# El-Sayed Does Not Condemn Muslim Brotherhood > Abdul El-Sayed and the Muslim Brotherhood: the 2012 Morsi statement, family posts, father-in-law and donors, checked in Arabic, French and English. - URL: https://fightingislamists.com/abdul-el-sayed-muslim-brotherhood.html - Updated: 26 October 2026 - Publisher: The Analyst, Fighting Islamists (https://fightingislamists.com/) - Cite as: The Analyst, "El-Sayed Does Not Condemn Muslim Brotherhood", Fighting Islamists, updated 26 October 2026. https://fightingislamists.com/abdul-el-sayed-muslim-brotherhood.html **The short answer.** Abdul El-Sayed has said he disavows the Muslim Brotherhood, but only when asked directly, and no record shows him condemning the group, its ideology or its support for Hamas. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for the US Senate in Michigan, is accused by his Republican opponent Mike Rogers, the Republican national committees and President Trump of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. We checked Arabic, French and English reporting, US court rulings, IRS filings and Federal Election Commission records. Several facts are documented: a 2011 column on Egypt, a 2012 Arabic statement backing President Mohamed Morsi, his half-sister's posts that their family "has long been MB", his father-in-law's leading roles at CAIR and ISNA, and large donations from CAIR-linked donors. **No source in any language produces a document showing that El-Sayed himself is a member of the Brotherhood, pledged allegiance or support to it, took money from it or held any role in it.** There is no direct link. There are documented links between his family and the Brotherhood: his half-sister's statements that their mother was active in it and that relatives were jailed for it, and his father-in-law's leading role in ISNA, an organisation a 1991 Brotherhood document listed among its own. He denies any tie and has disavowed the group.[^bridge][^politifact19][^wapo] ### Key facts - **The 2012 statement is real.** On 25 November 2012 Al-Ahram's news site published a statement by 46 "leaders of the Egyptian community" in America backing Morsi's decrees and urging him to "purge the media and the police". "Dr. Abdul Rahman El-Sayed, New York" is 33rd. It does not name the Brotherhood.[^ahram][^freebeaconletter][^skyar] - **The family posts are real.** His half-sister wrote in 2012 that their mother was active in the Brotherhood at university in the early 1970s and that "My family has long been MB". He was raised by his father and stepmother.[^freebeaconposts][^michpublic] - **The father-in-law's roles are on record.** IRS filings list Tayeb Jukaku as a CAIR-Michigan director, and he sits on ISNA's founding committee. FEC records show $300,000 from him to a pro-El-Sayed super PAC in 2026.[^propublica][^fec][^freebeaconfil] - **Not documented anywhere:** membership, a pledge (bay'a), Brotherhood funding or an organisational role for El-Sayed himself. - **Documented family links:** the mother's reported Brotherhood activism, relatives jailed in Egypt for membership, and the father-in-law's ISNA role. See [family links](https://fightingislamists.com/abdul-el-sayed-muslim-brotherhood.html#family). - **"He refused to disavow" is false.** Asked by a voter on 17 October 2026, he said "Sure, yeah, absolutely". PolitiFact rated the contrary claim False.[^politifact19] ## Who is making the claim Rogers said on 5 August 2026 that El-Sayed "pledged his support to the Muslim Brotherhood". His campaign website, StopAbdul.com, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Republican National Committee repeat the charge, and Trump has called him a Brotherhood member "100%". Most of the underlying documents were first published by the Washington Free Beacon.[^bridge][^hill][^nrsc] The charge is not new: in 2018 the Republican Patrick Colbeck said El-Sayed's parents "apparently" had Brotherhood ties, and the Michigan Republican Party distanced itself from him.[^buzzfeed] ## Disavowed, not condemned Disavowing a group and condemning it are different things. El-Sayed has done the first, when asked; we found no record of the second. - **What he has said.** "Sure, yeah, absolutely" to a voter who asked "will you disavow the Muslim Brotherhood?" on 17 October 2026; "I clearly disavow it" about the 2012 statement; and that he "was not and will not be a member".[^politifact19][^skyar][^aljazeera25] - **What he has not said.** In English, French and Arabic coverage, we found no statement in which he condemns the Brotherhood, its ideology, its role in founding Hamas or the US designation of its chapters as terrorist. Asked on Fox News on 5 October 2026 whether Brotherhood branches should be designated, he answered "Show me that they're engaged" in violence.[^newsweek] - **How he frames it.** Each time he has disavowed it, he has paired the answer with a challenge to the question itself, arguing that it implies a Muslim candidate owes allegiance to something other than the Constitution.[^politifact19][^bridge19] The US government designated three of the Brotherhood's national chapters as terrorist in January 2026 for supporting Hamas.[^treasury] El-Sayed has not said whether he supports that decision. Whether a disavowal on request is enough is for voters to judge; that he has not condemned the group is on the record. ## Each claim and what the record shows | Claim | What is documented | Verdict | |---|---|---| | He "pledged his support" to the Brotherhood | Rogers' statement of 5 August 2026 | **Not supported.** Neither the 2011 column nor the 2012 statement contains a pledge to the Brotherhood[^bridge][^politifact19] | | He is a Brotherhood member | Trump's and Rogers' statements | **No evidence produced** in any language[^bridge][^wapo][^aljazeera][^arabnews] | | He backed Morsi's government | Al-Ahram statement of 25 Nov 2012, 46 signers, "Dr. Abdul Rahman El-Sayed, New York" 33rd. It supports "the revolutionary decisions taken by the president" and urges him to purge the media and police. The New York Times and PolitiFact treat him as a signer; his campaign has not disputed it | **Documented.** Support for an elected president's decrees, not a tie to the organisation. The statement does not name the Brotherhood or its party[^ahram][^freebeaconletter][^politifact19] | | He played down the Brotherhood in 2011 | HuffPost column, early 2011, urging the US to back Egypt's protesters: "Even if the Muslim Brotherhood were to take power… the ensuing state would look nothing like Iran" | **Documented.** Comment on Egyptian politics[^bridge][^jtn] | | His family is Brotherhood | Half-sister Eman Abdelhadi's posts: 24 June 2012 on their mother's "activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s"; "My family has long been MB"; 2013 on relatives jailed in Egypt | **Documented posts, not a tie to him.** The mother's activism rests on these posts alone. The siblings grew up in separate households[^freebeaconposts][^michpublic][^ynet] | | His mother worked for a terror-linked charity | Court exhibits show she worked for the Islamic American Relief Agency (designated by the US Treasury in 2004) from about 1999 | **Documented, not a Brotherhood link.** She was never charged[^michpublic][^jpost] | | His father-in-law is a Brotherhood leader | IRS 990 data list "Jukaku Tayeb" as an unpaid CAIR-Michigan director; *Islamic Horizons* lists him on ISNA's founding committee | **Roles documented; his own Brotherhood membership is not**[^propublica][^freebeaconfil] | | He is funded by Brotherhood-linked groups | FEC: $300,000 from Jukaku and $175,000 from the CAIR Action-linked Unity & Justice Fund to the Fighting for Michigan PAC; $50,000 from Mohamed Soltan's ACMER. Fox News counted $115,000 from 41 current or former CAIR staff and leaders | **Donations documented.** No record shows money from the Brotherhood itself or from abroad[^fec][^foxdonors] | | He defended a Brotherhood family | Oct 2021 Substack post calling Mohamed Soltan "my friend"; Soltan's father, Salah Soltan, is a senior Brotherhood figure. The post does not mention the Brotherhood | **Documented, not a tie**[^newsweek] | | Muslim student activism | Reported vice-president of the University of Michigan Muslim Students' Association, about 2007 | **Documented in secondary reports, not a tie**[^detnews18] | | He wants Sharia in America | A 2022 speech | **False.** PolitiFact: "Pants on Fire", a clip taken out of context[^sharia] | ## Family links to the Brotherhood No document ties El-Sayed himself to the Brotherhood, but the record does show links between his family and it. - **His mother.** His half-sister Eman Abdelhadi, a University of Chicago sociologist who was raised by their mother, wrote on 24 June 2012 about a talk with their mother about "her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s while she was in college", and the same day that "My family has long been MB". She has not retracted the posts.[^freebeaconposts][^michpublic] - **Relatives in Egypt.** In July 2013, after the army removed Morsi, she wrote that she had "family jailed for being a part of it" and prayed for relatives who support the Brotherhood in Egypt.[^freebeaconposts] - **His father-in-law.** Tayeb Jukaku sits on ISNA's founding committee and is a long-serving CAIR-Michigan director. ISNA appears in a 1991 internal Brotherhood document, "An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America", entered as evidence in the Holy Land Foundation trial, on a list of "our organizations and the organizations of our friends". Prosecutors cited it to describe ISNA as a Brotherhood creation. ISNA rejects this and was never charged, and the memo is a single seized document whose weight is disputed.[^propublica][^freebeaconfil][^memo][^ca5] - **Student years.** He was reported to be vice-president of the University of Michigan Muslim Students' Association around 2007. The 1991 memo also lists the national Muslim Students' Association among the Brotherhood's organisations. A campus chapter is not the national body, and nothing shows he had any Brotherhood role.[^detnews18][^memo] What these links do and do not show: people close to him, his mother and his father-in-law, have been tied to the Brotherhood or to organisations it once counted as its own. That does not show that he joined, pledged or served it. He was raised by his father and stepmother, not his mother, and says he never discussed the subject with her.[^michpublic][^newsweek] ## Who ran Al-Ahram when the statement appeared Al-Ahram is Egypt's main state-owned newspaper, and in November 2012 its leadership had been chosen by the Brotherhood's own political system. On 8 August 2012 the Shura Council, the upper house then dominated by the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, appointed new editors-in-chief at Egypt's state-owned publications, putting Abdel Nasser Salama in charge of Al-Ahram. Egypt's Journalists' Syndicate accused the council of trying to run state media in the party's interest, and columnists at private papers left their columns blank in protest.[^cjr][^ahramed] So the statement backing Morsi ran in a paper whose editor had been installed by a Brotherhood-dominated body, three days after Morsi's decree of 22 November 2012 put his decisions beyond judicial review. That is context for where and when it was published. It is not evidence about the signers: who appointed a newspaper's editor does not show that the 46 people on a statement it printed belonged to the Brotherhood. ## CAIR, ISNA and the Holy Land Foundation Much of the case rests on the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). In the 2008 Holy Land Foundation trial, where a charity's leaders were convicted of funding Hamas, prosecutors listed both as unindicted co-conspirators. In 2009 Judge Jorge Solis found "ample evidence" associating CAIR and ISNA with Hamas and the Holy Land Foundation, but kept them on the list without charge. In 2010 the Fifth Circuit held that publicly naming a third group, the North American Islamic Trust, violated its rights, and said the judge's language was not a ruling that it joined a criminal conspiracy. Neither CAIR nor ISNA has ever been charged.[^ca5][^jta] The federal government has not designated CAIR. In January 2026 the Treasury and State Department designated the Egyptian, Jordanian and Lebanese Brotherhood chapters; the designations name no US person. Texas (November 2025) and Florida (December 2025) named CAIR a terrorist organisation; Florida's order was blocked by a federal court in March 2026 and the case is on appeal.[^treasury][^aclu] See [the Muslim Brotherhood guide](https://fightingislamists.com/muslim-brotherhood.html). ## How he has answered: denials, then disavowal **Denials of ties.** On NBC's *Meet the Press* on 11 October 2026, asked whether he or his family had ties to the Brotherhood, he answered "No" twice. On 14 October he told NBC News "We have no ties", said he "never had these conversations with my mother", and called his half-sister's posts "hearsay evidence from a tweet".[^newsweek] **Disavowal when asked directly.** At a town hall in Caro, Michigan, on 17 October a voter asked "Will you disavow the Muslim Brotherhood?" He replied "Sure, yeah, absolutely", then asked why he was being asked, said the question assumed a Muslim would owe allegiance to something other than the Constitution, and compared it to the questions John F. Kennedy faced about the Pope in 1960. Al Jazeera quotes him saying he "was not and will not be a member" of the Brotherhood.[^politifact19][^bridge19][^aljazeera25] **The 2012 statement.** He has not explained it in detail. His campaign declined to answer the Free Beacon's questions about it, though Sky News Arabia quotes him saying "I clearly disavow it".[^freebeaconletter][^skyar] **The pattern critics point to.** The disavowal came after weeks of reporting on the posts and the letter, not before, and each time it was paired with a challenge to the questioner's motive. Critics call it perfunctory; supporters say questions about a Muslim candidate's foreign family history amount to a religious test. The record supports three statements: he has denied ties, he has disavowed the group when asked, and he has not addressed the 2012 statement or his half-sister's posts in substance.[^newsweek][^politifact19] ## How we checked Five research passes covered Arabic sources (Al-Ahram, Sky News Arabia, Asharq, Al Jazeera, Arabi21, Cairo24, Hafryat and others), French and Gulf media (AFP, La Libre, The National, Arab News, Gulf News, Al-Bayan), US primary records (court rulings, IRS 990 data, FEC filings, Treasury and court documents), English-language press from right to left, and the family claims. Outlets hostile to the Brotherhood, such as Sky News Arabia and Hafryat, and outlets sympathetic to it, such as Al Jazeera and Arabi21, reached the same position: the documents above are real, and no proof of membership has been shown. We could not read the original Al-Ahram page directly, the full text of El-Sayed's 2011 columns, or archived copies of his half-sister's posts; their wording here comes from the outlets cited. ## Questions people ask ### Is Abdul El-Sayed a member of the Muslim Brotherhood? No evidence of membership has been published in Arabic, French or English. What is documented is a 2011 column on Egypt, a 2012 statement backing President Morsi, his half-sister's posts about their mother, and his father-in-law's roles at CAIR and ISNA. He denies any tie and has disavowed the group. ### Did El-Sayed sign a letter supporting Morsi? A statement published by Al-Ahram on 25 November 2012, signed by 46 Egyptian-Americans, lists "Dr. Abdul Rahman El-Sayed, New York". It backed Morsi's decrees and urged him to purge the media and police. The New York Times and PolitiFact treat him as a signer and his campaign has not disputed it. It does not mention the Brotherhood. ### Was Al-Ahram controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood in 2012? Its editor was. Al-Ahram is state-owned, and in August 2012 the Brotherhood-dominated Shura Council appointed Abdel Nasser Salama as its editor-in-chief, over protests from Egyptian journalists. The 2012 statement backing Morsi appeared there in November 2012. That shows the paper's leadership, not the affiliation of the statement's signers. ### Was El-Sayed's family in the Muslim Brotherhood? There are documented family links. His half-sister, who was raised by their mother, wrote in 2012 that the mother was active in the Brotherhood at university in the early 1970s and that "my family has long been MB", and in 2013 that relatives had been jailed in Egypt for membership. His father-in-law sits on the founding committee of ISNA, which a 1991 Brotherhood document listed among its organisations. No independent record confirms the mother's activism, and none shows El-Sayed himself was a member. He was raised by his father and stepmother and calls the posts hearsay. ### Has El-Sayed disavowed or condemned the Muslim Brotherhood? He has disavowed it when asked: on 17 October 2026 a voter in Caro, Michigan, asked whether he would disavow it and he said "Sure, yeah, absolutely". PolitiFact rated the claim that he refused to disavow it False. He has not condemned it: we found no statement in which he condemns the Brotherhood, its ideology or its links to Hamas, and on 5 October he would not back designating its branches unless shown they were "engaged" in violence. ## Related guides - [The Muslim Brotherhood](https://fightingislamists.com/muslim-brotherhood.html): what it is, its branches and where it is designated. - [Hamas](https://fightingislamists.com/hamas.html): the Brotherhood offshoot behind the Holy Land Foundation case. - [Islamism](https://fightingislamists.com/islamism.html): what Islamists want and how to recognise them. - [The US midterms, immigration and Islamism](https://fightingislamists.com/us-midterms-2026-immigration-islamism.html): the wider 2026 campaign. [^bridge]: Bridge Michigan (Lauren Gibbons), "Fact check: No evidence Abdul El-Sayed 'pledged support' to Muslim Brotherhood", 3 September 2026, updated 4 September 2026. [^politifact19]: PolitiFact, fact-check of Mike Rogers on El-Sayed and the Muslim Brotherhood, 19 October 2026. [^wapo]: The Washington Post, "Examining the Muslim Brotherhood claims in Michigan's Senate race", 23 October 2026 (also in The Detroit News). [^ahram]: Bawabat Al-Ahram, "بيان لأنصار مرسي في أمريكا يؤيد قراراته ويطالبه بتطهير الإعلام والشرطة" (Statement by Morsi supporters in America backs his decisions and urges him to purge the media and police), 25 November 2012. [^freebeaconletter]: Washington Free Beacon (Jon Levine), report on the 2012 statement and its signers, 23 September 2026. [^skyar]: Sky News Arabia, report on El-Sayed and the 2012 statement, 23 October 2026 (Arabic). [^freebeaconposts]: Washington Free Beacon (Chuck Ross), "Abdul El-Sayed's family has long been in Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Senate candidate's sister said in unearthed social media posts", 11 October 2026. [^michpublic]: Michigan Public, "Fact check: Rogers' claims about El-Sayed's mother don't match the evidence", 24 October 2026. [^ynet]: Ynetnews, report on El-Sayed and the Brotherhood claims, October 2026. [^jpost]: The Jerusalem Post, report on El-Sayed's mother and the Islamic American Relief Agency, October 2026. [^propublica]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, IRS Form 990 data for CAIR Michigan (EIN 38-3534607), 2013–2025. [^fec]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A receipts for Fighting for Michigan PAC (C00919373), 2026. [^freebeaconfil]: Washington Free Beacon (Alana Goodman), report on El-Sayed's father-in-law, 14 July 2026. [^foxdonors]: Fox News, "Abdul El-Sayed accepted $115K from CAIR-affiliated donors, records show", 5 August 2026. [^newsweek]: Newsweek, "Everything Abdul El-Sayed Has Said About the Muslim Brotherhood", October 2026. [^detnews18]: The Detroit News, report on Patrick Colbeck's claims about El-Sayed, 25 April 2018. [^jtn]: Just the News, report on El-Sayed's 2011 HuffPost columns, 2026. [^sharia]: PolitiFact, "Republicans attacking Abdul El-Sayed say he supports Shariah in the US. That distorts an old video.", 10 August 2026. [^hill]: The Hill, "Republicans target Abdul El-Sayed with Muslim Brotherhood allegations", October 2026. [^nrsc]: National Republican Senatorial Committee, press release on El-Sayed and the 2012 letter, 22 October 2026. [^buzzfeed]: BuzzFeed News, report on Patrick Colbeck's claims about El-Sayed, 24 April 2018. [^aljazeera]: Al Jazeera Arabic, report on Trump's claim about El-Sayed, 15 October 2026 (Arabic). [^arabnews]: Arab News, report on El-Sayed's disavowal of "unproven claims", 25 October 2026. [^ca5]: US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, *United States v. North American Islamic Trust*, No. 09-10875, 20 October 2010. [^jta]: JTA, "The Holy Land Foundation trial and the three Muslim groups", 26 November 2010. [^treasury]: US Department of the Treasury, "Treasury and State Departments Designate Muslim Brotherhood Branches as Terrorist Organizations", press release sb0357, 13 January 2026. [^cjr]: Columbia Journalism Review, "New editors at state-run Egyptian papers", August 2012. [^ahramed]: Ahram Online, "Egypt columnists protest chief editor appointments in state owned papers", August 2012 ; Ahram Online, "Heads of Egypt's state-owned papers to be appointed Wednesday", August 2012. ; [^memo]: Mohamed Akram, "An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America", 22 May 1991, government exhibit in *United States v. Holy Land Foundation*, N.D. Tex. ; discussed in Hudson Institute, "Reporting the Muslim Brotherhood", and Middle East Forum, "'Explanatory Memorandum' detractors ignore evidence about MB in America". ; [^bridge19]: Bridge Michigan, "Abdul El-Sayed disavows Muslim Brotherhood, responds to claims", 19 October 2026. [^aljazeera25]: Al Jazeera Arabic, report on El-Sayed and the Brotherhood claims, 25 October 2026 (Arabic). [^aclu]: ACLU, "CAIR Foundation, Inc. and CAIR Florida, Inc. v. DeSantis", case page updated 16 October 2026.