Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on Saturday disavowed the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist political movement, during a heated exchange at a town hall.
El-Sayed, who could make history as the first Muslim elected to the Senate, has often been accused by Republicans of sympathizing with interests linked to Islamic terrorism. In recent days, Republicans including his Republican challenger, Mike Rogers, and President Donald Trump have commented on their potential ties to the organization.
An attendee at a town hall in Caro, Michigan, repeatedly pressed El-Sayed about the Muslim Brotherhood, saying he had yet to hear the candidate dismiss the organization.
“Abdul, are you going to disavow the Muslim Brotherhood? » shouted the man in the crowd.
El-Sayed, after disavowing the movement, castigated the man for implicitly assuming his “dual loyalty.”
“You assume… that because I am Muslim, somehow I would have some allegiance to something that is not our Constitution,” El-Sayed said. He later added: “For me, this Constitution is the common thread. »
The spectator walked out after the exchange as the crowd cheered for El-Sayed.
The candidate faced questions about his potential ties to the organization. The latest attacks came after old tweets from El-Sayed’s half-sister resurfaced online, including a 2012 post in which she described having “an incredible discussion with my mother about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood in the early ’70s while she was in college.”
Earlier this week, El-Sayed denied allegations that he or his family had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, telling reporters that thinking a member of his family was part of the organization was “a crazy thing to assume.”
El-Sayed said he did not know what his mother was doing in Egypt in the 1970s, explaining that he was 3 years old when his parents divorced and that he did not see his mother for years after being raised by his father and stepmother.
“They want to talk about me or point the finger at my mother or my sister,” El-Sayed said Thursday, adding: “I’m running for office. Judge me by my actions and my work.”
The Muslim Brotherhood is a global Islamist movement that once wielded significant political power in Egypt, where it was founded. The movement officially rejects the use of violent means to achieve its objectives. However, offshoots of the group have been linked to attacks in the past.
Trump signed an executive order in November that began a process by which certain chapters or other subdivisions of the Muslim Brotherhood could be considered for designation as foreign terrorist organizations.
El-Sayed suggested that questions about supposed ties to the Muslim Brotherhood are rooted in intolerance.
“To insinuate that somehow, because of my Muslim faith, as someone who might be the first senator to have that faith, that I would have anything but allegiance to the Constitution, that should be questioned,” El-Sayed said Sunday on MSNOW.
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