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DUBAI: America could soon see its first Muslim woman in Congress, replacing a white, male, Republican if she succeeds.
Speaking to UK website The Independent, Fayrouz Saad, said she was a supporter of providing health care coverage for all Americans, as well as creating a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
And she is committed to protecting environmental regulations that the Trump administration says are “bad for business.”
The 34-year-old Arab-American, whose parents migrated from Lebanon 40 years before the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers, said she had never previously experienced “much harassment or discrimination.”
But in the days after the two planes were flown into the towers, she said her parents kept her out of school, fearful of what might happen to her.
“That day, my parents came and picked me up and they took me home, because they were worried about anti-Arab and anti-Muslim backlash happening on campus,” Saad told The Independent.
She said this was the first time she “ever even realized that this was a thing – that there was a stereotype against Arabs and Muslims in this country.”
But when she did return to school a few days later she was met with a line of friends and neighbors waiting to welcome her back.
“I say that I ‘came of age’ in the post-9/11 era, because of this experience specifically,” she explained, “and really believing that this is what America is, and that this is what I want to be a part of.”
She is running for Congress in Michigan’s 11th District, hoping to replace Republican Dave Trott who has decided to stand down.
Saad said she would not be running an anti-Trump campaign, but conceded: “a lot of the things that I’m fighting for, a lot of the things I want to see changed, and a portion of what pushed me to run, is to fight back against his agenda.”
Saad’s political career started in the Obama administration after graduating from university when she joined the Obama administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS), where she worked on “community policing.”
While admitting she was an “Obama groupie,” she said they did not agree on everything.
“I think the great thing about our democracy is that we can love our elected leaders and respect them, but at the same time challenge some of the things that they’ve done or said,” she said.
She said it was after her time at the DHS that she became convinced of the need for a more “whole of government” approach to community policing.
She said the term “security” should include such areas like access to quality health care and education.
She classes herself as the “progressive candidate” because of her desire for government to do more, she said.
On her faith she explained: “My identity is who I am, but it’s not who I represent, or how I represent,” she said. “But it also means that I’m helping change, or at least get people to adjust, their idea of what the face of leadership looks like.”