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Mayor slams Muslim takeover talk

U.S. official foresees Islamic law in city

By: Hanna Adely
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... On a cold night in early December, [2025] a crowd gathered to sing carols and light a Christmas tree in Gould Park in South Paterson, a thriving business and residential neighborhood that is home to many Middle Eastern immigrants.
..... In a show of friendship and solidarity, many Muslims turned out for the event - even outnumbering their Christian counterparts, said Jim Nouri, a business leader and tree lighting organizer.
..... That did not surprise him.
..... "There's no they or us. We've been celebrating together for the last 50 years," said Nouri, a Syrian Christian, who invited attendees to his family restaurant for dinner after the lighting.
..... The long tradition of interfaith cooperation in New Jersey's third-largest city is not the image that far-right provocateurs have tired to portray about Paterson and other communities with large Muslim populations. In a December 20 [2025] speech at Turning Point USA America-Fest, U.S. director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard painted a different picture. She said Muslims were plotting to infiltrate institutions and impose Islamic law in U.S. communities.
..... In her speech, she single d out Muslims in Paterson.
..... "they are working to implement in their own governments these Islamic principles that are forced on people through the sue of laws or violence," Gabbard said about Paterson.
..... "Islamist ideology is a direct threat to our freedom,: Gabbard told the audience at the summit organized by Turning Point USA, a nonprofit that advocates for conservatism among, American's youth. It seeks, she said, :to cerate a global caliphate that governs us in America."
..... She also named Houston; Dearborn, Michigan; and Minneapolis as places where Muslims were allegedly trying to take over to impose Islamic law.

'She is egregiously misinformed'

..... Leaders and the city's residents said the characterization of Paterson's Muslim communities and the faith at large was false and rooted in bigotry. It also seemed disconnected form readily, said the Mayor, Andre Sayegh.
..... "She is egregiously misinformed," said Sayegh, who joined a press conference December 23 [2025] to condemn Gabbard's comments. "Paterson is one of the most culturally diverse cites in the country. We embrace different faiths and religions and ethnicities. We're a better city because Muslims call Paterson home. It's a point of pride that they contribute to the social and economic fabric of Paterson. Many successful business owners, lawyers, doctors, - they're Muslims."
..... Paterson is home to about 160,000 people. Its Muslim population is about 25,000 to 30,000, community leaders have estimated, including people with roots in the Middle East. Turkey and Bangladesh, as well as Black Americans. Sayegh, the city's mayor for over seven years, is Christian. Three people on the nine-member City Council are Muslims. There is irony in the accusations against Muslims in government: accused by critics of failing to assimilate, them accused of infiltrating and taking over when they take on leadership roles dona run for office.
..... Raed Odeh, a deputy mayor rand president of the South Paterson Business Association, who is of Muslim Palestinian background, said Gabbard should be held accountable for her claims.
..... "She should come visit us herself and see with her own eyes that this information is 100% false," he said. "Paterson is a very democratic city just like any other city or state in this nation. Just like any other group, we are allowed to exist here, and our Constitution gives everyone the same right."
..... The South Paterson area, he added, is a point of pride in the city: a thriving 2.9-mile strip of stores, restaurants and professional offices that attract visors from around the region. The majority of business owners are of Middle Eastern background of both Muslim and Christian Faith, Odeh said. Paterson is also home to a Bangladeshi neighborhood of homes and business along Union Avenue.
..... People of different faiths respect one another's traditions and holidays, Odeh said. During this holiday season, the South Paterson Business Coalition collected 3,000 toys to distribute at City Hall, churches and community centers, he said.
..... In recent years, Al Abdelaziz, a former councilman of Muslim faith now serving in the State Assembly, held a parade and toy distribution event in the city's 4th ward on Christmas Eve. The even was founded and run mostly by Muslim volunteers.
..... That kind of cooperation extends to civic life, politics and business, Odeh said.
..... "Regardless of all this hate speech," he added, "our community will remain here. This is our home, and we will keep doing whatever we have to do to keep our city secure and thriving and a model for other areas aorta the city and the state."

State officials respond

..... New Jersey officials also weighed in on the controversy. Governor Phil Murphy said in a statement he "strongly condemned the Islamonphobic remarks" made by Gabbard "about our Muslim community in the great city of Paterson."
..... "This type of religious hate and bigotry has absolutely no place in our nation," Murphy said.
..... U.S. Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim also showed support for Pateson.
..... "Tulsi's dangerous attempt to sow fear, pit people against each other and smear the Muslim American of Paterson, NJ, is dishonest, cruel and un-American," Booker said in a social media post. "It endangers an entire community. In Jersey, we know our state's diversity is our strength and we stand up for our own."
..... Kim wrote that Gabbard's comments about Paterson "are just as false as they are dangerous."
..... "IN NJ, Muslim Americans are our friends and neighbors, they're community leader and caregivers," Kim wrote Online. "[Donald] Trump and his team want to divide us so they can district us. We can't let them."
..... New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin called Gabbard's comments "reckless, false, and dangerous." He added, "this kind of feamongering has real consequences. Targeting Americans because of their faith is unacceptable, un-American, and will not be tolerated in New Jersey."
..... Representative Nellie Pou called for Gabbard to retract her comments agonist what she called "vibrant and patriotic Muslim communities," while Representative Bob Menendez wrote that Muslims are a "fabric of our communities and what makes Paterson - and our state -stronger."
..... Asked about Gabbard's comments, Olivia Coleman, press secretary for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, homed in on expressions of support and pride in the city's Palestinian American community. In an emailed reply, Colemen listed events including Paterson's annual Palestine flag raising, a street renaming to Palestine Way, and a sister city agreement with Palestinian city of Ramallah as reason for Gabbard's comments.
..... Flag arisings, street renaming and sister city agreements are routine activities in the city to recognize the heritage and contributions of its ethic communities. They usually take place without scrutiny or scorn - except when it comes to Palestinians. conservative pundits have publicized and maligned Paterson's events showcasing Palestinian identity.
..... The email also noted Sayeh's comments at a Ramadan lighting event earlier this year, [2025] one of over 60 similar events held across North Jersey in 2025. Often effusive in his praise for local communities, the mayor joked that the city was the "capital of Palestine" and noted that other had called for "fourth holiest city" in Islam.
..... The Office of the Director of National Intelligence also respond to Booker's comment about Paterson on X in a post pointing to incidents of violent extremism in which the perpetrators were Muslim. the incidents were unrelated to Paterson. The post said Gabbard was "calling out radical Islamist ideology for the threat that it poses to Americans, and frankly, the world."

'Dangerous'

..... Gabbard's comments landed amid what Muslim leaders say is a rising tide of anti-Muslim rhetoric that has moved from the fringes into the mainstream. Far-right pundits, social media influencers and members of the Trump administration have cast Muslims as security threats and anti-American.
..... Gabbard also took aim in her speech at the Council of American Islamic Relations, saying that the national advocacy group had "issued a call to action to sue American legal and political system to implement Sharia law.
..... Slaedin Maksut, executive director of CAIR's New Jersey chapter, called Gabbard's comment "dangerous" and "inflammatory."
..... "Paterson is obviously not governed by :sharia law," and New Jersey Muslims their faith on the people of Paterson,: Maksut said in a statement. "Everyone in America lives under the U.S. Constitution and their respective state law. Suggesting otherwise is not debate - it is incitement that fuels harassment and discrimination."
..... "Sharia" he added, was invoked to inspire fear, but it is not a "political tool" as Gabbard suggested. Rather, it is Islamic code or a broad set of rules that guide Muslims on how to lead an ethical life - similar to halacha for Jews and canon law for Catholics, Maksut said.
..... Makut argued hat rising anti-Muslim rhetoric, often directed at Muslims in elected office, was also an attempt to strife or marginalize them as they advocate against U.S. support for Israel's wars. "Muslims are not undermine the West," he said. "They are exercising constitutionally protected rights."
..... "By falsely portraying Islam and Muslim communicates as threats to American freedom, [Gabbard} engages in reckless fearmongering that endangers real people."

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