Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Michigan's U.S. Senate seat, sat down on the Progressive Christians Podcast with Rev. Blair Stowe and explained that "Jesus, peace and blessings be upon him, was considered radical in his time too."
He was talking about himself.
El-Sayed — full name Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed — was responding to a question about why his socialist policy positions, including Medicare for All and anti-war activism, keep getting called "radical." His answer was to invoke Jesus Christ, suggesting that anyone who challenges the powerful gets labeled that way. In a second podcast appearance with Jennifer Welch, he doubled down, claiming Jesus's teachings were about "upending the system against the richest and most powerful."
So a Muslim politician running for the United States Senate decided the best way to defend his socialist platform was to compare himself to the Son of God. On camera. While endorsed by Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rashida Tlaib. And while campaigning alongside streamer Hasan Piker.
That's not interfaith dialogue. That's a narcissism disorder with a campaign website.
El-Sayed defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary — a result that, according to Fox News, "shook the Democratic establishment." He now faces former Rep. Mike Rogers in the general election. His platform runs on socialist economics, and he's openly stated he follows Sharia law in his personal life. He's cited the Quranic phrase "Lā ikrāha fī d-dīn" — no compulsion on faith — to defend Muslim political organizing.
Meanwhile, the part of the El-Sayed story that the media seems allergic to covering is the family background. El-Sayed's birth mother, Fatten Fathy Elkomy, worked for the Islamic American Relief Agency from 1999 through at least 2004 as a nurse practitioner. Court documents reference Elkomy 14 times, documenting her participation in eight wire transfers between 1999 and 2002 — including a $24,607.34 transfer request to an "Iraq office" and a $20,772.88 transaction tied to an "Iraqi Children" sponsorship ledger.
In 2004, the U.S. Treasury Department designated IARA and five of its senior officials as supporting terrorism, citing alleged links to Osama Bin Laden, al-Qaeda, Hamas, and the Taliban. In March 2007, the DOJ charged IARA-US with a 33-count indictment for illegally transferring funds to Iraq. By 2010, two board members had pleaded guilty to conspiring to move over $1 million to Iraq. The organization agreed to dissolve in 2016.
Elkomy was never charged or named as a co-conspirator. She told reporters in 2004 that she'd been "working there serving orphans and children with at least one deceased parent." But a counterterrorism expert recently warned a Senate hearing that El-Sayed's candidacy raises "homeland security concerns" due to family ties to Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups and connections to CAIR-affiliated organizations. The RNC's Hunter Lovell called El-Sayed's ideology "terrorist-sympathizing."
And yet when El-Sayed makes the media rounds, none of this comes up. He compared himself to Jesus Christ on a podcast, and the follow-up questions were about health care policy. A Senate counterterrorism expert flags homeland security concerns about his family network, and the interview circuit pivots to how inspiring his story is. Louder With Crowder flagged the Jesus comparison. Breitbart and Townhall dug into the IARA connections. The networks that claim to hold power accountable asked him about vibes.
There's a version of American politics where a Senate candidate with documented family connections to a Treasury-designated terror organization, who openly runs on socialism and Sharia, who compares himself to Jesus while backed by AOC and Bernie Sanders, would face at least one tough question on national television.
We don't live in that version. We live in the one where he gets asked what inspired him to run.
