Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, thinks he’s another John F. Kennedy — not in terms of charm or wit, but as a fellow victim of religious bigotry.
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he → think → bigotry
When he ran for president in 1960, Jack Kennedy indeed encountered anti-Catholic prejudice, including the preposterous claim that he’d take orders as president from the Vatican.
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he → run → Vatican
This was irrational conspiracy-theorizing — whereas the questions that El-Sayed is facing about his family’s ties to extremist groups are well-founded.
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Sayed → face → groups
It wasn’t a right-wing smear artist who first said that El-Sayed’s mother was with the Muslim Brotherhood, but his own half-sister.
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mother → say → Brotherhood
She tweeted in 2012, “Had an amazing talk with my mom about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s while she was in college #respect.”
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she → tweet → college
She suggested that other family members in Egypt were involved in the Muslim Brotherhood.
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members → suggest → Brotherhood
His mom — just her luck — also worked for the Islamic American Relief Agency, which the US government designated a supporter of terrorist groups.
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government → work → groups
Now, El-Sayed could say that none of this has anything to do with him, since his biological mother didn’t raise him, and that his mother made a mistake in working for the Brotherhood.
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mother → say → Brotherhood
Or, he could produce evidence of the falsity of what his half-sister said — which, if it’s wrong, shouldn’t be difficult, given that both his mother and half-sister are around (his half-sister is a radically anti-Zionist University of Chicago professor who is very excited about El-Sayed’s candidacy).
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who → produce → candidacy
Instead, he’s argued that questions about this constitute rank Islamophobia.
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questions → argue → Islamophobia
He makes it sound as though the Muslim Brotherhood is a fraternal association, a Knights of Columbus for Muslims, such that any concerns about associations with it are inherently hateful.
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concerns → make → it
His reaction is a little like someone being asked about his family’s alleged KKK associations and responding, “How dare you question my white Protestant heritage.”
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you → ask → heritage
In a viral exchange, a questioner at a town hall asked the candidate if he disavows the Muslim Brotherhood.
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he → ask → Brotherhood
El-Sayed responded with a curt, “Yeah, sure,” before challenging his interlocutor about why he was asking and going on a long riff about freedom of religion in America.
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he → respond → America
Of course, no one is challenging El-Sayed’s right to worship as he pleases, or to run for public office as a faithful Muslim.
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he → challenge → Muslim
The questions have to do with his associations, and with his own views.
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questions → have → views
El-Sayed’s father-in-law, a major donor to his campaign, served on the founding committee of the Islamic Society of North America, a group designated as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007 Holy Land Foundation case.
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father → serve → case
He also — just his luck — served as president of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Michigan chapter, another group named as an unindicted co-conspirator in that case.
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He → serve → case
As for El-Sayed himself, The New York Times reports that when he was a student at the University of Michigan, he was president of the Muslim Students Association — an organization founded by the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1960s.
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he → report → 1960s
In 2012, he joined an open letter backing Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi, who had just become president of Egypt: “We, leaders of the Egyptian community, support the revolutionary decisions taken by the president, and we call on him to purge the media and the police as quickly as possible.
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we → join → media
Here one must pause to express a little sympathy for El-Sayed: Who among us hasn’t, at least once, urged an Islamist authoritarian to crack down on his political opponents?
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Who → pause → opponents
During this Senate campaign, El-Sayed excused an Islamist attack on a Michigan synagogue (before apologizing).
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Sayed → excuse → synagogue
He invited streamer Hasan Piker, who has repeatedly expressed sympathy with terror groups, to campaign with him.
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who → invite → him
And he has refused to say that Iran is more dangerous than Israel.
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Iran → refuse → Israel
He doesn’t deserve the benefit of any doubt, and has responded to questions about all of this with evasions and high dudgeon.
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He → deserve → evasions
No matter how often El-Sayed invokes JFK, Kennedy didn’t defend his Catholic faith as a way of distracting from his own extremism and that of people around him.
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Kennedy → invoke → him
The Aporia
