TweetWhy is a northern Iowa town named for an Arab/Muslim hero? There are almost 20,000 cities incorporated in the United States. Elkader, Iowa, may be the only city in America named after an Arab Muslim. Emir Abdelkader was a young Algerian hero who fought French settlers for almost 20 years in the mid-19th century. How did a small town in the northeast corner of Iowa get a name like Elkader, a name that in the post-9/11, post-Trump era could get you kicked off a flight? I have a friend who, after 9/11, changed his name from El-Kader to Randy to avoid trouble at the airport and the hassle of spelling…
