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Salt Lake City mayoral candidates vow to make Muslim issues a priority

Recognition of Muslim holidays and a cabinet-level diversity officer and were among measures proposed by Salt Lake City’s six mayoral candidates in a forum Tuesday on issues affecting the city’s Muslim community.

The candidates focused on ways to ensure cultural competency and diverse representation in city government, some highlighting their own experience with discrimination.

“I have experienced hate based on my race, ethnicity, gender and national origin,” state Sen. Luz Escamilla said in the forum, hosted at Salt Lake Community College by the Emerald Project, a Utah-based nonprofit focused on combating Islamophobia. “Representation does matter.”

Escamilla and environmental lawyer David Garbett proposed elevating the city’s commissioner for diversity and human rights to a cabinet-level position.