Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed denied any Muslim Brotherhood family ties on Meet the Press, yet his half-sister’s old posts say the family has long been involved, and his Republican rival calls the denial a lie.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that neither he nor his relatives have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. His half-sister’s social media history says otherwise.
Eman Abdelhadi, an assistant professor at the University of Chicago, wrote in 2012 and 2013 that the family had longstanding connections to the group. Those posts, unearthed and reported as El-Sayed seeks a Michigan Senate seat, now sit in direct conflict with his on-air answers.
Fox News reported that host Kristen Welker pressed El-Sayed on the question and received flat denials. The same coverage highlighted Abdelhadi’s earlier statements about their mother’s activism.
In one June 24, 2012 post, days after Egypt elected Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi president, Abdelhadi wrote that the family connection ran deep.
"My family has long been MB,"
She added that she had always felt the group navigated politics poorly. A July 3, 2013 post went further.
"I have had family jailed for being a part of it,"
Abdelhadi also posted a prayer for relatives supporting the Brotherhood in Egypt, urging them to lie low and stay safe. The Washington Free Beacon first detailed the posts and noted the shared maternal line through their mother, Fatten Elkomy.
Free Beacon reporting stated that Elkomy once worked for the Islamic American Relief Agency. That group was later sanctioned for funding al-Qaeda. Court documents named her in related matters, according to the same account.
El-Sayed’s campaign has brushed aside the scrutiny as recycled attacks. Yet the candidate’s own words on national television left little room for nuance. Just the News noted he answered the family-ties question with brief denials and no elaboration when Welker asked twice.
The timing matters in a competitive Michigan race. El-Sayed already drew party pressure after other controversies, including a deleted 9/11-related post that forced Democratic leaders to demand distance from online allies. Voters watching the Senate contest now see a pattern of questions the candidate prefers to dismiss rather than answer in full.
Earlier campaign flashpoints showed the same reflex: minimize, label critics, move on. The Brotherhood posts are harder to wave away because they come from inside the family.
Republican opponent Mike Rogers did not wait. On Sunday he posted a direct response after the Meet the Press appearance.
"This morning, Abdul El-Sayed was asked about his family’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. And he denied it, an outright lie. The truth is, Abdul and his family have surrounded themselves with some of the most heinous organizations and anti-American actors in history. He is too extreme to get anywhere near the U.S. Senate."
Rogers had already faced El-Sayed in a Thursday debate. Breitbart News reported that El-Sayed failed to deny receiving money from terrorist groups when the issue arose on that stage.
In August, El-Sayed’s campaign confirmed he still follows Sharia law in his personal life. That detail, paired with the family posts and the debate exchange, gives Rogers a clear line of attack on judgment and transparency.
Similar questions about El-Sayed’s record have followed him since a narrow primary win, including fresh looks at his time overseeing Detroit animal control. Each episode reinforces the same voter concern: what else remains unexamined.
Scrutiny of his Detroit tenure arrived for the same reason the Brotherhood posts matter now. Candidates who offer one-word denials invite deeper checks.
President Donald Trump in November designated certain Muslim Brotherhood chapters as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists. The executive order laid out the group’s record in plain language.
"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."
The order cited the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, including rocket fire by the Lebanese chapter’s military wing alongside Hamas and Hezbollah, plus calls for violence from an Egyptian Brotherhood leader and material support from Jordanian figures to Hamas’s militant wing.
The New York Post underscored how Abdelhadi’s posts about her mother’s early-1970s college activism in Egypt and the family’s long association collide with El-Sayed’s television performance. One 2012 message read: “Had an amazing talk with my mom about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s while she was in college #respect.”
Investigative journalist Peter Schweizer warned in September that the Brotherhood remains active inside American politics. “They’ve been doing it in Europe, and they’ve been doing it in the United States. The Muslim Brotherhood is alive and active in America today electing politicians,” he said.
El-Sayed’s defenders frame every such question as bigotry. That habit appeared when he labeled opposition to taxpayer-funded care for illegal immigrants a racist attack. The same move surfaces here: treat documented family statements as illegitimate by calling them names.
Prior rhetoric on immigration spending already showed how quickly El-Sayed reaches for the racism charge when policy substance gets uncomfortable. Michigan voters can decide whether old family posts and a sanctioned charity on the maternal side deserve the same brush-off.
The candidate has also created backlash beyond security issues, including criticism from Indian-American and women voters after a swipe at Usha Vance. In a tight race, every unforced error compounds.
That earlier flare-up illustrated the same vulnerability: a candidate quick to lecture others yet slow to address contradictions in his own background.
Abdelhadi’s public posts from more than a decade ago do not prove El-Sayed holds formal membership today. They do prove he offered national television viewers a cleaner family history than his sister described in her own words. Rogers and others argue that gap disqualifies him. El-Sayed’s answer remains the short denial.
Michigan voters heading into a Senate choice now have the sister’s statements, the mother’s employment record, the debate non-answer, the Sharia confirmation, and the candidate’s own Meet the Press performance in front of them. They can weigh those facts without help from campaign spin.
A Senate hopeful who cannot give a straight account of his own family’s past leaves voters to fill in the blanks, and blanks are not a governing plan.
