‘I Wasn’t Raised by My Mother’: El-Sayed Responds To Sister’s Claim That His Mother Was in Muslim Brotherhood

The Democratic candidate for Senate in Michigan, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, is being accused of lying about his family’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.Dr. El-Sayed said he nor his family had any ties to the Muslim Brotherhood during a “Meet the Press” interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker, but resurfaced social media posts from his maternal half-sister have raised questions about that claim. “Had an amazing talk with my mom about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s when she was in college,” Eman Abdelhadi said in a 2012 Twitter post.Their mother, Fatten Elkomy, attended Egypt’s Alexandria University in the 1970s. The Muslim Brotherhood dominated political activity at the school at that time, according to a more than decade-old Brookings report.In another 2012 post, Ms. Abdelhadi, a University of Chicago assistant professor, stated “My family has long been MB.”“Praying for all my family that supports the #MB in #Egypt. Lie low, stay safe,” Ms. Abdelhadi said in a 2013 tweet.NBC News anchor, Tom Llamas, got into a tense exchange Wednesday with Dr. El-Sayed about the posts, and whether they contradicted his previous statement. “It’s funny to me. I was born in 1984,” Dr. El-Sayed told Mr. Llamas. “You want to ask me about what was happening in Egypt in 1970. Are you serious?”“I have no ties, we have no ties,” Dr. El-Sayed added. “I have never had these conversations with my mother. I wasn’t raised by my mother.”When pressed on the issue, Dr. El-Sayed responded, “Are you insinuating that somehow I was lying?”“I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking,” Mr. Llamas replied.“And I’m telling you that I was not,” Dr. El-Sayed said.Ms. Elkomy is now a nurse in Missouri. She gave birth to Dr. El-Sayed in 1984 in Michigan when she was married to Mohamed El-Sayed. The couple split when Dr. El-Sayed was a toddler and he was raised by his father and stepmother.Dr. El-Sayed won the Democratic nomination in an August 5 primary against establishment-backed Congressman Haley Stevens and is facing a Republican former lawmaker, Congressman Mike Rogers, in the general election.Mr. Rogers has accused Dr. El-Sayed of lying about his family’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. “An outright lie,” Mr. Rogers said in an X post. The Republican has also tried to play up Dr. El-Sayed’s ties in a campaign ad. “The Muslim Brotherhood celebrated his win in the primary. His sister-in-law was on a terrorist watch list,” the ad stated.Mr. Rogers has also pointed to a 2011 opinion column that Dr. El-Sayed wrote as an assistant professor at Columbia University urging the Obama administration to support protesters in Egypt. Dr. El-Sayed wrote that fears the protests would lead to the Muslim Brotherhood taking over were overblows because the “ensuing state would look nothing like Iran.”President Trump has also claimed Mr. El-Sayed is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. “He said that years ago, he was a proud member, and you can’t have a member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Congress,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Wednesday.Republicans are trying to make Dr. El-Sayed the face of a radical left-wing Democratic party controlled by the Democratic Socialists of America. Dr. El-Sayed’s campaign said that claims he and his family are part of the Muslim Brotherhood has been debunked and are racist. “Abdul is a dad and a doctor. He has spent his entire career working to keep Michiganders healthy and safe,” a campaign spokeswoman Roxie Richner said in a statement to the media.According to polling, Dr. El-Sayed is currently leading Mr. Rogers by a slim margin with less than three weeks until the election. Dr. El-Sayed had multiple campaign appearances scheduled Thursday with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

‘I Wasn’t Raised by My Mother’: El-Sayed Responds To Sister’s Claim That His Mother Was in Muslim Brotherhood

‘I Wasn’t Raised by My Mother’: El-Sayed Responds To Sister’s Claim That His Mother Was in Muslim Brotherhood

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