Mayor has no comment on his appointee’s Holocaust Facebook post

Mayor Amer Ghalib

By Charles Sercombe
Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib is declining to weigh in on controversial comments made by one of his appointees.
Hamtramck Plan Commission member Nasr Hussain has drawn local and national media attention for posing what he says is a hypothetical scenario of Jews being punished in the Holocaust for actions they are now taking in Gaza.
Some have accused Hussain of being anti-Semitic.
Hussain is also one of six candidates vying for three city council seats in next Tuesday’s (Nov. 7) election.
Here’s what Hussain, who campaigned for Mayor Ghalib and was paid over $2,000 by Ghalib for printed campaign material, posted on the Facebook page Hamtramck Square:
“Was the Holocaust God’s advance punishment of the ‘Chosen People’ for the savagery they’re committing today against the innocent Palestinians children and civilians?
“A heinous act proving that they’re as savage and cruel as the Nazis themselves, or even worse.(Take into consideration that God isn’t confined by space or time and that they believe in reincarnation.)”
Both Hussain and Ghalib are Muslim immigrants from Yemen. Asked about Hussain’s comment, Ghalib told The Review:
“You can ask Nasr about that. What do I have to do with his posts! I don’t have to comment on every resident’s opinion, otherwise I would have commented on some posts that insult Islam and other religions, which are posted frequently by some residents on that same Facebook group.”
Ghalib didn’t hold back on commenting about another appointee for their comments.
Ghalib had former mayor Karen Majewski removed from the city’s Downtown Development Authority after she made a series of critical comments about Ghalib and the city council.
The apparent breaking point for Ghalib, who appointed Majewski to the DDA, came when she criticized him and the city council for banning the display of pride flags on public property.
Majewski posted this comment on her Facebook page:
“I hope our governor’s new LGBTQ Task Force will take a look at this, and take it into consideration as the State of Michigan makes decisions about grants and other funding.”
At the time of her removal by the city council, at the mayor’s behest, Ghalib said that her encouraging the state to cut funding was “crazy.”
He also said that he removed Majewski because she is “being a divisive member of the community.”
Ghalib has also removed other mayoral appointees. He had made a campaign pledge to make the city’s various boards and commissions more racially and ethnically diverse, and also remove appointees who had spotty attendance records.
He removed two white males and an African-American male from the Housing Commission.
They were replaced by a Yemeni-American male, an African-American woman and Bangladeshi male, who also worked on Ghalib’s campaign.
Ghalib also fired two members of the Human Relations Commission after they raised a pride flag on a city-owned flagpole on Jos. Campau.
Those members, Russ Gordon, who was chairman of the Commission, and Catrina Stackpoole, said they raised the flag in protest to the city’s then-new policy on banning the display of pride flags on city property.
That policy was supported by Ghalib and the city council, who are all male and all Muslim.

Nasr Hussain\Asked if he will remove Hussain, Ghalib said:

Asked if he will remove Hussain, Ghalib said:
“I don’t remove people based on their opinion on international affairs as long as they don’t violate rules and regulations of the city. I didn’t remove people whom I disagree with regarding politically controversial issues. They still serve in some boards and commissions as long as they keep their opinion away from their city job.
“I only removed those who challenged me and tried to undermine my power.”

Posted Nov. 4, 2023