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Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Michigan, once fired back at accusations that he might have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that advocates for implementing Muslim code, known as Sharia law, as a legal framework.
“Now, you may not hate Muslims,” El-Sayed said. “But I’ll tell you, Muslims definitely hate you,” El-Sayed said at a 2018 Michigan gubernatorial forum.
The statement, made as a response to probing from Michigan lawmaker Patrick Colbeck about his religious affiliations, demonstrates El-Sayed’s resentment towards efforts to use his Muslim faith as a link to Islamic groups like the Muslim Brotherhood. It also shows efforts to address fears that, as a Muslim, he would try to implement Sharia law as the law of the land.
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Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed speaks to members of the media ahead of the Michigan Democratic Party’s 2026 nominating convention in Lansing, Mich., on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026. (Sarah Rice/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Colbeck was also running for governor at the time.
During the panel, Colbeck focused his criticisms on the Muslim Brotherhood, claiming that El-Sayed had ties to the Muslim Students Association (MSA), a group listed as part of a strategy memorandum for North America written by one of the Muslim Brotherhood’s members, Mohamad Akram. El-Sayed served as the vice president of the MSA chapter at the University of Michigan during his time there as a senior in 2007, according to College Fix.
“This is very serious stuff, guys. This is about civilization jihad,” Colbeck said.
Fox News Digital has not discovered any tie between El-Sayed and the Muslim Brotherhood. Notably, the memorandum lists a wide range of organizations, stretching from the Islamic Book Service to the Association of Muslim Scientists and Engineers – groups that, for their own part, don’t maintain a formal relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Colbeck’s comments prompted the moderator at the 2018 panel to direct a question to El-Sayed directly.
“Is Sharia Law instituted here in the state of Michigan a real concern?” the moderator asked.
El-Sayed took the moment to rebuff Colbeck, stating that he would, if elected, swear an oath to uphold the law of the land and not look to subvert it.
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Michigan Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Abdul El-Sayed pushed back on questions about his ties with controversial Twitch streamer Hasan Piker. (Emily Elconin/Getty Images)
“I solemnly swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this state — that’s the oath that if any one of us is elected, we will swear. I take that oath particularly seriously because it guarantees me the right to pray as I choose to pray,” El-Sayed said at the time.
“Sharia law is not in question in this state,” he added.
While the United States doesn’t list the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, other countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Russia all have, citing the group’s history of armed activity.
The Muslim Brotherhood renounced violence in the 1970s but has continued to advocate for ways to codify Muslim religious beliefs in countries around the world since then.
In a 2012 document, the group issued a statement on Islamic law and national identity.
“That is an integral part of the Muslim Brotherhood’s concept of Islamic law or Sharia, which is the most important issue that preoccupies us and which we seek to establish in society, and for which we have offered our dear brothers for martyrdom, imprisonment and persecution over long decades,” the group wrote.
The idea of Muslims using the American election process to implement the Muslim code as the law of the land has raised concerns from lawmakers like Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and others who believe Sharia’s many tenets are incompatible with American culture.
“America is facing a threat that directly attacks our Constitution and our Western values: the spread of Sharia law,” Roy said in a 2025 press release.
“From Texas to every state in this constitutional republic, instances of Sharia adherents masquerading as ‘refugees’—and in many cases, sleeper cells connected to terrorist organizations—are threatening the American way of life. Those who succumb to this political ideology seek to replace our legal system and Constitution. Under Sharia law, there is no freedom of speech, religion, or women’s rights.”
Elsewhere, an increasing number of Muslim representatives and populations in places like Dearborn, Michigan have led some critics to argue that a kind of preference or leniency towards Muslim individuals is its own version of implementation.
“America, we have lost this city. This is a city that is no longer up under American laws; we are up under Sharia law. We will not have it anymore,” Pastor Lorenzo Sewell, the pastor of 180 Church, said during a town council meeting in Dearborn, calling for the town’s councilmembers to denounce the Muslim code.
According to the 2020 U.S. census, a majority of Dearborn residents reported Middle Eastern or North African ancestry at roughly 54.5%.
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Abdul El-Sayed, a Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, speaks to supporters at a campaign event, on August 2, 2026 in Detroit, Michigan (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)
Fox News Digital is not aware of any proposals from El-Sayed to implement facets of Sharia law. When asked about Sharia law and its implementation in the U.S., a spokesperson for El-Sayed said that would not be his mission as a lawmaker.
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“Abdul believes in the separation of church and state. While he personally lives by the rules of his faith, as many Americans of various faiths do, Abdul opposes any effort by any religious community to write their faith laws into the laws of our country,” the El-Sayed campaign told the Washington Free Beacon earlier this year.