Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is now reportedly facing fresh scrutiny after denying that he or his family had any connection to the Muslim Brotherhood, a claim that appears to clash with past social media posts from his own half-sister.
During Sunday’s broadcast of “Meet the Press,” NBC’s Kristen Welker pressed El-Sayed on the allegations, asking whether he could “set the record straight” on claims that his family had links to the controversial Islamist group.
“No,” El-Sayed answered.
Welker then followed up: “No, you don’t have any ties, and your family doesn’t?”
“No,” El-Sayed said again, before suggesting that his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, was pushing Islamophobic attacks against him and his family.
But El-Sayed’s denial appears to be at odds with statements from his half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, who has said their mother was an active member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
“Had an amazing talk with my mom about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s while she was in college #respect,” Abdelhadi wrote in a 2012 post on X, as first reported by the Washington Free Beacon.
Their mother, Fatten Elkomy, attended Egypt’s Alexandria University. According to a report from the Brookings Institution, the university saw strong Muslim Brotherhood activity during the 1970s.
That was not the only post. In another message from 2012, Abdelhadi, a professor at the University of Chicago, wrote: “My family has long been MB, but I’ve always felt that it has navigated the political sphere poorly/destructively.”
A third post, this one from 2013, struck a similar note. “Praying for all my family that supports the #MB in #Egypt. Lie low, stay safe,” Abdelhadi wrote.
The posts raise new questions about El-Sayed’s flat denial on national television, where he twice told Welker that neither he nor his family had ties to the group.
The El-Sayed campaign is pushing back hard. In a statement to Fox News, a campaign spokesperson defended the candidate and went on offense against Rogers.
“Abdul is a dad and a doctor. He has spent his entire career working to keep Michiganders healthy and safe,” the spokesperson said. “Independent fact checkers have repeatedly debunked Mike’s lies, but their campaign continues to use bad faith attacks on Abdul’s faith and family.”
The spokesperson also sought to shift the focus to President Trump, adding: “Mike wants to distract from Trump’s agenda that is terrorizing Michigan families at the pump and at the grocery store.”
The campaign has separately said the Muslim Brotherhood accusations have been “debunked as racist and untrue.”
The dispute puts a spotlight on one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country, with El-Sayed and his campaign casting the allegations as attacks on his faith, while his half-sister’s own words, posted publicly more than a decade ago, describe a family history with the Islamist organization that the candidate denied on air.
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