Michigan Candidate Linked to Muslim Brotherhood Past
Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed tied to 2012 letter praising Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and urging purges.
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A Michigan Senate candidate has been linked to a 2012 letter praising Egypt’s former president, Mohamed Morsi, a senior figure in the Muslim Brotherhood, and urging him to purge the media and police, according to a report by the Washington Free Beacon.
The letter, published on the Egyptian news site Al-Ahram Gate in November 2012, was signed by 46 Egyptian-American leaders, including Dr. Abdul Rahman El-Sayed, who is now running for Senate. The document hailed Morsi’s consolidation of power as ‘revolutionary’ and criticized those calling for Western intervention.
Morsi’s consolidation of power was met with backlash, including from a liberal Egyptian lawmaker who called it tyranny and Human Rights Watch, which warned it undermined the rule of law. The purge of journalists and critical media followed, with the Committee to Protect Journalists reporting that reporters were hauled into court for allegedly insulting Islam and the president.
Morsi was ousted by Egypt’s military in 2013, and the Muslim Brotherhood was banned and labeled a terror group. However, the Free Beacon noted that this was not the first time El-Sayed had supported the Brotherhood. In 2011, he wrote for the Huffington Post and the Guardian, assuring Americans that a Brotherhood takeover would not resemble Iran or Hamas.
El-Sayed’s father-in-law leads an Islamic group linked to the Brotherhood and is a major donor to a super PAC supporting his son-in-law’s campaign. Mariam Wahba of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies called the 2012 letter and El-Sayed’s past support for the Brotherhood ‘serious questions.’
Brotherhood’s Violent History
The Muslim Brotherhood has a long and bloody history, with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) calling it a ‘gateway’ to terrorism. Hamas identifies itself as the Brotherhood’s Palestinian wing in its original charter. In Egypt, the Brotherhood’s original branch gave rise to Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), which assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981 after he made peace with Israel.
In 1993, Brotherhood alumnus Ayman al-Zawahiri took control of EIJ and merged it into al-Qaeda. The group’s activities are not confined to the past. In 2025, Jordan authorities busted Brotherhood-linked cells making rockets and drones, and Lebanon’s affiliate took credit for rocket attacks on northern Israel alongside Hezbollah.
In Yemen, a co-founder of the Brotherhood-aligned Islah party was blacklisted by the Treasury Department over his ties to Osama bin Laden. In the U.S., Brotherhood affiliates have been convicted of funding Hamas and al-Qaeda.
Washington is now taking action, with the Treasury Department designating the Brotherhood’s Egyptian and Jordanian branches as terrorist entities in January. In July, the Trump administration sanctioned a top Egyptian Brotherhood official accused of supporting Hamas fundraising and collaborating with groups to provide financial aid to Hamas.
Source: Daily Wire
