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Sarsour on Radio: An Arab American will run for open Bay Ridge Council seat!

Fast friends: Scores turn up to Ridge’s Ramadan bazaar
Photo by Georgine Benvenuto

An Arab-American will run for Bay Ridge’s soon-to-be-open Council seat, Muslim activist Linda Sarsour revealed to hosts Gersh Kuntman and Vince DiMiceli during the latest edition of Brooklyn Paper Radio.

Sarsour, who is rumored to be running for the seat, said she is yet to decide if she will go for it herself, but claimed that one member of the growing population in the neighborhood would step up to the plate.

“Our community is having our own personal conversation about it,” she said of the seat that will be vacated by Vincent Gentile. “Someone who is Arab-American is definitely running in 2017. That is a fact.”

No Arab America has ever sat on the Council.

Sarsour came on the show to discuss the reasonable discourse happening live on BrooklynPaper.com over a story The Paper broke about a Bay Ridge Muslim woman’s line of “modest” clothing that some commentators claimed was the sign of he oppression of Muslim women.

But Sarsour said nowhere is it written that female practitioners of Islam must cover up, let alone wear a face-covering hijab.

“No one tells me to cover my hair, no father, no mother, no nothing,” she said. “It negates the purpose of wearing it if you are forced to wear it.”

Gersh and Vince also talked about the recent triple-play the Cyclones completed at MCU Park — and even replayed their live call of the game for the first time ever.

Finally, the boys brought on hardscrabble reporter Lauren Gill to discuss her report on the perceived uptick in crime in and around Brooklyn Bridge Park, where some Brooklyn Heights residents demanded basketball courts inside the park be replace with tennis courts.

And finally again, it wouldn’t be Brooklyn Paper Radio without a mention of “Murder at the Food Co-op!

All in all, it was a great show, completely worth your time!

Brooklyn Paper radio is recorded and podcast live every Thursday at 4:45 pm — for your convenience — from out studio in America’s Downtown and can be found, as always, right here on BrooklynPaper.com, on iTunes at, on Mixlr, and of course, on Stitcher.