Michigan’s El-Sayed Denies Family Ties To Muslim Brotherhood. His Sister’s Posts Don’t.

Democratic Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed is facing renewed scrutiny after categorically denying that he or his family have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, despite resurfaced social media posts in which his half-sister described their family as having a longstanding connection to the Islamist organization.

During an appearance Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” host Kristen Welker asked El-Sayed whether he could “set the record straight” on allegations that his family had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

“No,” El-Sayed replied.

“No, you don’t have any ties, and your family doesn’t?” Welker asked.

“No,” El-Sayed repeated, before accusing Republican opponent Mike Rogers of making Islamophobic attacks against him and his family.

But posts published in 2012 and 2013 by Eman Abdelhadi, a University of Chicago professor and El-Sayed’s maternal half-sister, appear to contradict his categorical denial of family connections to the group. The posts were resurfaced in reporting by the Washington Free Beacon.

“My family has long been MB,” Abdelhadi wrote in a June 24, 2012, post, using an abbreviation for the Muslim Brotherhood. Days later, she wrote that she had “had an amazing talk with my mom about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s while she was in college.”

In a July 2013 post, Abdelhadi wrote, “I have had family jailed for being a part of it.” She also urged relatives who supported the organization in Egypt to “Lie low, stay safe.” The Egyptian chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood has since been designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist organization.

The posts identify their mother, Fatten Elkomy, as a source of the family’s historical connection to the Brotherhood. Elkomy attended Alexandria University in Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood had a presence during the 1970s, according to the Free Beacon.

An El-Sayed campaign spokesman defended the candidate in a statement to Fox News, describing him as “a dad and a doctor” who has spent his career working to keep Michiganders healthy and safe. The spokesman accused Rogers’s campaign of pushing “bad faith attacks on Abdul’s faith and family” to distract voters from President Donald Trump’s agenda and the cost of living.

The campaign has also said the Muslim Brotherhood allegations have been “debunked as racist and untrue.” The statement did not address Abdelhadi’s posts about their mother and other relatives.

The family history has drawn additional attention because Elkomy previously worked for the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA), an American-based charity that the Treasury Department said provided “direct financial support” to Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. Elkomy worked for the organization from 1999 through at least 2004, according to court records reviewed in earlier reporting by The Daily Wire.

IARA-USA later pleaded guilty in 2016 to conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions after transferring $1.375 million to Iraq. Elkomy herself was not charged in that federal case.

Other reported connections have also figured into the political dispute. El-Sayed’s father-in-law, Tayeb Jukaku, has served in leadership roles with the Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA, and previously led the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. Both organizations were named as unindicted co-conspirators in the federal Holy Land Foundation terrorism-financing case, though that designation was not itself a criminal charge or finding of guilt.

El-Sayed’s own past statements about the Muslim Brotherhood have also drawn scrutiny. In 2012, he signed an open letter with other Egyptian-American leaders that called on the Brotherhood to “purge the media and police,” according to the Free Beacon. That same year, he publicly identified with a group of supporters of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, the Brotherhood leader elected after the country’s revolution.

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 and has spawned political movements and branches across the Middle East. Hamas emerged from the Brotherhood’s Palestinian network in the 1980s. The Trump administration has taken steps to designate specific Brotherhood branches as terrorist organizations, while lawmakers have debated broader designations.

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