Left's dilemma: All-Muslim MI city council bans Pride flags

FPI / June 22, 2023

Hamtramck, Michigan became an instant source of inspiration for the Left when in 2015 it became the first municipality in America to elect an all-Muslim city council.

Praise was showered on the beacon of multiculturalism from around the globe.

The BBC beamed: “Residents in Hamtramck from different religious and cultural backgrounds coexist in harmony.”

People magazine declared it an "historic achievement."

Eight years later, however, the leftists who were so vocal in their praise for Hamtramck are singing a different tune.

Hamtramck’s all-Muslim council on June 13 voted to permanently ban Pride flags from all public property.

The resolution, brought by city council member Mohammed Hassan, says that Hamtramck will not provide special treatment to any group of people. City council members shared that flying a Pride flag could potentially lead to other “radical or racist groups” asking for their flags to be flown.

The Guardian, which previously had nothing but glowing praise for Hamtramck’s “multicultural populace,” initially welcoming the election of the Muslim council as “a meaningful rebuke” of Donald Trump and his “Islamophobic rhetoric,” now reports that it can only look on “in dismay” as “Muslim residents packing city hall erupted in cheers after the council’s unanimous vote” to ban Pride flags.

Karen Majewski, a former mayor of the city, said there was “a sense of betrayal.”

Michael Deacon noted in a June 20 op-ed for Yahoo News: "Frankly, I suspect that what local liberals are mostly feeling is bewilderment. After all, if a Christian council had banned the Pride flag, liberals would have known exactly how to respond. Denounce the council for its queerphobic bigotry, and lead a furious protest march against heteronormative, patriarchal white supremacy. Simple.

"Unfortunately, though, this council isn’t Christian. As a result, American liberals are being forced to contemplate an awkward dilemma. Their whole purpose in life is to defend marginalized minorities. But what should they do when one marginalized minority marginalizes another marginalized minority? Whose side should they take?

"Logically it should be the side of the minority being marginalized. Which in this case is people who are LGBT. But if liberals fight the ban on the Pride flag, the Muslim council could accuse them of marginalizing Muslims, by refusing to respect their democratic decisions. Liberals, they could add, are guilty of cultural imperialism, by forcing Muslims to conform to certain values. They could even accuse them of Islamophobia. A thought to strike terror into every progressive heart.

"These poor liberals. They spend their lives righteously defending minorities from conservatives – not realizing that minorities can be conservative themselves."

Free Press International
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