Sumbul Siddiqui’s swearing in (Photo © Marjorie Decker)
Sumbul Siddiqui, who has earned a BA in public policy and American institutions (Brown University; with honors) and a doctor of law degree (JD) (Northwestern Pritzker School of Law) became Massachusetts’ first Muslim mayor on Jan. 6, when she was elected by her fellow city councilors. A long-time Cambridge resident, Siddiqui, who has served on the council since 2018, told the Cambridge Chronicle, “To me, [my parents’] effort is heroic, and there are countless stories like it here in Cambridge.” Her top priority is affordable housing in “a city that everyone wants to live in, and it’s very difficult,” Siddiqui said. Her activism in Cambridge earned her a Cambridge Peace and Justice Award. ih
and Ethnic Committee, the State Attorney’s Hate Crimes Commission, the Multi-Cultural Advisory Committee on the Media, the Family Violence Prevention Council and president of two Chicago local school councils. Shalabi has been interviewed and appeared on numerous media outlets regarding his legal expertise.
Attorney Varisha Khan was elected to Washington State’s Redmond City Council (2020-21) by a margin of 66 votes to become one of its seven members and as well as one of the state’s first-ever Muslim women elected to a city council. Celebrating her victory on Dec. 6, 2019, Khan told her town newspaper, The Cascadia Advocate, “If we learned anything, it’s that every single vote matters. One vote matters.
One vote would have kept us out of recount. 66 votes put us over the edge. More to come. For now, I’m going to eat breakfast and get ready for Friday prayers.” On her way to victory, her opponents attempted to smear her for alleged “extreme socialist and anti-Semitic beliefs.” In 2016 she served as a presidential elector for Washington State, casting the official vote for the 1st Congressional District. Khan is also founder and director of the University of Washington’s Middle Eastern Student Commission.
Dr. Letitia Plummer was sworn in on Jan. 2 as the Houston City Council’s member at-large — the first Muslim woman elected to the post.
She said, “I am proud to be the first Muslim woman on the Houston City Council. I come from a mixed-faith family, and because of that I have always appreciated the many different faiths in Houston. I am a believer in breaking down barriers, celebrating our similarities and working through our differences. Thanks to my upbringing, I have learned to fight for justice for everyone. I will always be an advocate for interfaith coalitions for the betterment of our society.” Plummer has a rich family history in Houston. Her grandfather was at the forefront of the civil rights movement in Houston and became the first African-American judge in Texas. Her father made a home there with his Yemeni-born wife, became a dentist and provided health care for the underserved — a practice that she continues today.
Yasyf Mohamedali (MIT ‘17), the son of physicians practicing in rural Canada, was named among Inc.’s Rising Stars of 2019. He met his business partner through the Dorm Room Fund pre-seed investment fund and co-founded Karuna Health, which makes it easier for care managers to help their patients deal with the complexity and frustration of patient management. He was named among the 15 Incredibly Impressive Students at MIT. As an MIT student, he became part of the startup Foxtrot, which helps execute deliveries for companies of all sizes. He helped architect, search, engineer and build the company from scratch. He built and maintained MIT Textbooks, a search engine for college classes and marketplace for books used by half of MIT’s undergraduates, as well as tens of thousands of other books each month. The site allows users to search, plan and schedule classes as well as integrates with MIT’s registration services, Google calendar and Amazon. While participating in MARCH/APRIL 2020 ISLAMIC HORIZONS 15