A young man asked Abdul-El Sayed if he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan replied that he would, and then said that questions like that promote bigoted ideas about Muslim Americans.
Because he was Catholic, kennedy faced similar accusations of divided loyalties. Because implicitly, you assume that I’ll have dual loyalties, right, “You’re asking the question. The young man, who identified himself as Tommy, is Thomas Teepell, a former staffer for Sen. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) and for a failed Republican candidate for governor in Kansas. The incident was the latest example of questions being raised about El-Sayed’s religious background and upbringing that he has described as bigoted. But his opponent , Mike Rogers, and President Trump have argued that such questions are fair amid concerns over religious extremism. El-Sayed used the question to denounce attacks on his Muslim faith, saying that President John F. “I’m not running to be a Muslim senator, I’m running for U.S. Senate and happen to be Muslim. Teepell appeared to walk away after El-Sayed’s response. Republicans have capitalized on El-Sayed’s religion and his views on Israel as potential vulnerabilities for the candidate. Rogers, El-Sayed’s opponent, accused him of funding his campaign with money from terrorist groups in a speech about Islamist terrorism in the U.S. Clips from the exchange have gone viral, and El-Sayed’s campaign has promoted them, too. “Tommy had a question about my allegiances. Listen to the end to hear about his.”
El-Sayed said. “This is Tommy,” El-Sayed posted on X this weekend with the clip.
