DAR AL HARB-U.S.A.-NEW JERSEY: MOSLEM MAYOR DOESN'T MIX RELIGION & POLITICS

Muslim mayor avoids mixing politics, religion
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
By MAYA KREMEN
STAFF WRITER

PROSPECT PARK -- The mayor's voicemail is full of pleas. Two residents want handicapped parking permits. A man who's moved out of state is trying to pay parking tickets. And there's a woman facing eviction.

His cellphone buzzes. The office phone rings. He picks it up.

"Hey, what's up," Mayor Mohamed Khairullah says. "Assalam alaikum. I got your e-mail."

Khairullah, 31, set a precedent in November by becoming the state's first elected Arab-American Muslim mayor. Now he's all about proving that, like any good politician, a Muslim can serve the public without mixing religion into it.

You'll find the Quran in his office. But it's wedged between essential reading for this job: a municipal manual and a flood insurance study.

Deliver the goods to everyone, and then you can exert personal perspective. It's a strategy he imparts to other Muslims and Arabs.

"You need to be sitting at the table with the decision makers; that's how you get involved," he tells them. "But we should never forget that we are Americans before anything. We work through the larger community first."

But to get to where he is, Khairullah weathered trouble specific to being an Arab Muslim politician after 9/11. He has been called a "betrayer" and had his remarks on the Palestinian situation come back to bite him.

Of late, he says, he's learned to temper public stands on hot topics, especially after seeing Sami Merhi of Clifton, a Lebanese American, dumped by Democrats as a 2006 freeholder candidate. Merhi had reportedly said at a function that he couldn't see the similarity between Palestinian suicide bombers and the 9/11 hijackers.

"For me and for anyone else of Middle Eastern descent who wants to get into politics, it comes as a learning experience," Khairullah said. "Politicians need to watch what they say -- it's plain and simple." Besides the political fray, there have been personal tough times: his father's death when he was just 20, and raising a young son after divorce. And there, his faith has pulled him through.

As mayor, though, Khairullah can't help but operate beyond faith. Besides the residents' pleas this particular day, there are checks to sign for a seniors' luncheon, and a streetscape project in danger of going over budget.

"Your mailbox is full," his voicemail says.

"What else is new?" he asks.

An English phrasebook

Khairullah's family came to town after living in Syria, Saudi Arabia and Queens. He was 16, and he worked hard at assimilating, always carrying an English phrasebook. After his father, a body shop owner, died of a heart attack, the family struggled. But, borrowing money from an uncle, Khairullah managed to go to William Paterson University.

By then, he already knew he was destined for politics. His epiphany had come as a highschooler when he saw a council campaign sign for Khalil Kasht. Khairullah recognized the name as Muslim and thought, "If he could do it, maybe I could."

That seemed especially possible in Prospect Park.

It's Passaic County's smallest town, but its residents include Hispanics, African-Americans, Turks, Albanians, Arab-Americans, Circassians, and the descendants of Dutch settlers. It's a place where the supermarket signs say "Halal Meat" and "Se Habla Espanol."

Khairullah, a Democrat, showed early political savvy in his election to council. As a volunteer firefighter, he had gotten fire department support by pledging to deliver on new radios.
As councilman, he allied with Mayor William Kubofcik.

"The political game has a lot to do with loyalty," Kubofcik says. "There were times things needed to be done, and he stayed the course with my agenda."

When Kubofcik left town in 2005, Khairullah was appointed his successor.

Since then, Khairullah has tried to balance ethnic concerns. He has attended Latino Police Organization events, and hired the first African-American police officer. He helps Arabic-speakers with immigration problems.

It's not just the right thing to do, its good politics, he concedes -- "It's the humane thing. And if you're thinking about it politically, you're building up credit."

Still, he hasn't muted his heritage as part of his public persona, and that's drawn opposition.
In late 2005, when he was cast as Kubofcik's successor, anonymous mailings called him a "betrayer living among us."

Political foes also faulted him for speaking at a pro-Palestinian rally, and attending a meeting of Arab-American leaders who called on the U.S. to broker peace between Lebanon and Israel.

"You got a sense he was supporting groups that were not particularly popular, that wouldn't be popular with anyone," said Thomas F. X. Magura, a Republican who ran against Khairullah. "He's taken a lot of positions that are not really in the best interest of the community."

Khairullah fired back -- even offering a $1,000 reward for information about the fliers' author. And in November, he won overwhelming election as mayor.

"People who stand strong continue to be successful," Khairullah said. "I could have said, 'I don't want to go through these attacks,' and given up. But I said, 'I'm going to swallow it and move on.'"

In a cocoon

That thick-skinned approach is an example for other Muslim and Arab politicians, said Aref Assaf, president of the Denville-based Arab-American Forum.

"It's the first step in many we have to take," Assaf said. "We have cocooned ourselves in our own ethnic enclaves because we're fearful of the challenges that lurk out there."

In the end, beyond the issues of ethnic sensitivity are the hard fights familiar to every local politician, like Magura's current claims that the mayor is running up debt and letting the town look grimy.

Khairullah said his best moment in public life wasn't becoming the first Arab-Muslim mayor. It was presiding over the borough's first Christmas lighting last year.

Town hall already displayed symbols of other religions, including a crescent during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. But Khairullah wanted all included.

"People will say, 'Why would a Muslim mayor put a crescent and not a Christmas tree?' " he said. "If I want to promote something, I have to lead by example. It was the logical thing to do."


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