Abdul El-Sayed Denies Muslim Brotherhood Ties in NBC Interview
Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed dismissed allegations of family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood as hearsay during a series of heated interviews with NBC News.
Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed denied allegations of family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood during interviews with NBC News anchors Kristen Welker and Tom Llamas. During appearances on Meet the Press and NBC Nightly News, El-Sayed called the accusations racist and untrue, dismissing them as hearsay based on social media posts.
The controversy stems from posts by El-Sayed's half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, a University of Chicago professor, who claimed their family has long been affiliated with the organization and that their mother, Fatten Elkomy, was an active member in Egypt during the 1970s. El-Sayed argued that because he was born and raised in Michigan, questions regarding 1970s Egypt are irrelevant, and stated he was not raised by his mother.
Additional reports link El-Sayed to the group through a deleted Substack article defending Mohamed Soltan, a friend jailed in Egypt for funding the Muslim Brotherhood, and a 2012 open letter calling for the group to purge the Egyptian press and police. His father-in-law, Tayeb Jukaku, serves on the board of the Islamic Society of North America, which federal prosecutors have identified as a front for the Muslim Brotherhood.
Donald Trump criticized the candidacy, stating the U.S. does not need a member of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Senate. El-Sayed's campaign maintains the claims are bad-faith attacks orchestrated by his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers.
