Michigan Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed Faces Scrutiny Over Past Muslim Brotherhood Commentary

Abdul El-Sayed, a leading Democratic contender for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat, is facing renewed attention over past writings and statements concerning Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, political Islam and U.S. policy during the Arab Spring.

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom

Abdul El-Sayed, a leading contender for the Democratic nomination in Michigan’s 2026 U.S. Senate race, is facing renewed scrutiny over past writings, public statements and political associations tied to the Muslim Brotherhood and the 2011 Egyptian revolution.

El-Sayed, a physician and former Detroit health director who is seeking to become the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate, was the subject of a detailed report by Just the News examining his past commentary on Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood and U.S. policy during the Arab Spring.

The report focused in part on a 2012 statement published by an Egyptian newspaper that it said was signed by El-Sayed. The statement defended decisions by Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader who became Egypt’s president after the fall of longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak. According to the submitted material, the statement said the “revolutionary decisions, which we have long called for but which the president [Morsi] has delayed for reasons unknown to us, were necessary.”

The Muslim Brotherhood, described in the submitted information as a radical Islamist group, rose to power in Egypt after the January 2011 uprising that drew mass demonstrations in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and led to Mubarak’s resignation in February 2011. Its time in power was brief, but its ascent became a major foreign policy issue in Washington and a point of debate among American commentators who disagreed over whether the group’s rise posed a threat to Egypt, Israel, the region and U.S. interests.

El-Sayed’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment, according to the submitted information.

El-Sayed wrote repeatedly in 2011 about the Egyptian protests, U.S. policy toward Mubarak and concerns in the West about a possible Muslim Brotherhood takeover. In a late January 2011 opinion piece, El-Sayed urged then-President Barack Obama to more forcefully back the Egyptian demonstrators.

“President Obama, the Egyptian people must hear your voice. You said once in Cairo that democratic freedoms are not just American ideas, but human rights. Please say it again now,” El-Sayed wrote.

He framed the protests as a test of American ideals and directly appealed to Obama both as an American and as an Egyptian.

“President Obama, when I helped elect you into office as the 44th president of the United States of America, I believed I was a doing a service by my country – after all, you represented change; a fresh new perspective; and a hopeful departure from the brand of American imperialism that came to characterize the Bush years,” El-Sayed wrote, adding that “I believed I could trust you to uphold America’s lofty ideals – the ideals that motivated my father, and yours, to immigrate to these soils; ideals you yourself have affirmed again this week – both at home, and abroad.”

“As an American, I ask you to support these freedom fighters because not only is it in our American self-interest to promote democracy in the Middle East, but this is the only avenue our ideals will allow us. As an Egyptian, I ask you to support them because I know, firsthand, the injustice that the Mubarak regime has inflicted, and because I dream that some day my 80 million Egyptian brothers and sisters will enjoy the same dignity and freedom that my 300 million American brothers and sisters do,” he wrote.

The Obama administration was privately pressing Mubarak to leave power, according to the submitted material. On Feb. 1, 2011, Mubarak announced he would not seek another term, but Obama publicly called for a transition to begin immediately.

“The whole world is watching,” Obama said, calling for a “transition period that begins now.”

In another late January 2011 piece for The Huffington Post, El-Sayed argued that the United States should support the Egyptian protesters and pushed back against concerns that the fall of Mubarak could clear the way for the Muslim Brotherhood.

“Why the U.S. Should Support the Protesters in Egypt. America has little to lose by supporting this movement; and what to gain? The trust and allegiance of a generation of young Arabs who will, ultimately, be free,” El-Sayed wrote.

He questioned why American political figures and commentators were emphasizing caution.

“I’d like to turn my attention here to the perplexing fixation among pundits and politicians about a ‘delicate balance’ the Obama Administration should apparently heed when considering its allegiances in this situation. Why are they so worried?” El-Sayed wrote. “Supporting the protestors too early might weaken the American bargaining position with Mubarak if, in fact, this revolution fails; the Mubarak regime is a key ally in maintaining the peace with Israel; supporting democracy in Egypt might allow the country to fall to the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood a la the Islamic republic in Iran and Hamas in the Gaza strip; and empowering protesters in Egypt might contribute to further instability of the region.”

El-Sayed rejected those concerns as justification for continuing to back Mubarak.

“None of these issues substantiates American backing of the Mubarak regime, and ultimately, American interests lay with the protestors fighting for their freedoms in Cairo’s ‘Liberation’ square,” he wrote.

In early February 2011, El-Sayed wrote another Huffington Post piece, titled “The Orientalist Narrative Distorting the Egyptian Struggle for Freedom,” arguing that public discussion of Egypt was being shaped by stereotypes about Arabs and Muslims.

“For centuries, scholars have attempted to twist and reinterpret the history and politics of Muslims, Arabs, and the Middle East around distinctly American or British narratives. Intellectual giants, like Edward Said and others, criticize the legitimacy of this approach, arguing that it fails to recognize the nuanced differences between ‘the West’ and ‘the Muslim World’ and that more critical, objective assessments of these differences are in order,” El-Sayed wrote. “They highlight a fundamental flaw of this kind of thinking, which they call Orientalism: it assumes that Muslims or Arabs are more motivated by their religion or culture than their Western counterparts, because these religions or cultures are not as well-understood by the Western mind as their own.”

El-Sayed added that “just as my well-meaning acquaintances pigeonhole me, orientalists attempt to fit the history and politics of Muslims or Arabs into a greater arc that is dominated by cultural or religious stereotypes.”

He then defended the Egyptian demonstrators’ stated demands and criticized arguments that centered on fear of the Muslim Brotherhood.

“Orientalist framings have, expectedly, also come to dominate the public discourse about the most recent news from the Middle East. En masse, the Egyptian people are demonstrating unequivocally for their freedom,” El-Sayed wrote. “Their demands? Fundamental human rights that many of us take for granted every day — freedom of speech, equal protection under the law, freedom from arbitrary arrest or detention, freedom to peacefully assemble, and the right to choose their representatives. Under the brutal dictatorship of a shameless despot (who has milked his $70 billion fortune from the bread money of Egyptian peasants), they have suffered quietly for over 30 years.”

“In lock step with the orientalist narrative, this racist framing of Arab and Muslim behaviors overemphasizes the roles of religion and culture in motivating the revolution we are witnessing and ignores the collective will of the Egyptian people to be free,” he continued. “Just like the synonymization of Islam and terrorism, our preoccupation with Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood appeals to the orientalist need to explain the Egyptian struggle for self-determinism via religiously or culturally stereotyped explanations. In succumbing to this simplistic and misguided framework, we fail to acknowledge the will of the Egyptian people to reclaim their country and the legitimate grievances against which they demonstrate.”

El-Sayed also linked those concerns to treatment of Arabs and Muslims in the United States.

“When we allow this inherently bigoted thinking to aggregate and take hold in our public discourse, it has real implications on the lives and livelihoods of those whose agency we distort,” El-Sayed concluded. “Abroad, we use this rationale to justify our fear of Egyptian democracy, just as it has been used at home to excuse our assault on the dignity and civil liberties of our Arab-American and Muslim-American neighbors.”

Obama addressed Mubarak’s resignation in a White House speech that day.

“The people of Egypt have spoken. Their voices have been heard. And Egypt will never be the same,” Obama said.

The Muslim Brotherhood later took control of Egypt’s government before being removed from power.

El-Sayed’s 2020 autobiography, “Healing Politics: A Doctor’s Journey into the Heart of Our Political Epidemic,” also discusses his Egyptian-American identity, his sense at times of not being seen as fully American and his anger at Obama for not doing more, in his view, to oppose Mubarak during the protests.

The renewed attention comes as El-Sayed leads or narrowly leads the Democratic primary field, according to the RealClearPolling average, with Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., and Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow also running.

The controversy also overlaps with earlier questions raised during El-Sayed’s unsuccessful 2018 campaign for Michigan governor. Patrick Colbeck, then a Republican state senator and gubernatorial candidate, repeatedly alleged that El-Sayed had links to the Muslim Brotherhood, citing El-Sayed’s role in the Muslim Students Association at the University of Michigan and saying El-Sayed’s father-in-law had served on the board of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

A 2013 Justice Department inspector general report stated that “in 2008, the FBI developed a policy on its interactions with CAIR based in part on evidence presented during the 2007 trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.” The report said “the evidence at trial linked CAIR leaders to Hamas, a specially designated terrorist organization, and CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case.”

“I’m not going to say he’s part of the jihadi or anything, but he’s been in those organizations that have followed such beliefs,” Colbeck said in April 2018, according to The Detroit News.

El-Sayed responded by saying he expected attacks tied to his faith and identity.

“Of course, I knew that in choosing to run for governor as an unapologetic, proud Muslim and American, I was going to contend with the ugly face of white supremacy that Donald Trump and his friends have sanctioned,” El-Sayed told the outlet in a statement that month. “But I know that every day I serve this state and this country by holding us to our ideals and our constitution which empower and inspire me to serve every single person in our state, regardless of my ethnicity, color, or faith.”

A 2018 Michigan gubernatorial debate hosted by the Michigan Press Association escalated into a contentious exchange when Republican candidate Patrick Colbeck accused his Democratic opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, of having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood through his past leadership in the Muslim Students Association at the University of Michigan.

Colbeck framed his concerns as a matter of national security rather than religious bias. “They pitch this as a comment around or concerns around ties to the Muslim Brotherhood as a concern with Muslims in general. I love Muslims. That’s not an issue. The issue is a terrorist organization like the Muslim Brotherhood,” he stated. He later added, “Dr. Abdel said it very cleverly. He tries to characterize an issue with a terrorist organization like the Muslim Brotherhood as an issue with race. It’s not racist. He’s talking about it as a function of religion. Well, it has nothing to do with religion. This is very serious stuff, guys. This is about civilizational jihad.”

El-Sayed, the first Muslim-American candidate for governor in Michigan, responded with a sharp rebuke, accusing Colbeck of perpetuating white supremacy and racism. “I knew that when I decided to run as the first Muslim-American to ever run for governor that I would face the ugliest of white supremacy, the ugliest of racism. I do not believe sharia law is a question in this state,” he said. The exchange grew more personal when El-Sayed declared, “Now, you may not hate Muslims, but Muslims definitely hate you.”

Colbeck countered that he refused to remain silent on what he described as a legitimate societal concern. “I’m not gonna sit there and be silent when there is a genuine concern out there in our society that we need to be addressing,” he said.

Following the debate, El-Sayed apologized for his remarks, as reported by local outlets such as Bridge Michigan and the Detroit Free Press.

The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928 by Sunni imam Hassan al-Banna, has long been a subject of controversy. Its motto—“Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope”—reflects its goal of establishing an Islamic state governed by sharia law. The organization has inspired numerous terrorist offshoots, including groups led by figures like Sayyid Qutb, whose ideologies influenced modern jihadists such as Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Al-Zawahiri, a former leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, merged his group with al-Qaeda in the 1990s and became bin Laden’s deputy. The organization was responsible for the 9/11 attacks, with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the attacks, having been a member of the Kuwaiti chapter of the Brotherhood as a teenager. Al-Zawahiri took over al-Qaeda after bin Laden’s death in 2011 and was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Kabul in 2022.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s influence extends to groups like Palestinian Islamic Jihad, formed in Gaza in 1979 as an offshoot of the Brotherhood, and Hamas, which is also considered a branch of the organization. Congressional Republicans have long pushed for the Brotherhood to be designated a foreign terrorist organization.

In November 2025, then-President Donald Trump issued an executive order addressing the Brotherhood’s global network, stating: “The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, has developed into a transnational network with chapters across the Middle East and beyond. Relevant here, its chapters in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt engage in or facilitate and support violence and destabilization campaigns that harm their own regions, United States citizens, and United States interests.” Trump highlighted the Brotherhood’s involvement in attacks following the October 7, 2023, assault on Israel, where its Lebanese chapter joined Hamas, Hezbollah, and other factions in launching rocket attacks against Israel. He also noted calls from Egyptian Brotherhood leaders for violent attacks against U.S. partners and interests.

In January 2026, the Treasury Department announced that the Brotherhood chapters in Egypt and Jordan were being designated as Specially Designated Global Terrorists for their material support to Hamas. Simultaneously, the State Department announced that the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood was being designated as a foreign terrorist organization.

Several Middle Eastern countries, including Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, had already taken action against the Brotherhood, banning the group or labeling it a terrorist organization. The Brotherhood has pushed back against such designations, asserting in 2019 that it remains committed to “moderate and peaceful thinking” and constructive cooperation with communities worldwide. “The Muslim Brotherhood will remain stronger—through God’s grace and power—than any decision,” the group stated at the time.