El-Sayed under fire for once signing letter urging Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood to ‘purge media and police’

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Cite

King, R. (2026, October 22). El-Sayed under fire for once signing letter urging Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood to ‘purge media and police’. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2026/10/22/us-news/abdul-el-sayed-under-fire-for-once-signing-letter-urging-egypts-muslim-brotherhood-to-purge-media-and-police/

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New York Post · collected 2026-10-22 · by Ryan King

Quick Summary

Abdul El-Sayed, a candidate for Michigan’s Senate seat, signed a 2012 letter supporting then-Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood and urging him to purge the media and police. The letter was published on Egyptian news site Al-Ahram Gate just before Morsi's government began a crackdown on journalists. El-Sayed now disavows any ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, but critics point to his past support for the group as evidence of potential political bias.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-22, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

Abdul El-Sayed, a candidate for Michigan Senate, is facing criticism after it was revealed that he signed a 2012 letter to Mohamed Morsi, then-Egypt's president and a leader in the Muslim Brotherhood. The letter urged Morsi to "purge" the media and police. This came shortly before Morsi’s government began a crackdown on journalists, targeting at least half a dozen for offenses like “insulting Islam” and “insulting the president.” El-Sayed now disavows the Muslim Brotherhood but has not retracted his signature from the letter. The controversy resurfaced amid concerns over Morsi's potential power grab, which eventually led to mass protests and a military coup in Egypt.

Written for “El-Sayed Criticized For Past Letter Signing” on 2026-10-23, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 El-Sayed Criticized For Past Letter Signing
Politics · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Fox News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 17 📰 publisher trust 67
“While both articles discuss Abdul El-Sayed and a letter from 2012 related to the Muslim Brotherhood, they describe different aspects: Article A focuses on a debate where Rogers accuses El-Sayed of signing the letter, while Article B provides background information about the actual content of the letter signed by El-Sayed.”
Semafor
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 13% hedged 6 of 47 📰 publisher trust 60
“The articles discuss different aspects of Abdul El-Sayed's past actions: one focuses on a tweet by his sister regarding her mother's activism in the Muslim Brotherhood, while the other addresses a letter he signed urging purging media and police under Morsi's presidency.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
20
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 20 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
withheld
no quote in the article backed the model's score
Publisher signals
66/100
New York Post's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-22 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

New York Post · 13251 article(s) · 33 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 33 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Ryan King
92 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Amid fears that Morsi’s power grab would turn him into a strongman, which sparked mass protests across Egypt, then-general Abdel Fattah el-Sisi carried out a coup.
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🔮 “You assume, Tommy, that because I am Muslim, that somehow, I would have allegiance to something that is not our Constitution,” he said.
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Also by Ryan King
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 92 articles by Ryan King →

Topics

Brotherhood Egypt Egyptian Michigan the Muslim Brotherhood

Subjects

Egypt GPE · 7× El-Sayed PERSON · 5× Egyptian NORP · 4× Morsi PERSON · 4× the Muslim Brotherhood ORG · 4× Brotherhood ORG · 3× El-Sayed’s PERSON · 2× Michigan GPE · 2× Mubarak PERSON · 2× Tommy PERSON · 2×

Narrative

The controversial progressive signed the letter to Mohamed Morsi in 2012 — just before Morsi’s government embarked on a cruel crackdown on journalists in Egypt, targeting at least half a dozen for “insulting Islam” and “insulting the president,” ultimately culminating in backlash and a coup.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-22
🔮 Amid fears that Morsi’s power grab would turn him into a strongman, which sparked mass protests across Egypt, then-general Abdel Fattah el-Sisi carried out a coup.

Claims (20 extracted, 0 hedged)

Michigan Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed once signed a letter urging the then-newly crowned president of Egypt, a leader in the Muslim Brotherhood, to “purge” the media and police. asserted
Sayed → sign → media
The controversial progressive signed the letter to Mohamed Morsi in 2012 — just before Morsi’s government embarked on a cruel crackdown on journalists in Egypt, targeting at least half a dozen for “insulting Islam” and “insulting the president,” ultimately culminating in backlash and a coup. asserted
government → sign → backlash
The Michigan hopeful now insists he disavows the Muslim Brotherhood, notorious for its radical offshoots, despite “Dr. Abdul Rahman El-Sayed” being the 33rd signature on the 2012 letter, first reported by the Washington Free Beacon. asserted
Sayed → insist → Beacon
“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,” the letter said, per a translation from Arabic. asserted
letter → support → Arabic
“We affirm, as Egyptian Americans, that we strongly reject those voices that are courting America and Europe to take a position against the Egyptian regime.” asserted
that → affirm → regime
Days before the letter, Morsi, who was Egypt’s first elected leader at the time, issued a decree to bestow sweeping new powers on himself as unrest rocked the country. asserted
unrest → elect → country
Egypt had been rocked by the Arab Spring the prior year, which culminated in strongman Hosni Mubarak’s resignation. asserted
which → rock → resignation
Morsi used his power grab to order a retrial of Mubarak amid frustrations from supporters that the ousted strongman and his allies didn’t get a tougher punishment. asserted
strongman → use → punishment
Amid fears that Morsi’s power grab would turn him into a strongman, which sparked mass protests across Egypt, then-general Abdel Fattah el-Sisi carried out a coup. asserted
Sisi → turn → coup
El-Sisi remains in power to this day, though he recently announced plans to conclude his term in 2030. asserted
he → remain → 2030
The letter El-Sayed signed was published on Egyptian news site Al-Ahram Gate. asserted
Sayed → sign → Gate
In a 2011 article for the HuffPost, El-Sayed urged the US to back the protesters in Egypt before the overthrow of Mubarak and downplayed concerns about the Brotherhood. asserted
Sayed → urge → Brotherhood
He has faced scrutiny over his family’s ties to the Brotherhood, which is designated a terrorist organization by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates — but not the US. asserted
which → face → Egypt
El-Sayed’s half-sister had touted their family’s ties to the Brotherhood in resurfaced tweets from 2012. asserted
sister → tout → 2012
“The implication is that I somehow have dual loyalties and there is nothing about my history or record to imply that,” El-Sayed grumbled to a Newsmax reporter this week when asked about the Muslim Brotherhood. asserted
Sayed → have → Brotherhood
“I clearly disavow. asserted
I → disavow → ?
If it’s not clear enough, I clearly disavow it.” asserted
I → ’ → it
El-Sayed had also gone viral for hitting back at a question from a man named Tommy over whether he disavows the Muslim Brotherhood. asserted
he → go → Brotherhood
“You assume, Tommy, that because I am Muslim, that somehow, I would have allegiance to something that is not our Constitution,” El-Sayed shot back at the time. asserted
Sayed → assume → time
“That’s implicit in the question.” asserted
That → ’ → question
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