Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed acknowledged on Saturday night that his sister-in-law, Miriam Jukaku, was involved in a federal terrorist watchlist lawsuit during the Obama administration, according to a Fox News report.
This comes just days before El-Sayed is scheduled to appear alongside former president Barack Obama at a campaign event ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.
"She did nothing wrong and was captured on that and then sued and got off," El-Sayed told Fox on Saturday. "You've got this system where folks are guilty until proven innocent because they've got different kinds of names, because of the infrastructure that people like [Michigan Republican Senate candidate] Mike Rogers set up."
According to the class action lawsuit filed in 2016, Jukaku discovered she was on a terror watch list in 2012 when she tried to fly from Detroit to California. Her boarding pass was stamped with "SSSS," which, according to the complaint, indicates she was designated a "known or suspected terrorist." Then, while going through security, she was subjected to "extensive searches, pat-downs, and chemical testing."
The complaint then noted that "upon information and belief," at the time of filing, four years after the inciting event, Jukaku was no longer on a federal watch list. The suit, which was filed in conjunction with several other US citizens, posited that Jukaku's designation as a suspected terrorist was entirely unfounded, based on a "hunch."
According to Fox, the watchlist lawsuit does not establish wrongdoing by Jukaku or El-Sayed.
Michigan Democratic Senate hopeful comes under fire for supposed Muslim Brotherhood ties
El-Sayed, a Michigan-born child of Egyptian immigrants, has recently come under scrutiny for his family's purported ties to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
The Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamist organization that was founded in Egypt in the 1920s and spread quickly through the Middle East and North Africa before splitting into a variety of offshoots, some of which have developed into violent terrorist organizations, including Hamas in Gaza. The movement officially rejects the use of violent means to secure its goals, according to CNN.
El-Sayed has repeatedly addressed his alleged connections to the group in recent weeks after his sister's social media posts from 2012 resurfaced, claiming that their mother was involved in the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in the 1970s.
Eman Abdelhadi, the author of the tweets, is a professor at the University of Chicago and El-Sayed's half-sister; his parents divorced when he was young.
"Had an amazing talk with my mom about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s while she was in college," Abdelhadi wrote in June 2012, alongside other posts taking a similarly positive tone regarding the Muslim Brotherhood.
El-Sayed has said he does not know what his mother was doing in Egypt during the 1970s, explaining he was 3 years old when his parents divorced and didn’t see his mother for years after being raised by his father and stepmother, according to CNN.
“They want to talk about me or point to my mom or my sister,” El-Sayed told local media outlets on Thursday during a campaign event in Marquet, Michigan. “I’m running for office. Judge me by my actions and my work," he added.
El-Sayed attends Rosh Hashanah celebrations after accusations of antisemitism
El-Sayed visited a Jewish home for Rosh Hashanah in September in the wake of widespread controversy surrounding his stance on Israel and allegations of antisemitism made against him.
In a video posted on X/Twitter on Sunday, El-Sayed is seen visiting Elaine and Missy, a Jewish mother and daughter who are "lifelong Michiganders."
El-Sayed has sought to mend relations with Jewish voters in the state in recent months, though his opposition to a two-state solution in Israel, along with past controversies involving anti-Israel streamer Hasan Piker and his response to the attack on the Detroit-area Temple Israel, have rendered his candidacy polarizing to the community.
“Many of my friends growing up worshipped at Temple Israel. Nothing justifies the heinous attack that we saw on Temple Israel,” El-Sayed told JTA at the time. “I also think it’s just critical for us to understand that hurt people do hurt people, and the circumstances happening 6,000 miles away can affect the lives that we live here.”
Rabbi Jen Lader criticized Abdul El-Sayed, a physician and former county health executive, for “suggesting that violence against a synagogue in suburban Detroit could be understood through the lens of Israeli actions.”
He responded to the criticism, apologizing and saying that, “I think some people tried to quote that out of context, and I understand that’s how politics works. I’m not here to defend myself, but I will tell you this: I will always stand up to defend my Jewish sisters and brothers who are fighting for an equal right to be who they are, to express their beautiful faith in the way that I choose to express mine.”
Tzvi Jasper and Andrew Lapin/JTA contributed to this report.