Abdul El-Sayed Refuses To Return Campaign Donations From Terror-Linked Groups

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed refused to consider returning campaign donations from groups linked to Islamic terrorism — and claimed that it was racist to suggest that he should.

During an interview that aired on FOX 2 Detroit on Tuesday, El-Sayed addressed recent comments from his opponent in the U.S. Senate race, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI). Rogers had suggested that El-Sayed should return donations that came from organizations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) that have been linked to terrorist organizations like Hamas.

“Rogers has said that it’s time for you to return money that you may have gotten from organizations like CAIR, citing what he calls a ‘dubious cloud’ over that. Is that something that you’re thinking about doing, would be willing to do? And what do you have to say about that?” FOX 2 anchor Roop Raj asked El-Sayed.

According to several recent reports, El-Sayed has taken more than $115,000 in donations from at least 40 individuals linked to CAIR — which has been designated as a terror organization by the United Arab Emirates and is also acknowledged as such by the states of Florida and Texas. FOX News reported that some those donors were “CAIR’s highest-ranking officials, including national Board Chair Manal Fakhoury, national Board Treasurer Eyas Abdeen, national Vice Chair Emad Sabbah, and CAIR-Michigan board member Jukaku Tayeb, El-Sayed’s father-in-law.”

El-Sayed responded to the question by suggesting that Rogers was inventing the idea that CAIR was linked to Islamic terrorism out of whole cloth in an effort to smear Muslims across the board and then use that as a political attack against him.

“You know, that civil rights organization exists because people like Mike Rogers want to make this race about the color of my skin or how I pray,” El-Sayed replied. “So I’m focused on you and your gas prices and the price of your groceries. He’s focused on trying to turn this into some kind of culture war.”

He did not acknowledge the fact that CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation trial, the largest terror-financing prosecution in American history, prompting the FBI to sever all ties with the organization’s leadership.

He also did not acknowledge direct links between early leadership of CAIR to the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), the Muslim Brotherhood, and support for Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas.

El-Sayed has also struggled to separate himself from campaign surrogate and communist streamer Hasan Piker, who has praised Islamic terror groups like Hezbollah and despotic leaders like China’s Mao Zedong and routinely trashes the United States. Piker also said that “America deserved 9/11” — and El-Sayed has had a difficult time outrunning his own previous social media posts downplaying the victims of Islamic terror and blaming the United States for responding in kind.

Federal Election Commission (FEC) records also show a bizarre overlap between donors supporting El-Sayed and donors supporting Instagram playboy Dan Bilzerian, who launched a losing Hitler-praising primary campaign for a Florida congressional seat.

El-Sayed’s FOX 2 Detroit appearance was initially set up as a potential debate between him and Rogers — who has agreed to two debates in October — but Rogers declined the FOX 2 setup over the choice of moderator. The Rogers campaign said that Raj, who has previously praised El-Sayed and has received praise from Piker, could not be trusted to be unbiased in that situation.

“Michiganders deserve to see their candidates engage in a healthy, fair debate — not one compromised by media bias,” the campaign communications director Alyssa Brouillet said in a statement.

More from this network:
Domains for Sale · GOTPeople.org · TheDSAPlatform · The Truth About Socialism

Donate to GOTPeople.org