GOP attacks on El-Sayed’s faith intensify as race tightens

DETROIT (MNTV) – Republican attacks on the Muslim faith of Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed have intensified in the final weeks of the campaign, centering on efforts to link him to the Muslim Brotherhood — a line the candidate says revives an old pattern of questioning religious minorities’ loyalty.

El-Sayed, a former public health official, disavowed the Muslim Brotherhood over the weekend after a heated exchange with a voter at a town hall in Caro, Michigan, where a man shouted, “Abdul, will you disavow the Muslim Brotherhood?”

Speaking later to reporters after a rally in Flint, he accused Republicans of using the issue to distract from economic concerns and compared the suspicion to that once directed at John F. Kennedy over his Catholicism and at Barack Obama over his background. 

“This is nothing new. This is what they do when they have no message about the real issues in people’s lives,” he said.

Trump escalated the rhetoric at a Georgia rally, referring to El-Sayed as “Mohammed” and calling him a “jihadist.” 

His opponent, former Representative Mike Rogers, sought on CNN to distance himself from the most direct accusations, saying he had never called El-Sayed a terrorist, while still alleging he aligns with the Brotherhood. 

“This is about the way you think, not the way you pray,” Rogers told CNN’s Dana Bash.

The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, is a political and religious movement with branches across several countries; it has officially rejected violence to achieve its goals. 

In November 2025, Trump signed an executive order starting a process to consider designating certain Brotherhood branches as terrorist organizations — a step that did not establish that every branch or associated person is involved in terrorism. 

Analysts say linking El-Sayed to the movement through family or historical ties, rather than evidence, stigmatizes him for being Muslim and risks casting an entire faith as suspect.