El-Sayed Campaigned at Mosques Featuring Anti-US, Anti-Jewish Rhetoric

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has courted voters at multiple Islamic centers that have a history of virulent rhetoric, including branding the United States as the “House of Satan” and calling for the “final annihilation of Jews.”

El-Sayed visited the Islamic Center of Detroit in March 2026 during a Ramadan prayer gathering to solicit signatures for his ballot qualification. During the service, a leader read a closing prayer in Arabic that called for Allah to take “the worst revenge” upon Zionists. "The Zionists have spread corruption in the land. Your forbearance has deceived them, so show them your power… They killed our brothers and sisters, so take the worst revenge upon them,” the leader recited, according to video footage reviewed by The Post. Earlier in the year, an Islamic scholar told the congregation that Muslims were “living here in America, in the house of Satan” and claimed the U.S. Constitution was based on Islam.

In March 2024, another religious leader at the center called for the killing of all “Zionist aggressors.” “Count them one by one and kill them all, scattering them, and leave not one of them,” the leader stated, according to translated videos. El-Sayed, 41, has spoken at the Islamic Center of Detroit and other area mosques on multiple occasions dating back to 2017.

El-Sayed also spoke at the Islamic Organization of North America in Warren, which has hosted speakers advocating for the “final annihilation of Jews.” In 2013, a speaker at the center said, “They will be exterminated… And actually, this greater Israel would become their greater graveyard. And it has been established to drag all the Israelis from all the corners of the world to their graveyard. And here they will perish.” El-Sayed’s campaign operated a booth at this center in September, soliciting donations and volunteers.

At the American Moslem Society in Dearborn, where El-Sayed campaigned recently, leaders have prayed for Allah to “let us live upon jihad and cause us to die upon martyrdom.” El-Sayed also spoke at the Islamic Institute of America and the Islamic House of Wisdom, both in Dearborn Heights in June. At the Islamic Institute of America, prayers were offered for Allah to “show vengeance and wrath against the criminal Zionists.” The Islamic House of Wisdom called for “disbelievers to be neutralized if not destroyed.”

During his campaign stops, El-Sayed criticized U.S. support for Israel, stating, “We deserve to know that our money isn’t being wasted to make war, to do genocide, to backstop apartheid.”

Natalie Baldassarre, National Press Secretary for the Republican National Committee, criticized El-Sayed, stating, “El-Sayed is a terrorist sympathizer who has taken every opportunity to excuse Islamic extremism and platform radical imams, Muslim Brotherhood-linked networks, and people who said America deserved 9/11.”

Meanwhile, two other centers that have hosted speakers with violent rhetoric—the Muslim Educational Community Center of America in Canton and the American Muslim Diversity Association in Sterling Heights—urged congregants to vote for El-Sayed. Saleh Qazwini, imam for the Muslim Educational Community Center of America, said, “It’s mandatory to go and to elect brother Abdul El-Sayed because at least we know he’s a Muslim. We have to all come out in numbers.”

El-Sayed’s family ties to organizations accused of supporting extremist groups have also drawn scrutiny. His father, Mohammed El-Sayed, sits on the board of Life for Relief and Development, a charity accused of funneling money to Hamas and Saddam Hussein. El-Sayed’s mother, Fatten Elkomy, worked for the Islamic American Relief Agency, which has been accused of funding bin Laden, Hamas, and the Taliban, and was reportedly an activist with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed himself penned a 2012 letter in support of the Brotherhood. He has denied his ties and did not respond to a request for comment from The Post.