WELLINGTON, New Zealand: New Zealand authorities imprisoned a man inspired by the Daesh group for three years after catching him with a hunting knife and extremist videos — but at a certain point, despite grave fears he would attack others, they say they could do nothing more to keep him behind bars.
So for 53 days from July, police tracked the man’s every move, an operation that involved some 30 officers working around the clock. Their fears were borne out Friday when he walked into an Auckland supermarket, grabbed a kitchen knife from a store shelf and stabbed five people, critically injuring three.
Two more shoppers were injured in the melee. On Saturday, three of the victims remained hospitalized in critical condition and three more were in stable or moderate conditions. The seventh person was recovering at home. The youngest victim was a 29-year-old woman, the oldest a 77-year-old man.
Court documents named the attacker as 32-year-old Ahamed Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen, a Tamil Muslim from Sri Lanka who arrived in New Zealand 10 years ago on a student visa seeking refugee status, which he was granted in 2013.
Undercover officers monitoring Samsudeen from just outside the supermarket sprang into action when they saw shoppers running and heard shouting, police said, and shot him dead within a couple of minutes of him beginning his attack. A bystander’s video records the sound of 10 shots being fired in rapid succession.
The attack has highlighted deficiencies in New Zealand’s anti-terror laws, which experts say are too focused on punishing actions and inadequate for dealing with plots before they are carried out. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said lawmakers were close to filling some of those legislative holes when the attack occurred. She vowed law changes by the end of the month.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said the law they were working under required a suspect to make the first move.
“We might have an understanding of intent, and ideology, and we might have high levels of concern,” Coster said. “But that is not sufficient for us to take any enforcement action.”
Samsudeen was first noticed by police in 2016 when he started posting support for terror attacks and violent extremism on Facebook.
Police twice confronted him but he kept on posting. In 2017, they arrested him at Auckland Airport. He was headed for Syria, authorities say, presumably to join the Daesh insurgency. Police searches found he had a hunting knife and some banned propaganda material, and he was later released on bail. In 2018, he bought another knife, and police found two Daesh videos.
He spent the next three years in jail after pleading guilty to various crimes and for breaching bail. On new charges in May, a jury found Samsudeen guilty on two counts of possessing objectionable videos, both of which showed Daesh group imagery, including the group’s flag and a man in a black balaclava holding a semi-automatic weapon.
However, the videos didn’t show violent murders like some Daesh videos and weren’t classified as the worst kind of illicit material. High Court Judge Sally Fitzgerald described the contents as religious hymns sung in Arabic. She said the videos described obtaining martyrdom on the battlefield by being killed for God’s cause.
A court report warned Samsudeen had the motivation and means to commit violent acts in the community and posed a high risk. It described him as harboring extreme attitudes, living an isolated lifestyle, and having a sense of entitlement.
But the judge decided to release him, sentencing him to a year’s supervision at an Auckland mosque, where a leader had confirmed his willingness to help and support Samsudeen on his release.
The judge said she rejected arguments Samsudeen had simply stumbled on the videos and was trying to improve his Arabic. She said an aggravating factor was that he was on bail for earlier, similar offenses and had tried to delete his Internet browser history.
Fitzgerald noted the extreme concerns of police, saying she didn’t know if they were right, but “I sincerely hope they are not.”
The judge also banned Samsudeen from owning any devices that could access the Internet, unless approved in writing by a probation officer, and ordered that he provide access to any social media accounts he held.
“I am of the view that the risk of you reoffending in a similar way to the charges upon which you were convicted remains high,” the judge concluded. “Your rehabilitation is accordingly key.”
Two months later, Samsudeen took a train from a mosque in the Auckland suburb of Glen Eden where he was living to a Countdown supermarket in New Lynn, tailed at a distance by police. He wheeled a shopping cart around the store like the other customers for about 10 minutes. The store was less crowded than normal due to coronavirus distancing requirements, and undercover police were hanging back so as not to be noticed.
At about 2:40 p.m. he began shouting “Allahu akbar” — meaning “God is great” — and started stabbing random shoppers, sending people running and screaming, unleashing an attack that shocked a nation.
On Saturday, Samsudeen’s brother Aroos said the family wanted to send their love and support to everyone hurt in the attack. He said Samsudeen had been suffering from mental health problems, wanted to impress his friends on Facebook and had no support.
“He would hang up the phone on us when we told him to forget about all the issues he was obsessed with. Then he would call us back again himself when he realized he was wrong,” Aroos said. “Aathil was wrong again yesterday. Of course we feel very sad he could not be saved.”
Extremist was released from New Zealand jail despite fears
https://arab.news/vcs6p
Extremist was released from New Zealand jail despite fears
- For 53 days from July, police tracked 32-year-old Ahamed Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen’s every move, an operation that involved some 30 officers working around the clock
- The attack has highlighted deficiencies in New Zealand’s anti-terror laws, which experts say are too focused on punishing actions and inadequate for dealing with plots
A wary Europe awaits Rubio with NATO’s future on the line
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio travels this week to a gathering of top diplomats from NATO countries and is sure to find allies that are alarmed, angered and confused by the Trump administration’s desire to reestablish ties with Russia and its escalating rhetorical attacks on longtime transatlantic partners.
Allies are deeply concerned by President Donald Trump’s readiness to draw closer to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who sees NATO as a threat, amid a US effort to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine. Recent White House comments and insults directed at NATO allies Canada and Denmark — as well as the military alliance itself — have only increased the angst, especially as new US tariffs are taking effect against friends and foes alike.
Rubio arrives in Brussels on Thursday for two days of meetings with his NATO counterparts and European officials, and he can expect to be confronted with questions about the future US role in the alliance. With him on the trip will be newly confirmed US ambassador to NATO Matt Whitaker.
For 75 years, NATO has been anchored on American leadership, and based on what they have seen and heard since Trump took office in January, European officials have expressed deep concerns that Trump may upend all of that when he and other NATO leaders meet for a June summit in the Netherlands.
Can Rubio reassure allies?
As Rubio did last month at a meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of 7 industrialized democracies, America’s top diplomat, who is regarded by many overseas as a more pragmatic and less dogmatic member of Trump’s administration, may be able to salvage a watered-down group consensus on the war in Ukraine.
That’s even as Trump said this week that Ukraine “was never going to be a member of NATO” despite leaders declaring at last year’s summit that the country was on an “irreversible” path to join.
But Rubio will be hard-pressed to explain Washington’s unprovoked verbal attacks on NATO allies Canada, which Trump says he wants to claim as the 51st state, and Denmark, whose territory of Greenland he says the US should annex. Both have been accused of being “bad allies” by Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
“It’s pretty clear neither territory has any interest in joining a Trumpian America,” said Ian Kelly, US ambassador to Georgia during the Obama and first Trump administrations and now an international studies professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
“There’s going to be a lot of very anxious Euros about what Trump is going to call for and what announcements he’s going to make,” he said. “If he isn’t already, Rubio is going to be in a mode of trying to reassure European allies that we are not, in fact, not dependable.”
Yet, in just under two months, NATO has been shaken to its core, challenged increasingly by Russia and the biggest land war in Europe since 1945 from the outside, and by the Trump administration from within, breaking with decades of relatively predictable US leadership.
Trump has consistently complained about NATO members’ defense spending and even raised doubts about the US commitment to mutual defense in the alliance’s founding treaty, which says an attack on one NATO member is considered an attack on all.
Europeans taking on more security guarantees
Since Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned last month that US security priorities lie elsewhere — in Asia and on its own borders — the Europeans have waited to learn how big a military drawdown in Europe could be and how fast it may happen.
In Europe and Canada, governments are working on “burden shifting” plans to take over more of the load, while trying to ensure that no security vacuum is created if US troops and equipment are withdrawn from the continent.
These allies are keen to hear from Rubio what the Trump administration’s intentions are and hope to secure some kind of roadmap that lays out what will happen next and when, so they can synchronize planning and use European forces to plug any gaps.
At the same time, NATO’s deterrent effect against an adversary like Russia is only credible when backed by US firepower. For the Europeans and Canada, this means that US nuclear weapons and the 6th Fleet must remain stationed in Europe.
“America is indispensable for credible deterrence,” a senior NATO diplomat told reporters on condition of anonymity to speak ahead of the meeting.
Around 100,000 US troops are deployed across the continent. European allies believe at least 20,000 personnel sent by the Biden administration after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago could be withdrawn.
Another priority for US allies is to understand whether Trump believes that Russia still poses the greatest security threat. In their summit statement last year, NATO leaders insisted that “Russia remains the most significant and direct threat to Allies’ security.”
But Trump’s receptiveness to Putin and recent favorable remarks by some US officials have raised doubts. The question, diplomats say, is why allies should spend 5 percent of their gross domestic product on their defense budgets if Russia is no longer a threat.
At the same time, the Europeans and Canada know they must spend more — not least to protect themselves and keep arming Ukraine. At their next summit in June, NATO leaders are expected to raise the alliance’s military budget goal from at least 2 percent to more than 3 percent.
Rubio “is in a very difficult position,” said Jeff Rathke, president of the American-German Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Trump “has tried to convince allies that a US realignment with Russia is in the best interests of the US and presumably Europe, and at the same time tell them that they need to double their defense spending to deal with threats posed by Russia,” he said. “The logical question they will ask is ‘why?’”
Britain’s PM urges nations to smash migrant smuggling gangs ‘once and for all’
- The UK government is struggling to stop undocumented migrants embarking on dangerous boat journeys across the Channel from France
- Delegates from more than 40 nations for the two-day London meeting, including countries from where would-be asylum seekers set out
LONDON: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged dozens of countries to collaborate to dismantle migrant smuggling gangs “once and for all” when he opened an immigration crime summit on Monday.
Starmer is seeking to crack down on would-be asylum seekers arriving in England on flimsy small boats and has brought together delegates from more than 40 nations for the two-day London meeting.
The interior ministers of France and Germany were among those attending the Organized Immigration Crime Summit. China and the United States also sent representatives.
The UK government is struggling to stop undocumented migrants embarking on dangerous boat journeys across the Channel from France.
“This vile trade exploits the cracks between our institutions... and profits from our inability at the political level to come together,” Starmer said.
He argued that resources and intelligence must be shared and that governments need to “tackle the problem upstream at every step of the people-smuggling routes.”
“There’s nothing progressive or compassionate about turning a blind eye to this,” Starmer added.
Britain’s Home Office (interior ministry) billed the gathering as “the first major international summit in the UK to tackle the global emergency of illegal migration.”
Representatives from across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, as well as North America were due to attend.
In a video message played to delegates, Italy’s far-right prime minister Giorgia Meloni hailed her country’s agreement with Albania to process asylum claims at detention centers in the non-European Union country.
She claimed that countries “criticized (it) at first but that then has gained increasing consensus.”
Italian judges have repeatedly refused to sign off on the detention in Albania of migrants intercepted by Italian authorities at sea, ordering them to be transferred to Italy instead, and the European Court of Justice is reviewing Rome’s policy.
Joint action plan
The summit is designed to build on talks interior minister Yvette Cooper held in December with her counterparts from Belgium, Germany, France and the Netherlands.
The five countries signed a joint action plan designed to boost cooperation to dismantle migrant smuggling gangs.
Also attending were delegates from countries from where would-be asylum seekers set out, such as Vietnam and Iraq, and countries they transit, such as those in the Balkans.
It also brings together the heads of UK law enforcement agencies and their counterparts from Interpol, Europol and Afripol.
The Home Office said the summit would discuss the equipment, infrastructure and fraudulent documents that organized criminal gangs use to smuggle people.
They would also look at how supply routes work and discuss how to tackle the online recruitment of migrants, including with representatives from social media platforms Meta, X and TikTok.
The UK announced on Sunday it was launching adverts on Zalo, the Vietnamese instant messaging system, to warn people of the dangers of people smugglers.
Vietnamese nationals are among the top nationalities making the perilous sea voyage across the Channel to Britain.
Similar UK campaigns have already been launched in Albania and Iraqi Kurdistan.
UK officials are also keen to speak to China about how it can stop exporting engines and other small boats parts used in crossings.
According to the Home Office, the UK’s National Crime Agency and global law enforcement partners have seized 600 boats and engines since July.
‘No right to be here’
Starmer told the meeting that since his Labour government took power in July, more than 24,000 people with “no right to be here” had been returned.
But the number of would-be asylum seekers arriving across the Channel set a new record last week for the first three months of the year — at more than 6,600.
At least 10 people are dead or missing after attempting the treacherous crossing so far this year, according to the International Organization for Migration.
More than 157,770 people have been detected trying to enter Britain in dinghies since successive governments began collecting data in 2018.
In February, Starmer’s government announced it was toughening immigration rules to make it almost impossible for undocumented migrants who arrive on small boats to later receive citizenship.
On Sunday, it said it would tighten rules to legally require UK gig economy employers to carry out right-to-work checks.
Starmer is under pressure, in part from rising support for Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration Reform UK party, which won roughly four million votes at July’s general election — an unprecedented haul for a hard-right party.
Rights group Amnesty International stresses: “Seeking asylum is a human right. This means everyone should be allowed to enter another country to seek asylum.”
“The people are not the problem,” it says on its website. “Rather, the causes that drive families and individuals to cross borders and the short-sighted and unrealistic ways that politicians respond to them are the problem.”
Netanyahu arrives in Hungary in defiance of ICC arrest warrant: minister
BUDAPEST: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Hungary on Thursday in defiance of the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s arrest warrant against him over alleged war crimes in Gaza, the Hungarian defense minister said.
“Welcome to Budapest, Benjamin Netanyahu!” wrote Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky on Facebook as Netanyahu began a visit at the invitation of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Allies slam Trump’s ‘reciprocal’ tariffs but try to avoid trade war
- Italian PM says US tariffs are “wrong,” but vows to find ways to avoid trade war
- Australia says US tariffs ‘not act of a friend’, Japan trade minister says they were ‘extremely regrettable’
- British officials have said they will not immediately retaliate, Mexico's president said she would wait to take action
ROME/MEXICO CITY/SYDNEY/TOKYO: The sweeping new tariffs announced Wednesday by US President Donald Trump were met initially with measured reactions from key trading partners, highlighting the lack of appetite for a full-fledged trade war.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, seen as close to Trump, described the new 20 percent tariffs against the European Union as “wrong,” saying they benefit neither side, but suggested finding a way to avoid a trade war.
“We will do everything we can to work toward an agreement with the United States, with the goal of avoiding a trade war that would inevitably weaken the West in favor of other global players,” she said in a statement on Facebook.
“In any case, as always, we will act in the interest of Italy and its economy, also engaging with other European partners,” she added.
In Sydney, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Trump’s decision to impose a 10 percent tariff on Australia was “not the act of a friend,” but ruled out reciprocal tariffs against the United States.
Trump singled out Australian beef, which saw a surge in exports to the United States last year, reaching A$4 billion amid a slump in US beef production.
“They won’t take any of our beef. They don’t want it because they don’t want it to affect their farmers and you know, I don’t blame them but we’re doing the same thing right now,” Trump said in an event in the White House Rose Garden announcing tariffs on a wide range of US trading partners.
Australia banned US fresh beef products in 2003 due to the detection of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, otherwise known as mad cow disease, in US cattle. BSE poses a risk to human health and has never been detected in cattle in Australia.
Albanese said Trump had not banned Australia beef, but had imposed a 10 percent duty on all Australian goods entering the United States, equivalent to the US baseline tariff on all imports, despite US goods entering Australia tariff free.
“The (Trump) administration’s tariffs have no basis in logic and they go against the basis of our two nations’ partnership. This is not the act of a friend,” Albanese told reporters.
Australia would not impose reciprocal tariffs as this would increase prices for Australian households, he added.
“We will not join a race to the bottom that leads to higher prices and slower growth,” Albanese said.
In Tokyo, Japan’s trade minister said he told his US counterpart that sweeping new tariffs including a 24-percent levy on Japanese imports were “extremely regrettable.”
Japanese firms are the biggest investors into the United States but Tokyo has failed in its attempts to secure exemption from Trump’s tariffs.
“I have conveyed that the unilateral tariff measures taken by the United States are extremely regrettable, and I have again strongly urged (Washington) not to apply them to Japan,” Yoji Muto, trade and industry minister, told reporters.
He said he made the comments in a conversation with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick before Trump’s announcement of new across-the-board tariffs.
“I also explained in detail how the US tariffs would adversely affect the US economy by undermining the capacity of Japanese companies to invest in the United States,” said Muto.
“We had a frank discussion on how to pursue cooperation in the interest of both Japan and the United States that does not rely on tariffs,” Muto said.
Government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi also said that the measures may contravene World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and the two countries’ trade treaty.
“We have serious concerns as to consistency with the WTO agreement and Japan-US trade agreement,” chief cabinet secretary Hayashi told reporters.
‘Nobody wants a trade war’
The fact that the tariffs fell most heavily on parts of the world sleeping through the night appeared to at least temporarily delay some of the potential outrage.
Trump presented the import taxes, which he calls “reciprocal tariffs” and range from 10 percent to 49 percent, in the simplest terms: the US would do to its trading partners what he said they had been doing to the US for decades.
“Taxpayers have been ripped off for more than 50 years,” he said. “But it is not going to happen anymore.”
The president promised that “Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country.” He framed it not just as an economic issue, but a question of national security that threatens “our very way of life.”
Shortly after Trump’s announcement, the British government said the United States remains the UK’s “closest ally.”
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the UK hoped to strike a trade deal to “mitigate the impact” of the 10 percent tariffs on British goods announced by Trump.
“Nobody wants a trade war and our intention remains to secure a deal,” said Reynolds. “But nothing is off the table and the government will do everything necessary to defend the UK’s national interest.”
British officials have said they will not immediately retaliate, an approach backed by the Confederation of British Industry, a major business group.
Little to gain
Spared for the moment from the latest round of tariffs were Mexico and Canada, so far as goods that already qualified under their free trade agreement with the United States. Yet, the previously announced 25 percent tariffs on auto imports were scheduled to take effect at midnight.
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday she would wait to take action on Thursday when it was clear how Trump’s announcement would affect Mexico.
“It’s not a question of if you impose tariffs on me, I’m going to impose tariffs on you,” she said in a news briefing Wednesday morning. “Our interest is in strengthening the Mexican economy.”
Canada had imposed retaliatory tariffs in response to the 25 percent tariffs that Trump tied to the trafficking of fentanyl. The European Union, in response to the steel and aluminum tariffs, imposed taxes on 26 billion euros’ worth ($28 billion) of US goods, including bourbon, prompting Trump to threaten a 200 percent tariff on European alcohol.
As Trump read down the list of countries that would be targeted Wednesday, he repeatedly said he didn’t blame them for the tariffs and non-tariff barriers they imposed to protect their own nations’ businesses. “But we’re doing the same thing right now,” he said.
“In the face of unrelenting economic warfare, the United States can no longer continue with a policy of unilateral economic surrender,” Trump said.
Speaking from a business forum in India, Chilean President Gabriel Boric warned that such measures, in addition to causing uncertainty, challenge the “mutually agreed rules” and the “principles that govern international trade.”
Ultimately, Trump announced Chile would face the baseline reciprocal tariff of 10 percent. The US is Chile’s second most important trading partner after China.
Analysts say there’s little to be gained from an all-out trade war, neither in the United States or in other countries.
“Once again, Trump has put Europe at a crossroads,” said Matteo Villa, senior analyst at Italy’s Institute for International Political Studies.
“If Trump really imposes high tariffs, Europe will have to respond, but the paradox is that the EU would be better off doing nothing,” he added.
Villa also noted that retaliation would certainly be a further “blow” to the United States, but it would hurt Europe even more, as the EU bloc depends more on exports to the US than vice versa.
“On the other hand, Trump seems to understand only the language of force, and this indicates the need for a strong and immediate response,” Villa said. “Probably the hope, in Brussels, is that the response will be strong enough to induce Trump to negotiate and, soon, to backtrack.”
(With Reuters)
Arab and Muslim candidates win 18 of 36 elections in Chicago suburbs
- They were running for municipal and school board seats in areas with fast-growing Arab and Muslim populations
- Keith Pekau, a mayor who last year told residents who asked local authorities to support a ceasefire in Gaza to ‘go to another country,’ loses his bid for reelection
CHICAGO: Arab and Muslim candidates won 18 of 36 seats they contested in suburban Chicago elections on April 1, a result participants and observers said reflected the growing influence of the community on the city’s politics.
The 35 hopefuls were running for municipal and school board seats in areas with fast-growing Arab and Muslim populations. Of the 18 who won, 12 of the races were uncontested. Of the 24 candidates who faced challengers, 18 lost but said they were not discouraged.
Two key races took place in Orland Township and the village of Orland Park, which has a population of 60,000 and is a part of the township.
First-time candidate Lena Matariyeh, a local real estate agent, received the most votes in a crowded field of 12 candidates to win a trustee seat on the board of Orland Township, a governing body that provides services for about 98,000 residents.
“When I came out on top, it was definitely something. It was amazing,” she told Arab News. “I always dreamed of doing something like this for myself to serve the community.
“For me, running for office was for personal and professional reasons. I’m always helping people move and relocate to our area, and to understand why people are leaving and why people want to move here.
“Orland has so much to offer and there’s always room for growth. So just to be involved on a first-hand basis with how we could improve and make this community work for all walks of life is what I dream for it to be.”
Matariyeh, a mother-of-four whose family has lived in Orland Park for 15 years, said she was motivated to run, in part, after the local mayor, Keith Pekau, told residents during a meeting in February 2024 they should “go to another country” when they asked the board to adopt a resolution supporting a ceasefire in Gaza.
“I would say that is what encouraged a lot of Arab Americans to run for office,” she added. “It might be something that encouraged me without me realizing it. I ran for many reasons but if people are telling us that we’re not part of the process, or we’re not following things a certain way, we have to show up and prove to ourselves that we do belong.
“This is everyone’s home. My family is the same as others whose ancestors came to this country. We all immigrated to his country. My background being Palestinian American, being born and raised here, I don’t think anyone should have to fight to be recognized or to receive the same rights as someone else who looks a certain way. My goal is for this to be a world of inclusion. We all should be respected.”
After the meeting last year during which Pekau made his comment, local Arab Americans rallied and registered to vote in large numbers. On Tuesday, the mayor lost his reelection bid to challenger Jim Dodge, who during his campaign promised to be more inclusive of the Arab and Muslim communities and “all residents regardless of their race, religion or ethnicity.”
Dodge did not, however, include any Arabs or Muslims on his ticket as his choices for the post of clerk and three available trustee spots. Mohammed Jaber, who in April 2023 became the first Arab American elected to serve on the High School District 230 Board of Education, which encompasses the bulk of Arab American families living in Chicago’s southwestern suburbs, told Arab News that Dodge had declined requests to include an Arab on his ticket, possibly because he was not sure how this might affect the outcome of the election.
However, the effect of the Arab Americans on this week’s elections was clear, Jaber said, noting that voter turnout among the community had doubled following Pekau’s disrespectful comments.
“The huge surge in Arab and Muslim candidates in this past election shows that there is growing community awareness that they need to be involved,” he added,
“Although only half of the 35 candidates were able to win office, it is a huge achievement. It also reflects on the hesitancy of some mainstream politicians to run with Arab running mates.
“The success of the Arab candidates shows that Jim Dodge, who won the race for Orland Park mayor, should have slated an Arab American candidate on his ticket. He did not, as many non-Arab activists and candidates didn’t have faith in the strength and dedication of the Arab and Muslim community to engage in the election process as we did on Tuesday, energetically and with pride.”
Egyptian American Mary Alexander Basta was reelected on Tuesday for a second term as mayor of Bolingbrook, a village in the western suburbs of DuPage County with a population of 74,000.
“I extend my deepest gratitude to the Arab community that has supported me throughout my journey,” Basta told Arab News. “Your dedication to uplifting our communities, fostering unity and advocating for meaningful representation has been truly invaluable.
“The Arab community plays a vital role in the fabric of our society, and it is essential that we remain engaged, active and involved in shaping our collective future. Our voices matter and our contributions enrich every aspect of civic life.
“I encourage more Arab Americans to step forward, whether by voting, serving in leadership roles or running for office. Representation is not just about presence, it’s about influence, advocacy and ensuring that our diverse perspectives are heard at every level of government.”
Basta, who studied communications at the American University in Cairo, added: “Together, we can continue to build a stronger, more inclusive community where everyone has a seat at the table. Thank you for your unwavering support and commitment to making a difference.”
Basta and her family moved to Bolingbrook in 2003 and she became involved in local education, serving as president of the Parent Teachers Association for schools her children attended.
She was named “Citizen of the Year” in 2018 for her community activism, and two years later was elected to the post of village trustee. In Dec. 2020, she was appointed acting mayor and won the election to the office in April 2021.
The other successful Arab American and Muslim American candidates in suburban Cook, DuPage and Will counties were: Rasha Atallah, elected trustee in North Palos School District 117; Nour Akhras, in Niles Township High School District 2189; Aisha Zayyad, in Orland School District 135; Fida Khalil, in Ridgeland School District 122; Sakina Kadakia, in West Northfield 31 School District; and Diane Shaar, elected trustee of Moraine Valley Community College.
Jackie Haddad Tamer was elected clerk of the city in Elmhurst; Mohammed Siddiqi as a trustee in Glendale Heights; Tasneem Abuzir as a trustee in Palos Township; Ranya El-Khatib as clerk of the village of Lombard; Ashfaq Syed as a council member in the village of Naperville; and Samia Wahab as a member of the West Chicago Library Board.
Zahawa Saleh was elected trustee in Marquardt School District in Addison; Nagla Fetouh in Willowbrook School District 62; Nader Najjar in Burr Ridge School District 180; and Denyana Masood in Rockdale School District 84.
