Resurfaced articles show Michigan Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed previously criticized former President Barack Obama's drone strike against a U.S. citizen involved with al-Qaeda and expressed concerns about the Muslim Brotherhood.
In a 2011 HuffPost article, El-Sayed voiced opposition to potential budget cuts and highlighted concerns about the wars in the Middle East. He wrote about daily drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen, noting that one such strike had resulted in the "extrajudicial assassination of an American citizen," and that another strike was ordered to kill the citizen's son, also an American. He also referenced the "misguided, unfounded, and tremendously damaging war in Iraq."
At the time, Obama had authorized a drone strike to kill Anwar Nasser Abdulla al-Awlaki, a dual U.S.-Yemeni citizen and al-Qaeda organizer, marking the first time a U.S. citizen was deliberately killed in a drone strike by the government.
In another piece from February 2012, co-authored with Jisung Park, then an economics PhD student at Harvard University, El-Sayed discussed Egypt's economic future following the 2011 revolution. The authors noted the significant electoral success of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Al-Nour Salafist party, attributing it to their domestic platforms and histories of social justice rather than solely Islamic ideologies. The piece cautioned against the temptation for these parties to implement "radical redistributionist economic policies" and drew comparisons to the economic trajectories of North and South Korea, suggesting that North Korea's centralized approach, while initially showing growth, ultimately led to stagnation.
Journalist Eitan Fischberger unearthed these writings, along with a 2011 Guardian article where El-Sayed urged Obama to support the Egyptian protesters, stating it was in America's self-interest to promote democracy and aligned with American ideals.
During his Senate campaign, El-Sayed faced scrutiny over his past statements regarding the Muslim Brotherhood. He has denied having ties to the organization, which is designated as a terrorist organization in several Middle Eastern countries but not in the U.S. Reports indicated that around the time of the Egyptian revolution, El-Sayed's family was supportive of the Brotherhood, and he had relatives working for groups linked to it. El-Sayed also reportedly signed a letter urging then-Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, a prominent figure in the Muslim Brotherhood, to "purge" the media and police.
El-Sayed has since addressed the scrutiny, at times downplaying the issue and joking about having "a Muslim brotherhood" with his own brother.