Abdul El-Sayed Denies Ties to Muslim Brotherhood Amid Accusations from Mike Rogers

WASHINGTON – Republican Mike Rogers and his allies are accusing Democrat Abdul El-Sayed of lying about any family connections to the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for the open Michigan Senate seat, denied any ties during an appearance on "Meet the Press". However, tweets from his half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, a professor at the University of Chicago, have resurfaced, showing her support for the Muslim Brotherhood and claiming her mother was an active member. In a 2012 post, Abdelhadi wrote about discussions with her mother regarding her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 1970s. She also expressed concerns about the group's political navigation. El-Sayed reportedly served as Abdelhadi's guardian during her Sharia marriage, according to documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. The Muslim Brotherhood has been designated a terrorist organization by several countries, including Egypt and the UAE, due to its violent offshoots like Hamas, though the US has not designated the group itself as a terrorist organization. President Trump claimed that El-Sayed is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, stating, "You can’t have a member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Congress." Rogers, whose allies are running ads portraying El-Sayed as a Muslim extremist, is slightly trailing in the polls for the seat vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.). If elected, El-Sayed would become the first Muslim elected to the US Senate. His campaign has accused Rogers of engaging in Islamophobia. A spokesperson for El-Sayed stated, "Abdul is a dad and a doctor. He has spent his entire career working to keep Michiganders healthy and safe." The spokesperson also claimed that independent fact-checkers have debunked Rogers' accusations. El-Sayed's family is originally from Egypt, and he has previously indicated that he holds dual citizenship. The group's objective in Egypt has been to resist Western influence and re-Islamify the country. In addition to Abdelhadi, El-Sayed's father-in-law, Tayeb Jukaku, a contributor to a super PAC supporting him, has served on the committee of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed's birth mother, Fatten El-Komy, worked for the Islamic American Relief Agency, which was designated as a terrorist organization by the Treasury Department in 2004. She was never charged with a crime. During a debate, Rogers questioned El-Sayed about his family history, but El-Sayed chose to respond aggressively rather than focus on the accusations. A spokesperson for Rogers stated, "Abdul El-Sayed is clearly falling apart. He lied about his connections to designated terrorist organizations on national television, and his attempted cleanup isn’t going so well." The Michigan Senate race is considered one of the tightest elections in the country, with El-Sayed holding a 2.7 percentage point lead over Rogers in the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate polling. The two candidates have one more debate scheduled for October 21, with both former President Barack Obama and Trump expected to campaign in the state as the midterm elections approach.