{"id":972,"date":"2016-08-11T00:41:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-10T21:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/?p=972"},"modified":"2017-11-11T00:42:44","modified_gmt":"2017-11-10T21:42:44","slug":"this-american-mayor-came-from-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/this-american-mayor-came-from-syria\/","title":{"rendered":"This American mayor came from Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"

By : Voice of America<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When Syrian native Mohamed Khairullah settled in the small American town of Prospect Park, New Jersey, in 1991, he did not envision he would one day become its mayor. He was only in the 11th grade at the time.<\/p>\n

Prior to the United States, Khairullah\u2019s life was about escaping conflict. In 1980, during the first uprising against then-president of Syria Hafez al-Assad, 5-year-old Khairullah and his family fled Syria to Saudi Arabia. Eleven years later, following the first Gulf War, they moved again \u2014 this time to the U.S.<\/p>\n

Each time Khairullah moved, he experienced culture shock. But his move to the U.S. was unlike anything else.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to get accustomed to a non\u2013Middle Eastern culture, learn a new language, so it was extremely challenging, but I think it helped shape me into who I am,\u201d Khairullah said.<\/p>\n

He remembers stepping into a classroom with girls for the first time. \u201cThat was \u2026 oh my god! It\u2019s amazing!\u201d<\/p>\n

There also were aspects of the New Jersey town that reminded him of home. One day, while walking to high school, he recalls passing a political sign with an Arabic name on it, a moment, he says, that \u201cplanted a seed\u201d for the leadership role he would one day assume.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Entering American politics<\/strong><\/p>\n

Khairullah says Prospect Park \u2014 population 6,000, 35 kilometers from New York City\u2019s Manhattan \u2014 has long been a welcoming community for immigrants. When he applied to be a volunteer firefighter in 1994, the town changed its ordinance to allow non\u2013U.S. citizens to become members.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a volunteer fireman is something that I always wanted to do, but in Saudi Arabia if you are not a citizen, you just can\u2019t do it,\u201d Khairullah said. \u201cSo [here], I was able to do what I was always passionate about.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea of entering local politics came from other volunteer firefighters, who encouraged Khairullah to run. So in 2001, he did precisely that, exactly one year after becoming a U.S. citizen. \u201cOne thing led to another,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He wanted to give back to his community, a trait he describes as common among Muslim Americans.<\/p>\n

Now in his third full term, Khairullah represents a town with an approximate 15 percent combined Arab and Muslim population.<\/p>\n

His Instagram profile perhaps synthesizes who he is best: \u201cAn American mayor who happens to be a Muslim.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Returning to Syria<\/strong><\/p>\n

Khairullah has never forgotten his past. He has made a point to return regularly to Syria for humanitarian relief missions. Seven times since the Syrian war began, he has returned to provide food and supplies to schools and hospitals in need. Recently, he helped establish an underground hospital in Aleppo on behalf of the Syrian American Medical Society, a foundation that has treated 2.6 million patients in the region, including 320,000 refugees.<\/p>\n

Together with his wife \u2014 who he met in Syria \u2014 and three children, Khairullah\u2019s family speaks Arabic at home and English outside, so his kids can be proficient in both languages. His goal for his children, he says, is to expose them to the world, both good and bad, and one day return to Syria with them, so that they may witness its \u201crich, beautiful history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[There are] too many wars, too much hate. I don\u2019t want that to come out of them,\u201d he said. \u201cI want them to be the positive agents in this world.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By : Voice of America   When Syrian native Mohamed Khairullah settled in the small American town of Prospect Park, New Jersey, in 1991, he did not envision he would one day become its mayor. He was only in the 11th grade at the time. Prior to the United States, Khairullah\u2019s life was about escaping […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=972"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":974,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972\/revisions\/974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}