Abdul El-Sayed presses back on Muslim Brotherhood questions

Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed engaged in a tense exchange with an NBC News anchor on Wednesday after denying family connections to the Muslim Brotherhood during a Sunday interview. The confrontation occurred as scrutiny intensified over social media posts by his half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, which allege their mother was an active member of the group in Egypt during the 1970s.

On NBC Nightly News, anchor David Llamas pressed El-Sayed to explain the posts after he had stated to NBC’s Kristen Welker on Meet the Press that he and his family had no ties to the Islamist organization. El-Sayed responded by citing his birth in Rochester Hills, Michigan, in 1984, and his career in local public health, questioning the relevance of events in Egypt during the 1970s to his current candidacy. He characterized Llamas’ inquiry as relying on hearsay from a tweet, a characterization Llamas rejected while asking if El-Sayed was insinuating a lack of truthfulness.

El-Sayed maintained that he had not discussed his mother’s alleged activism with her. The controversy centers on posts made by Abdelhadi, a professor at the University of Chicago. In a 2012 post on X, Abdelhadi wrote about a conversation with her mother regarding her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood while in college. In another 2012 post, she stated her family had long been associated with the group, though she believed it had navigated the political sphere poorly. A third post from 2013 expressed prayers for family members supporting the organization in Egypt.

The Washington Free Beacon first reported on these posts. According to a report from the Brookings Institution, their mother, Fatten Elkomy, attended Alexandria University in Egypt, an institution noted for strong Muslim Brotherhood activity in the 1970s. El-Sayed’s campaign has disputed these allegations, with a spokesperson telling Fox News that independent fact checkers have debunked claims made by Republican opponent Mike Rogers. The campaign characterized the accusations as bad faith attacks on El-Sayed’s faith and family intended to distract from policy issues.

In the Sunday interview with Welker, El-Sayed firmly denied the connections and suggested Rogers was floating Islamophobic attacks. The campaign has described the Muslim Brotherhood accusations as debunked and untrue. Fox News Digital reached out to the El-Sayed campaign for new comment regarding Wednesday’s exchange.