Abdul El-Sayed is facing renewed scrutiny over his denial that he or his family has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. He told NBC’s Kristen Welker that neither he nor his family had connections to the organization.
That denial clashes with several online posts in which El-Sayed’s sister reportedly touted the family’s connection to the Muslim Brotherhood. There is documented evidence involving El-Sayed donors linked to the organization and other terrorist groups.
The Muslim Brotherhood celebrated El-Sayed’s primary victory. He was reportedly the only candidate in that contest for whom the organization released a statement.
Abdul is special.
He was the only American candidate whose victory was celebrated by the Muslim Brotherhood. The only candidate for whom they issued a statement.
I can’t imagine why the Muslim Brotherhood is so invested in this race. https://t.co/s6WAGo7p4u
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) October 13, 2026 [1]
El-Sayed also publicly supported the revolt against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. At the time, he downplayed the possibility that the Muslim Brotherhood would impose the violence, tyranny, and Sharia law-based terror later seen under Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi.
Abdul El-Sayed was a public proponent of the revolt against Hosni Mubarak, and downplayed the idea that the predicted Muslim Brotherhood takeover would lead to the tyrannical, sharia-based reign that we saw under Egyptian MB leader Mohamed Morsi.
Unsurprisingly, El-Sayed’s sister, Eman Abdelhadi, who like him served in the Muslim Students’ Association at the University of Michigan, was thrilled with Mubarak’s overthrow, and celebrated it.
As the U of M student newspaper, the Michigan Daily, wrote of Abdelhadi’s reaction to Mubarak’s demise in a Feb. 2011 report:
“I was at work and I started crying,” she said. “I called my mother — she was weeping,” Abdelhadi, who was born in Egypt, said. “We grew up with this super suppressive government, and you always feel the weight of it anywhere you go in Egypt and now it’s gone.”
Abdelhadi said her whole family took part in the celebrations.
“They’re euphoric; they’re all out celebrating,” she said. “My grandfather is 82 years old. I’m so glad he made it for this.
Abdelhadi added, “People have this new found sense of ownership and inspiration and dignity, and I feel like this is my country, and I want to be a part of it again.”
Abdelhadi, it bears noting, insinuated in recently unearthed tweets that her mother, Fatten Elkomy, was involved in Muslim Brotherhood activism while a student at the MB hotbed Alexandria University in Egypt in the 1970s.
Elkomy would work for an ostensible charitable organization in the U.S. that federal authorities would designate as a terrorist organization for allegedly providing financial support to al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and Hamas.
The Muslim Students’ Association was established originally by MB members in the U.S., and has been a feeder to the Islamic Society of North America — its graduate wing so to speak — which was labeled an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorism financing case in U.S. history.
— Benjamin Weingarten (@bhweingarten) October 13, 2026 [2]
Rep. Brandon Gill is now hammering [3] El-Sayed over both the alleged connections and his denial of them. Gill also objected to El-Sayed describing people who raise questions about those connections as racist.
“Most Americans are so tired of being slandered as racist or bigoted or Islamophobic or slandered in any other way by simply asking very straightforward questions about a candidate whose family clearly has ties to foreign terrorist organizations,” Gill said.
Gill argued that Americans are entitled to straightforward answers from anyone seeking a powerful position in the federal government. He focused particularly on the Senate’s role in foreign policy, national defense policy and homeland security.
“The minimal bar for somebody to serve in the United States Senate — which has jurisdiction over, in part, foreign policy, national defense policy, the security of our homeland — the minimum bar should be that you and your family do not have ties to organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood. And to slander not his opponent, but ordinary Americans who are asking questions about this.”
Gill then returned to the social media posts attributed to El-Sayed’s sister. Those posts, in Gill’s telling, make the candidate’s broad denial and his treatment of critics especially difficult to defend.
“His own sister is tweeting about his past ties to the Muslim Brotherhood,” Gill continued, “I think it’s reprehensible and it’s beneath the dignity of a Senator. You ought to be able to answer these questions in a straightforward way.”
Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed lied about his family’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood– and he’s calling anyone racist who simply asks questions about it.
The minimum bar for serving in the U.S. Senate should be that you and your family do not have ties to foreign terrorist organizations.
— Brandon Gill (@realBrandonGill) October 14, 2026 [4]
The dispute is not merely about political opponents trading insults. Gill’s criticism centers on whether a candidate seeking Senate authority should be able to answer questions involving alleged family ties to a foreign terrorist organization without attacking the people asking them.
Questions about documented connections to terrorist organizations are neither racist, bigoted, nor Islamophobic. Instead, it presents those questions as a basic matter of scrutiny for a candidate who could wield influence over foreign policy and national security.
Questions also surround the domain Abdulforpresident.com. Someone else may have acquired it first, but it raises the possibility that El-Sayed wants to pursue the White House, despite offering no confirmation that he controls the domain.