Minneapolis council holds crucial vote with Muslim members away for Eid

Leaders face backlash for proceeding with rent control vote while members were on religious holiday

The Minneapolis City Council building. AP

With three Muslim council members away to observe the Eid Al Adha holiday this week, the Minneapolis City Council narrowly voted to kill a measure that would have put a rent control question on the ballot this autumn.

Most of the council supports a 3 per cent annual residential rent cap. But with Aisha Chughtai, Jeremiah Ellison and Jamal Osman off on Wednesday, the council voted not to move the measure forward, Minnesota Public Radio reported.

“Islamophobia,” one person in the audience yelled during the meeting, the Star Tribune reported.

Such accusations raged on Twitter, while at the same time, rent control opponents expressed relief that the issue was off the table.

“Regardless your views on rent stabilisation, the decent thing for council leadership to do today would have been to exercise [with] ease their ability to take up this policy item at a near future time, when all could participate without religious exclusion. It's that simple,” council member Mitra Jalali said in a tweet.

The Wednesday meeting was scheduled more than a year ago to accommodate Eid, which at the time had been predicted to fall on Thursday, Minnesota Public Radio reported. But the date is subject to change depending on lunar observations.

Minnesota state attorney general Keith Ellison took note: “I'm deeply disappointed at the insensitivity of taking a critical vote without Muslim members present due to Eid celebrations.”

According to City Clerk Casey Carl, the first time anyone raised a concern about Eid was on Monday – too late to change the date of the council meeting under state law, the Star Tribune reported.

Ms Carl apologised, but said that for years the city clerk’s office has relied on council members to make it aware of religious or cultural conflicts.

In a statement released after the vote, Mr Ellison, Mr Osman and Ms Chughtai criticised the vote as going against “the spirit of inclusion Minneapolis prides itself on”.

“Muslims have been serving on the Minneapolis City Council for a decade now and thousands of Muslims live in our city. Our holy days and celebrations are not unknown or mysterious,” the leaders said.

They said council leadership could have scheduled the meeting at a later date, delayed the vote to the next full council meeting or advanced the policy to a committee for further changes.

Associated Press contributed to this report