El-Sayed criticizes implications of ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ question

Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed criticized the implications of a question asked at a Saturday town hall concerning the Muslim Brotherhood.

At a campaign event in Michigan, El-Sayed was asked by an attendee whether he would “disavow the Muslim Brotherhood.”

“Sure. Yeah, absolutely,” El-Sayed said. “Why are you asking the question?”

In the 4 minute clip of the exchange shared on X, El-Sayed continued to ask the implications behind the question, adding, “have you asked everybody in your life if they disavow them? So why are you asking me?”

He continued that the attendee was assuming, “because I am Muslim, that somehow, I would have some allegiance to something that is not our constitution. That’s your assumption. That’s implicit in the question.”

El-Sayed described similar questions being asked to former President John F. Kennedy regarding his faith as he served as the country’s first Catholic president and whether his allegiance would be to the Pope and the Vatican.

“And [Kennedy’s] answer, famously, was that he was not running to be a Catholic president. He was running to be president and happened to be Catholic,” he recalled. “I’m not running to be a Muslim senator, I’m running for U.S. Senate and happen to be Muslim.”

“And the reality of it is this: I’m never going to tell you what faith you can or can’t practice. I want to protect your right to practice your faith as you choose,” El-Sayed concluded. 

He is facing former Rep. Mike Rogers (R) in a competitive Senate contest to replace retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D). The seat is one the GOP hopes to flip in its effort to retain control of the upper chamber.

Rogers previously alleged during a candidate debate that El-Sayed and his family have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood – citing political contributions to El-Sayed from individuals connected to the group and previously claimed the Democrat “pledged his support” to the organization.

The Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamist religiopolitical organization that was founded in Egypt in 1928 that resulted in political factions in the Middle East and extremist groups like Hamas, according to Britannica.

Bridge Michigan reported last month that there was no evidence that El-Sayed has direct ties to or pledged support to the group.

During the same debate, El-Sayed slammed Rogers for his ties to the Trump administration which the former lawmaker has attempted to distance himself from by calling for the war in Iran to end and calling for the tariff war with Canada to be resolved.

Decision Desh HQ, a partner of The Hill, predicted the battleground Senate election leaning in favor of El-Sayed, forecasting him with a 68 percent chance of winning. While Cook Political Report rated the race as a “toss up” with both parties equal on its partisan voting index.