The Yemeni community in Lackawanna was rocked seven years ago by the revelation that six of its young men had attended a terrorist training camp run by Osama bin Laden.

Arab-Americans in Lackawanna say that they encountered distrust and job discrimination at a time when tensions already were running high from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

But times have changed. Earlier this month, Abdulsalam

Noman became the first native of Yemen to win elected office in city government when he was elected First Ward Council member.

“What happened was a wake-up call to the Yemen community. We’ve become one voice, strong and united,” said Noman, whose nephew Yasein Taher was one of the Lackawanna Six.

Realizing that if they wanted to be heard and improve their lot in Lackawanna — a city with a long history of patronage and political favorites — they would have to become participants in democracy.

“We told the Yemen community this past summer voting is a right, a privilege and an honor, and you need to exercise that right if you want to be part of this community,” Noman said.

The community listened. Noman won a four-way Democratic primary that put him ahead of Joseph Jerge, the city Democratic Committee’s endorsed candidate, who later threw his support to Noman.

In a three-way general election for the First Ward seat, Noman won a four-year term running on four lines: Democratic, Republican, Working Families and Taxpayers First. He attributed the victory to the support not only of fellow Yemenites, but also of other voting blocs.

“We did mail drops in three languages — Arabic, Spanish and English,” Noman said of his efforts to reach out to all voters.

And like any astute politician, he ran on a laundry list of issues ranging from quality of life to improving the ward’s economy.

He wants to build a youth recreation center, convert a former junior high school into senior citizen housing, demolish several abandoned and run-down homes, and build a mini plaza that would include a pharmacy and grocery store.

The improvements, according to one of Noman’s three campaign managers — yes, three—will take more than one term in office to implement, but time is on Noman’s side as more of the younger Yemenites become old enough to vote.

Right now the First Ward has several hundred registered voters of Yemeni ancestry. Four years from now, that number is expected to increase substantially.

“We’re not looking to control the City of Lackawanna, but we want to stand firm in being a part of Lackawanna,” said Ali Sharain, who managed Noman’s community outreach and election strategies during the campaign.

An estimated 4,000 Yemenites live in Lackawanna, which has a population of about 18,000.

“I’m happy for him. He worked hard for it,” Lackawanna Mayor Norman L. Polanski Jr. said of Noman. “This is an acknowledgment that they are a major player in the First Ward and the city. I would say they’re the largest bloc in the First Ward right now and only to get bigger.”

Anyone who doesn’t think they deserve a spot at the political table is fooling themselves, Polanski added.

“This community is here to stay, . . . and I respect the fact that they are here, just like so many other nationalities,” he said.

Noman says he could not be happier as the first of his ethnic group to rise to elected government office in the city.

“I am the first Yemenite to be elected in Lackawanna’s 100-year history, and I’ve checked with other Yemen communities in the state and believe I am the first Yemenite to be elected to government throughout the state,” Noman said, adding that he is also proud to be a Muslim.

A teacher’s aid and Arabic translator for the Lackawanna School District, in addition to serving as a community youth soccer coach, Noman says he is proud of his family’s history, too.

He came to Lackawanna from Yemen in 1975 with his mother and a sister to join their father, Kassim Noman, who had arrived two years earlier seeking a better life.

Noman graduated from Lackawanna High School and went on to earn a history degree at the University at Buffalo in 1986. An aunt in Michigan, he said, later arranged his marriage in 1991.

“She called and said, ‘I found a nice wife for you. Come out and see her,’ ” Noman recalled of how he met his wife-to-be, Fatima, also a native of Yemen.

Now the father of four children all attending city schools, Noman says he hopes to make the city’s work force more diverse.

“There are about 200 city jobs and only two Arab-Americans are employed, and they are firefighters,” he said, explaining that in addition to Yemenites, more African- Americans and Hispanics need to be part of the city’s work force.

But for now, Noman is looking forward to his swearing-in ceremony at 1 p. m. Jan. 3 in Curly’s Bar and Grill on Ridge Road. He expects a full house of family and friends, although one important person will be missing.

His 78-year-old father passed away two weeks after the Nov. 3 election.

Noman says he takes heart that his father lived long enough to vote for him and see him win.

And his father’s advice shared on election night will serve as an important influence for him over the next four years, the councilman-elect said.

“Son, I believe one of the keys to elective government is to treat everyone with dignity and respect,” Noman said, quoting his father.