Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed clashed with a voter who asked him to disavow the Muslim Brotherhood, prompting an extended exchange in which the progressive contender accused the man of questioning his loyalty to the U.S. because of his religion.
The confrontation happened at a town hall in Caro, Michigan, on Saturday as El-Sayed faced questions over allegations about possible connections between members of his family and the Muslim Brotherhood.
El-Sayed has denied that he or his family has ties to the organization.
The Democratic nominee is facing off against Republican Mike Rogers in the November 3 election for the seat being vacated by Senator Gary Peters.
Newsweek has contacted El-Sayed's campaign for comment via email.
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Abdul El-Sayed Disavows Muslim Brotherhood
The voter, who identified himself as Tommy, asked El-Sayed whether he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed responded, "Sure. Yeah, absolutely," before questioning why the man believed he needed to be asked.
"Because they’re a terrorist group," the man replied.
The two went back and forth, with Tommy saying he had not previously heard El-Sayed disavow the organization. El-Sayed argued that the question suggested the voter believed his Muslim faith could give him loyalties that conflicted with his responsibilities as a U.S. senator.
"You assume, Tommy, that because I am Muslim, that somehow I would have some allegiance to something that is not our Constitution," El-Sayed said. "That's your assumption. That's implicit in the question."
El-Sayed went on to compare the scrutiny to questions John F. Kennedy faced over his Catholic faith during his 1960 presidential campaign. He said the Constitution would guide him as a senator and protect the right of Americans to practice a religion or no religion.
"For me, that Constitution is the guiding light," El-Sayed said. He then turned the discussion toward the voter's Christian faith and religious freedom, ultimately asking whether the man disavowed attempts to introduce religious doctrine into U.S. law. The voter said he did not.
"So I think it's you who needs to understand the Constitution, not me," El-Sayed replied.
CNN reported that the man walked out following the exchange, which drew cheers from the crowd.
The confrontation follows scrutiny of older social media posts attributed to El-Sayed's half-sister Eman Abdelhadi, in 2012 that recently resurfaced online.
In one post, Abdelhadi wrote: "Had an amazing talk with my mom about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s while she was in college #respect."
The Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamist movement founded in Egypt in 1928. Some governments designate the organization or certain branches as terrorist groups, while others do not.
The U.S. government has designated several branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations. In January 2026, the U.S. designated the Egyptian and Jordanian branches as Specially Designated Global Terrorists and the Lebanese branch as both a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. In March 2026, the Sudanese branch also received both designations.
El-Sayed has denied that he or his family are tied to the organization. Addressing questions about his mother, he said he had no knowledge of her activities in Egypt in the 1970s. El-Sayed, the son of Egyptian immigrants, was born and raised in Michigan, where he was brought up by his father and American stepmother after his parents divorced.
Rogers and President Donald Trump have leaned into what critics have described as a xenophobic attack line against El-Sayed, focusing on his Muslim faith.
The exchange came as President Trump has repeatedly mocked El-Sayed's name during remarks about the Michigan Senate race, referring to the candidate as "Muhammad," his middle name.
"If you're in doubt about somebody's name from the Middle East, just say Mohammed, you have about a 65 percent chance. 'Hello, Mohammed.' I've done it for years now. I've never been wrong," Trump said at a rally in Georgia on Friday, October 16.
"I'm the president. I can call you whatever the hell I want, Muhammad."
El-Sayed previously told MSNOW, "To insinuate that somehow, because of my Muslim faith, as somebody who might be the first senator who has that faith, that I would have anything but allegiance to the Constitution, that should be called into question."
What The Polls Show
RealClearPolling rates the contest a toss-up and its average of polls conducted from September 24 through October 14 gives El-Sayed a 2.6 percentage-point advantage, 48.1 percent to 45.5 percent.
The most recent survey in that average, conducted by Rasmussen Reports from October 12-14 among 798 likely Michigan voters, found El-Sayed leading Rogers 46 percent to 44 percent. Five percent were undecided. The poll's margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.
InsiderAdvantage’s October 9–10 poll put El-Sayed ahead 48 percent to 46 percent, while Quantus Insights found him leading 48 percent to 47 percent in a survey conducted October 5–6. YouGov’s poll, conducted September 28–October 5, showed El-Sayed with a narrow 49 percent to 48 percent advantage. Mitchell Research recorded a slightly wider lead for El-Sayed, at 46 percent to 41 percent, while the Trafalgar Group found him ahead 47 percent to 45 percent.
A Fox News poll conducted September 24–28 showed the race even closer, with El-Sayed leading 50 percent to 49 percent. Marist recorded the largest margin among the listed surveys, finding El-Sayed ahead 51 percent to 44 percent.
Rogers previously lost to Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin in Michigan’s 2024 Senate race, with Slotkin receiving 48.6 percent of the vote to Rogers’ 48.3 percent.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Ben Kelly and Trevor Davies