Ballard is about to have a brand new American citizen as Mariam Mussa, known to locals simply as "mama", receives her citizenship at the end of the month. Mussa, 69, is the mother of Steven Saleh, the proprietor of Saleh's Delicatessen on 2401 N.W. 80th Street.

"I came here to be close to my son," Mussa said in here native Arabic while her son translated.

Mussa is from Yemen and has been in the United States since 1997. She will be exempt from the English and history knowledge requirements of the citizenship test due to disability.

"She tries and she understands some English but she has dementia. She can't even remember what day it is," Saleh said. "She usually fasts on Thursday but she has to ask me everyday what day it is."

Despite her lack of English, Mussa has become a fan of American sitcoms naming Everyone loves Raymond and Cramer and George from Seinfeld among her favorites.

Saleh sponsored his mother to join him in 1997. He had been in the U.S. since the early 1980s with his father in Buffalo, New York.

"Coming from Yemen, it was too cold for us there. In 1988, Seattle was the most liveable city in the US so I moved here," he said. "I love it here and I have been here ever since."

When asked why she's applying for American citizenship, Mussa said, "So I can travel easily and see my sons and daughters all over the United States."

One place neither Saleh nor his mother has travelled to in years is their home, Yemen, and the current unrest throughout the Middle East has them worried.

"I'm with the protesters," Mussa said. "I hear what's going on in the Arab world and I don't want the killings. I have five daughters there and I'm worried."

Saleh added that he, too. is on the protestors side. "I'm with the people. Dictatorships like these should be something of the past. They shouldn't be happening at this time. For Tunisia, Yemen, Eqypt, I really do think that only good things will come out of the protests. There's always collateral damage. Freedom comes with a price.

"The leaders need to realize it's time to step down. What Gaddafi is doing in Libya is that he's turning against his people and will do anything to stay in power. It's so so sad. It's a mess. But I'm excited that students are protesting and demanding a change."

Saleh said he doesn't worry for the safety of his relatives in Yemen at this point. "What I'm worried about is what will happen to these escalations if they can't find a peaceful end."

Saleh hasn't gone back to Yemen in 22 years and has been an American citizen for many years. His Arab heritage however makes him a target for racial slurs and anti-muslim remarks.

In February 2007, Saleh was featured on almost every news station across the nation when he had become a victim of a verbal and physical attack in his own store. Two customers attacked him one evening when he refused to sell liquor to an already impaired woman. The woman bit him and spouted insults like "terrorist" and "un-American" at him while a man reached for Saleh's throat. Saleh had to fend them off with a metal pipe until the police arrived. The attackers received the maximum sentence of nine months in prison for malicious harassment under Washington hate crime law.

While this incident was the most aggressive, there have been many other incidents in which anti-muslim remarks were made. Mussa tends to draw attention due to her custom of wearing a headscarf. Saleh said they make sure she has rides to places and doesn't walk around on her own.

"We don't want to risk it," he said.

Rudy McCoy, a friend of the family, offers rides to Mussa whenever he can. "It's like driving around Ms Daisy," he said. ""She's just wonderful. We somehow manage to communicate and I try to teach her things."

Saleh said it was much worse when the war against Iraq first started.

"But in the last eight months or so we really haven't had any problems," he said. "You'll find bigotry and hatred everywhere but the police here has been great. I really got to hand it to them. And the community knows us and supports us."

"Saleh is the most entertaining storefront guy we have in Ballard," McCoy said. "And Ma is just darling."