First Muslim Female State Representative Elected to the Michigan State Legislature

By DAVID N. GOODMAN

DETROIT — Michigan is getting its first female Muslim legislator, thanks in large part to her Jewish boss, the incumbent.

Rashida Tlaib, a lawyer, community activist and daughter of Palestinian immigrants, easily won a House seat in Tuesday’s general election after emerging from an eight-way Democratic primary with 44 percent of the vote in August.

Tlaib, 32, said she wouldn’t have run but for the repeated urging of Democratic state Rep. Steve Tobocman, who is stepping down because of term limits. Once she decided to run, she threw herself into it, knocking on 8,000 doors and hitting each household twice.

Southeastern Michigan has about 300,000 people with roots in the Arab world, but few of them live in Tlaib’s largely black and Hispanic district in southwest Detroit.

“We view her victory as a sign that Michigan Muslims are welcomed as a part of our state’s multi-faith and multiethnic society,” said Dawud Walid, Michigan director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

According to the American Muslim Alliance, only nine Muslims were serving in state legislatures nationwide before Tuesday’s elections, and only one of them is a woman. There are two Muslim members of Congress - Democrats Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Andre Carson of Indiana.

The Michigan Legislature’s first known Muslim member, James Karoub, served three terms in the state House in the 1960s.

Tobocman said he first met Tlaib about five years ago when she was working for the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services, where she did advocacy work for immigrants.

“I was just really, really impressed,” he said. When he later became majority floor leader and got another staff slot, he recruited Tlaib for the job. He said she brings a passion for social justice and the ability to work with people across the political aisle with very different outlooks.

“She’s someone who just intuitively understood the process right off the bat,” Tobocman said.

The election was only one of many firsts for Tlaib. The eldest of 14 children of a retired Ford Motor Co. worker and his wife, she was the first in her family to earn a high school diploma. She went on to finish college and law school while helping raise 13 siblings.

“My parents … are amazing Americans,” she said. “They never thought this would ever happen.”

Muslim Woman Physically Assaulted on Illinois College Campus

On Thursday (October 9th, 2008), the Elmhurst College campus in Chicago went on a lock-down for about an hour after a female Muslim student was pistol-whipped in the women’s restroom by a masked gunman. “She received a concussion, a bruise on her side, and she passed out,” said Soofia Ahmed, a close friend of the victim. Before the attack, the Muslim student reported that she noticed graffiti on the restroom mirror: “Kill the Muslims.” One week ago, she also reported that her locker was sprayed with threatening anti-Muslim graffiti which read: “Die Muslim, die. Rid us of your filth,” followed by a swastika.

When asked if this armed assault on a Muslim college student was a hate crime, a spokesperson for Elmhurst College, Charles Henderson, said, “We’re leaning that direction, yes, we are. Since this morning, a crime alert has been posted that does say this is reported as a hate crime.”

Libby Glass, an Elmhurst College student said, “We don’t accept hate, and the fact that it’s happening is unbelievable.”

Another student, Justin Tierney, shared the same sentiments, “This is something that’s shocking to us. It’s something that I would have never expected here. But everybody says that until it happens.”

On Friday (October 10th, 2008), as reported by the Chicago News, “students held an impassioned rally to deplore the incident and appeal for information to find the attacker.”

“We in the administration and all of us here on the college community, as you’ve heard, are doing everything we can to work with law enforcement, to identify the perpetrator of this incident and restore this campus to the great institution that we all know that it is,” said Alan Ray, Elmhurst College president.

According to the Council on America-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization which is currently calling upon local, state, and national law enforcement authorities to further investigate this incident, also stated that fellow Muslims on the college campus experienced anti-Muslim discriminatory acts as well. One Muslim student reported an incident where someone said, “Get the f**k out of here, you don’t belong here. Muslims belong in hell. Go back home.”

“These disturbing incidents must be treated with the seriousness they deserve by relevant law enforcement agencies at the local, state and national levels,” said CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab. “There is no room for religious, racial or ethic intimidation or violence on our nation’s college campuses.”

Rehab also stated that CAIR is concerned — and rightfully so — about the distribution of the “Obsession” DVD and it’s impact on how Americans perceive and treat the Muslim-American community. The DVD has been mailed to 28 million households in the swing states by the Clarion fund, an organization that largely supports the McCain Campaign.

Click below to watch the news report:

VIDEO: Woman Assaulted on College Campus (ABC)

~ Jehanzeb