Inside America's only Muslim-majority city

But Syrian refugees are being welcomed with open arms in Hamtramck, Michigan - America's first and only majority Muslim city. 

Once 90 percent Polish Catholic, the blue-collar enclave just outside Detroit has been transformed by successive waves of immigrants from Bangladesh, Yemen and Bosnia. 

Muslims now outnumber non-Muslims, the council has a Muslim majority and the call to prayer echoes through the streets five times a day.

The latest additions to the burgeoning ethnic mix are 33 Syrians, all Muslim families with young children who fled their country's brutal civil war. 

Their arrival comes amid a national debate over the risk of letting in refugees who could be secret ISIS jihadists plotting Paris-style terror attacks. GOP figures like Donald Trump and Ben Carson want tougher monitoring of Muslims, while Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder was the first of 31 governors who vowed last week to stop more Syrians coming to their states.

Officials in Hamtramck, aptly nicknamed the 'The World Within Two Square Miles' and home to 22,000 people, insist the fears are overblown – and say their doors remain open.

Thaer Hoshan, 40, fled Syria in 2012 with his pregnant wife Dalal, 37, and their five children, Shouk, 13, Shahed, 12, Rania, 10, Fadi, nine, and four-year-old Abdul-Hadi.

Thaer said his southern hometown of Daraa was one of the first to come under siege from Assad's forces, who would shell civilians and burst into homes to slaughter men and rape women.

Without running water, power or access to schools, they escaped into Jordan where they say the UN put them through a 19-month vetting process before they could move to the US in August.

Once here, they were amazed to find many of the comforts and customs they enjoyed in the Middle East, from Arabic-speaking neighbors to bustling halal restaurants and shops stocked with Islamic gifts and fashion.

'Coming to the US was very nerve-racking. I had never heard of Michigan, let alone Hamtramck,' Thaer told Daily Mail Online, through an interpreter.

'I had no idea what to expect but once I got here I was surprised at how comfortable it felt. There is a mosque on the corner, most of the people speak our language. This place feels like home.'

Thaer, a farmer and construction worker in his homeland, insists he had never even heard about ISIS or their barbaric crimes until he had fled Syria.

'We are not a threat to anyone,' he added. 'They did interviews and medical tests. The security checks alone took a month.

'The only person I would like to see dead is Assad. As for killing others, Islam is totally against it.'

The Hoshans' $500-a-month rented apartment is within yards of one of Hamtramck's four mosques and just off Joseph Campau Avenue, the city's main strip once dubbed 'Little Warsaw'. 

It is now home to an assortment of Bengali restaurants, food markets and boutiques selling sequined Muslim gowns, headscarves and veils including the niqab, which covers everything but the eyes.

A nearby sausage factory, Polish arts center and a statue of Pope John Paul II all hark back to the 1970s when working class Polish Catholics last dominated Hamtramck.

But as their community became more affluent and moved away, the vacant homes were snapped up by Yemeni and Bangladeshi Americans, with a further influx of Bosnian refugees coming after the Yugoslav wars.

Latest census figures put the Arabic population at 23 percent, the Bangladeshis at 19 percent, and the Bosnians and other Muslims at around nine percent - a Muslim majority of 51 percent.

The Polish community, meanwhile, has dwindled to a mere 11 percent.

Religious and ethnic grievances came to the fore in 2004 when the city council controversially gave local mosques the green light to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer via loudspeaker.

Tensions simmered again this month when Saad Almasmari, 28, from Yemen, ran for council and became aware of a flyer circulating among voters, which read: 'Let's get the Muslims out of Hamtramck on November 3rd. Let's take back our city.'

Elsewhere, a poster featuring the face of another Muslim candidate was reportedly defaced with a swastika and the words 'don't vote'.

But for all the protests and accusations, Mr Almasmari swept to victory, securing more votes than any other candidate to become the fourth Muslim on the sixth-member council – now America's first majority Muslim jurisdiction.

(dailystar.co.uk)