Al Jazeera speaks to El-Sayed as religion becomes flashpoint in Senate race
Dearborn, Michigan –
asserted
religion → speak → race
Jake Lang, a far-right provocateur in a bulletproof vest, shouts anti-Muslim obscenities on a bullhorn outside a rally featuring former US President Barack Obama in Detroit.
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Lang → shout → Detroit
His associates, wearing crusader-themed accessories – including a tin shield featuring a black cross – hold campaign signs for Mike Rogers, the Republican Senate candidate in Michigan, who is in a close race with Democrat Abdul El-Sayed.
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who → wear → Sayed
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Trump → go → polls
If it weren’t for the bigoted slogans, the people lining up around them to attend the campaign event for El-Sayed and other Democrats could have mistakenly thought the protesters were in Halloween costumes.
uncertain
protesters → line → costumes
“Get the f*** out, Muslims,” Lang shouted.
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Lang → get → *
“The crusade is coming.
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crusade → come → ?
Lang may appear like a fringe agitator.
uncertain
Lang → appear → agitator
But Muslim American activists say the bigotry he is spreading is going mainstream, especially in the context of the Senate race in Michigan.
asserted
he → say → Michigan
Anti-Muslim attacks against El-Sayed have been perpetuated at the highest level of the US government, including by President Donald Trump and his cabinet members.
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attacks → perpetuate → Trump
Suehaila Amen, a prominent Arab and Muslim advocate in the Detroit area, said bigotry against her community is reaching an all-time high.
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bigotry → say → high
“They make immediately post 9/11 look like a walk in the park for us.
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They → make → us
This has been absolutely disgusting to witness,” Amen told Al Jazeera.
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Amen → witness → Jazeera
Sewell helped Lang organise an anti-Muslim march in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn – home to a large Arab and Muslim community – in August.
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Lang → help → August
Abdullah Hammoud, the mayor of Dearborn, said the city – which has long been a target for anti-Muslim provocateurs – has been receiving an increased number of threats in recent months.
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which → say → months
“The general public is unaware of how many threats are aimed towards the city of Dearborn on a daily basis, via social [media], via our dispatch when they’re calling 911 or calling our call centre, and lobbing these threats against the residents of the city each and every single day,” Hammoud told Al Jazeera.
asserted
Hammoud → aim → Jazeera
“That does worry me.”
asserted
That → worry → me
While the Rogers campaign did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment about the Republican candidate’s links to Sewell, Rogers defended his focus on El-Sayed’s background, saying it was for national security.
“This is not about the way you pray; it’s the way you think,” Rogers told reporters after his debate with El-Sayed earlier this month.
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Rogers → respond → Sayed
Local leaders say their community is not cowering in the face of such threats and Trump’s near-daily attacks, and is pushing back through civic engagement and rallying around the El-Sayed campaign.
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community → say → campaign
“Trump is a fascist,” Hammoud told Al Jazeera.
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Hammoud → tell → Jazeera
“I think the best thing we can do, the best response, is to send Abdul to the US Senate, somebody who’s got two doctorates, someone who is a son of this country, a son of the state, someone who is the captain of his high school team …
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who → think → team
I think that that’s the best response that we can give fascism.”
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we → think → fascism
Trump has repeatedly mocked El-Sayed’s name, misrepresenting it as Mohammed, and called the Democratic candidate a “jihadist”.
Amen said Arab and Muslim Americans are used to being targeted for their names, but when the president does it, it legitimises bigotry and racism.
“It’s not just some loser that lives around the block who may call you a racist expletive; it’s the loser who lives in the White House,” she said.
uncertain
she → mock → House
Amen added that Arab and Muslim communities are going about their daily lives and organising politically despite the escalating attacks, stressing that they reject attempts to cast them as foreigners or outsiders.
“We are an integral part of the fabric of this nation, whether people like it or not,” she told Al Jazeera.
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she → add → Jazeera
As the Senate race intensifies, Rogers has been baselessly accusing El-Sayed of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.
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Rogers → intensify → Brotherhood
Last month, Rogers went as far as agreeing with a social media post calling El-Sayed, a doctor and former public health official, a “terrorist”.
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Rogers → go → Sayed
Trump has suggested that El-Sayed would be a physical threat to the Capitol, saying that he would want him to go through a metal detector.
uncertain
him → suggest → detector
At an event in western Michigan earlier this week, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr incorrectly claimed that Arabs do not produce literature or science and “don’t win Nobel Prizes”.
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Arabs → claim → Prizes
He argued that the Muslim Brotherhood – which only briefly held power in Egypt between 2012 and 2013 – has destroyed Arab civilisation.
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which → argue → civilisation
Texas Senator Ted Cruz joined in on such attacks, describing El-Sayed as a “jihadist leprechaun”.
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Cruz → join → leprechaun
Cruz warned that El-Sayed, a Michigan-born and raised father of two with a medical degree and a doctorate in public health, could end up on the Senate Intelligence Committee and endanger national security.
uncertain
Sayed → warn → security
“If I am correct that he is a passionate supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, there is a very real risk that Americans will die as a result,” he said.
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he → be → result
On Wednesday, Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy invoked Dearborn – one of the safest and fastest-growing cities in Michigan – to drum up fear of immigration.
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Ramaswamy → invoke → immigration
“Look at what’s happening in Dearborn, Michigan, for God’s sake.
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what → look → sake
We’re not going to let that come to our state of Ohio,” he said.
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he → go → Ohio
Trump supporters weigh in
El-Sayed, who is of Egyptian descent, has avoided focusing on the attacks, calling them “deflections and deceptions”.
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who → weigh → them
It’s not clear how attacks linked to El-Sayed’s Muslim faith and Arab heritage will affect the race.
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attacks → ’ → race
About 38 percent of respondents in a survey of potential voters conducted by Michigan State University said a candidate being a Muslim would make them less likely to offer support to their campaign.
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them → conduct → campaign
After a Trump rally for Rogers in Port Huron, northeast of Detroit, where the president spent most of his nearly two-hour speech attacking El-Sayed, some attendees appeared to agree that El-Sayed may be a threat to national security.
uncertain
Sayed → spend → security
As the US president spoke, shouts of “traitor”, referring to El-Sayed, erupted from the crowd.
asserted
shouts → speak → crowd
…and 23 more, not listed.
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