The Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as a central flashpoint in the Michigan Senate race, as Republican opponents increasingly target Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed over alleged ties to the Islamist movement. The political battle has intensified in the final weeks of the campaign, with GOP figures attempting to cast the former public health official as sympathetic to Islamic extremism, while El-Sayed contends he is being unfairly maligned by tropes regarding “dual loyalties.” Republicans have increasingly drawn attention to El-Sayed’s Muslim faith in the closing weeks of one of the most important Senate races on the 2026 midterm election map.
Addressing the controversy during a weekend rally in Flint, El-Sayed rejected the framing, suggesting it is a tactic used when candidates lack substantive policy arguments. He compared the accusations to historical political attacks against John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama, arguing that his critics are leveraging his Muslim faith to imply he holds allegiances inconsistent with the U.S. Constitution. He later added, “For me, that Constitution is the guiding light.”.
The rhetoric has escalated significantly, with President Donald Trump falsely labeling El-Sayed a “jihadist” and referring to him as “Mohammed” at a recent rally. Meanwhile, his opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, has maintained that while he does not speak for the president and has not explicitly called El-Sayed a terrorist, he remains critical of the candidate’s ideology. During a recent interview, Rogers defended his focus on El-Sayed’s connections, specifically citing the candidate’s mother’s past work for the Islamic American Relief Agency—an organization the U.S. Treasury Department designated as a supporter of terrorism in 2004. “You know, he wants to play the victim. “I was going after that organization that was indicted for funneling money to Al Qaeda,” Rogers said. “Look, that’s your mom. My mom worked at a small chamber of commerce. I’ll put my mom up any day for that.”.
El-Sayed reacted sharply to the focus on his family, questioning the relevance of his mother’s employment and emphasizing his platform as a doctor and parent focused on issues like Medicare for All. The candidate also addressed the broader scrutiny surrounding his relatives, including a 2016 class action lawsuit involving his sister-in-law, Mariam Jukaku, who was previously included on a federal terrorism watchlist. El-Sayed stated that Jukaku, a home-school teacher and writer, did nothing wrong and was eventually removed from the screening database.
The scrutiny of El-Sayed’s past activism has also been fueled by unearthed social media posts from his half-sister, which mentioned their mother’s involvement in Muslim Brotherhood activities during the 1970s. El-Sayed has stated that he lacks personal knowledge of his mother’s actions during that period, as he was raised primarily by his father and stepmother in Michigan following his parents’ divorce when he was a toddler. Even though his father is an avowed Christian.”, they did the same thing to President Obama simply because his father was of Muslim origin. According to el-Sayed has, He does not know what his mother was doing in Egypt during the 1970s, explaining he was 3 when his parents divorced and didn’t see his mother for years.
Additional criticism has focused on El-Sayed’s 2012 open letter supporting then-Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, as well as an op-ed he wrote for the Huffington Post advocating for U.S. support of Arab protesters. In those writings, he expressed skepticism that democratic transitions in the region would necessarily result in Muslim Brotherhood dominance. The movement itself, founded in Egypt in 1928, remains a polarized subject; while it officially disavows violence, some of its international offshoots have been linked to militant activity, and the current U.S. administration has taken steps to consider certain subdivisions for designation as foreign terrorist organizations. An Islamist political movement founded in Egypt in 1928 — first in a heated exchange with a voter, and later when speaking with reporters — after Republicans have s, el-Sayed this weekend denounced the Muslim Brotherhood. “I do want to talk about why they want to make this their closing argument,” El-Sayed told reporters after a rally Sunday in Flint. “They want to speak to a certain implicit dual loyalty. That notion that people might pray a little bit differently, have a dual loyalty, this has a long history in our politics. The movement officially rejects the use of violent means to secure its goals. Including a post from 2012 in which she described having “an amazing talk with my mom about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood duri, the GOP attacks come after old tweets from El-Sayed’s half-sister resurfaced online. According to a year earlier, he penned a Huffington Post op-ed calling on the United, To support young Arab protesters in Egypt, and downplaying concerns that supporting democracy there would lead to Muslim Brotherhood control of the nation. “She did nothing wrong and was captured on that and then sued and got off,” El-Sayed told Fox News when asked about his wife’s sister being placed on the terrorist watchlist, which was created in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks. “You’ve got this system where folks are guilty until proven innocent because they’ve got different kinds of names, because of the infrastructure that people like Mike Rogers set.
During a town hall in Caro, El-Sayed faced direct questioning from an audience member demanding he disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. After stating his rejection of the movement, El-Sayed criticized the attendee for making assumptions about his allegiance based on his religion. As the campaign nears its conclusion, the divide between the two candidates appears to reflect fundamentally different views on how the Democratic nominee’s background and past public statements should be evaluated by voters. Jeff Zeleny and Aleena Fayaz contributed to this report.
