Online claim about El-Sayed’s late mother lacks evidence, review shows
Viral attack ties Senate candidate's mother to charity later sanctioned by US, but no evidence shows she knew of or supported wrongdoing
DETROIT (MNTV) — A claim spreading online after Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary casts his late mother’s past employment as evidence of a terrorism connection — but a review of the record shows no evidence she supported or knew of any wrongdoing, and she was never charged with a crime.
The claim concerns El-Sayed’s biological mother, Fatten Elkomy, who worked from 1999 to at least 2004 for the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA), a Missouri-based charity that presented itself as aiding orphans and people in conflict zones.
In October 2004, the US Treasury Department designated IARA’s worldwide network — also known as the Islamic African Relief Agency — as a terrorism supporter, alleging its overseas branches had sent money to Osama bin Laden and served as a conduit to Hamas. Conservative outlets and social-media posts have used that designation to suggest Elkomy herself supported terrorism.
That inference collapses a crucial distinction between an organization’s alleged conduct and the knowledge or actions of an individual employee.
Neither Elkomy nor any IARA figure was charged with terrorism; the U.S.-based arm later pleaded guilty only to violating sanctions by sending about $1.4 million to Iraq, and dissolved in 2016.
No evidence indicates Elkomy knew of or took part in any illegal activity. She defended her work at the time, telling the St. Louis Post-Dispatch she served orphans “and children with at least one deceased parent.”
El-Sayed, who was raised by his father and stepmother, has said his mother worked to help orphaned children.
Guilt by association is not evidence: linking someone to an organization because of its later designation does not establish that the person shared or supported any wrongdoing.
Experts may scrutinize a candidate’s record and positions, but terrorism allegations require clear proof — and here the available facts support only that Elkomy worked for a charity later sanctioned by the U.S., not that she was involved in or aware of what drew those sanctions.
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