 election, the Justice Department sent monitors during 2001 elections for mayor and city council. Observers also were sent to monitor the treatment of Arab-American voters this year.

State law allows residents who register as challengers to challenge anyone they believe isn't a registered voter based on citizenship, age or residency, but officials said the only people to be questioned about their citizenship in 1999 were Arab-Americans and Asian-Americans.

When Ahmed and his family moved to Michigan from Sylhet in Bangladesh, he spoke no English. Although he had studied business administration in Bangladesh, his first job in Detroit was busing tables. Eventually, he and his brothers opened a restaurant.

His first steps into politics came when a customer of his was robbed. Feeling the city's response lacking, Ahmed started the Caniff Avenue Improvement Project that served both as a neighborhood crime watch and cleanup group.

From there, he became director of the Hamtramck Chamber of Commerce and, in 1998, was asked by Mayor Gary Zych to work as multicultural coordinator.

The next year, he made his first run for the City Council, winning the support of the city's Bangladeshi residents. But at election time, many who supported him endured abuse at the polls and two Hamtramck residents were convicted for harassing voters.

The next attempt came in 2001. But in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, attacks, flyers were distributed accusing him of supporting terrorism. Ahmed, a Muslim, lost.

In the recent election, he won 1,328 votes, the fourth-highest out of all 10 candidates.