Over the weekend, Michigan Democrat Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed was asked to draw a line: Would he disavow the Muslim Brotherhood?
The exchange took place Saturday in Caro, Michigan, during a stop on his “It Shouldn’t Be This Hard” campaign tour. An attendee named Tommy asked the Michigan Democrat point-blank whether he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood, which several countries, including some with Muslim-majority populations, designate as a terrorist organization.
El-Sayed answered the question directly, but then turned his response into a lecture, accusing those who would ask him to draw that line, of questioning his allegiances entirely because of his Muslim faith.
This is Tommy. Tommy had a question about my allegiances. Listen to the end to hear about his. https://t.co/p09eMtsh0x
— Dr. Abdul El-Sayed (@AbdulElSayed) October 18, 2026
"Will you disavow the Muslim Brotherhood?" Tommy asked.
"Sure. Yeah, absolutely," El-Sayed replied. "But I want to ask the question that you're asking. Why are you asking the question?"
Tommy said he asked simply because he had yet to hear El-Sayed disavow the group. But the Michigan Democrat recast the exchange as a question of Islamophobia, accusing Tommy of assuming he had divided loyalties because he is Muslim.
"You assume, Tommy, that because I am Muslim, that somehow I would have some allegiance to something that is not our Constitution," he said. "That's your assumption. That's implicit in the question. And what's interesting to me is that this is not the first time people have asked those kinds of questions."
El-Sayed then invoked former President John F. Kennedy, who faced questions about whether his Catholic faith would put his allegiance to the pope above his duty to the United States. Kennedy famously argued that he was not running to be a Catholic president, but as a president who happened to be Catholic. El-Sayed cast his own situation as exactly the same.
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"I'm running for the U.S. Senate. And so, you know, it's important, I think, because you would ask this question in a way that suggests that somehow our Constitution shouldn't be the thing that all of us bear allegiance to. And I'm just telling you that, for me, that Constitution is the guiding light," he said. "It guarantees me the right to pray as I choose to pray or not pray at all. It guarantees me the right to pray as you choose to pray or not pray at all."
But for all of El-Sayed’s grandstanding, there are straightforward reasons to ask the question, and “because he’s Muslim” isn’t one of them.
First, his half-sister has, by her own account on social media, proudly proclaimed family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. That makes those reported connections a legitimate subject of scrutiny, not one of "Islamophobia."
Second, the issue is one of political judgment. El-Sayed, like others on the progressive left, has been far more willing to defend extremist movements over Western allies, most notably in the conflicts between Israel and Hamas or the United States and Iran. When someone seeking power refuses to stand with the United States and its allies against terrorist groups, or reduces a complex conflict to a death tally, then questions from voters about allegiance to a group dedicated to undermining the United States, like the Muslim Brotherhood is entirely relevant. As a matter of fact, anyone who sides with Hamas over Israel, or only ever wants to talk about the destruction in Gaza should be subject to the exact same question.
It has nothing to do with El-Sayed’s faith and everything to do with his eagerness to make excuses for terrorists rather than stand with Israel, or even the United States.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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