At least six men who joined Abdul El-Sayed in signing a 2012 letter urging a Muslim Brotherhood purge of Egypt’s media and police later donated to his political campaigns, according [1] to records reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. Their combined contributions totaled at least $25,850, with most directed to his current Senate campaign.
The letter was signed by El-Sayed and other “leaders of the Egyptian community” who supported Egypt’s struggling Muslim Brotherhood government. It called upon newly elected president Mohamed Morsi, a longtime Muslim Brotherhood leader, to “purge the media and the police as quickly as possible.”
Dr. Hany Saqr, who signed on behalf of the “Egyptian Association in America,” gave at least $1,000 to El-Sayed’s Senate campaign, Federal Election Commission records show. The Free Beacon previously reported that Saqr has a long history with the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group with longstanding ties to terrorism.
Federal prosecutors included Saqr in a 1992 directory of Muslim Brotherhood leaders based in the United States during the 2008 terror financing case against the Holy Land Foundation. In 2018, he displayed a Muslim Brotherhood logo on Facebook and called Egyptian president Abdel el-Sisi a “dog of the Jews.”
El-Sayed has denied having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, although his mother worked for a charity that was later closed over its association with al Qaeda. His half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, said in now-deleted social media posts that the family had deep Muslim Brotherhood ties and described their mother as an activist during college in Egypt in the 1970s.
During a Wednesday evening debate, Republican opponent Mike Rogers cited the 2012 letter and accused El-Sayed of wanting to “defund the police there” in Egypt. El-Sayed responded, “He keeps raising this question about this association with an organization I’ve never been a part of because of my mom who’s a nurse in Missouri?”
“To bring into question my commitment to the Constitution is really beneath you,” El-Sayed added. His response did not mention his mother’s work for the charity shut down over terror fundraising.
Dr. Khaled Elsayes signed the letter as a representative of “Rebuilding Egypt,” according to the document, and remains in charge of the tax-exempt nonprofit in Pearland, Texas. Archived pages from its deleted website showed the organization supporting the Muslim Brotherhood revolution that briefly brought Morsi to power.
One archived page asked prospective members whether they supported boycotting Egyptian television channels over their coverage of the revolution. Another identified Elsayes as an “Associate professor of Radiology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center,” an affiliation he still holds.
Elsayes donated at least $2,750 to El-Sayed’s Senate campaign, records show, but denied signing the 2012 letter when contacted by the Free Beacon. “I didn’t sign anything to support Morsi and didn’t even like his policies,” he said.
“The only explanation was that Morsi supporters were including some names who are known as successful Egyptian expats to support his policies,” Elsayes added.
Ahmed Shehata, another signer, later wrote a Roll Call opinion piece calling upon the United States to reinstate Morsi after the Muslim Brotherhood was ousted. Shehata, now CEO of Islamic Relief USA, donated $500 to El-Sayed’s Senate campaign and another $500 to his 2018 gubernatorial campaign.
Dr. Azmy Allam of Michigan also signed the letter and currently works in pulmonology at Memorial Healthcare in Owosso, Michigan. Allam, who told the Argus Press in February 2011, “I wished I was there,” donated $1,000 to the Senate campaign and $1,000 to El-Sayed’s 2018 gubernatorial race.
Dr. Hesham Gayar was the largest donor among the signers identified by the Free Beacon. Gayar, who signed as an “Egyptian Foundation” representative, donated at least $7,000 to the Senate campaign and another $6,600 during El-Sayed’s 2018 gubernatorial campaign, including $1,600 for catering services.
Dr. Amr Abbas, also identified with the “Egyptian Foundation” in Michigan, donated $5,500 to El-Sayed’s gubernatorial campaign. Abbas currently works as a cardiologist at Corewell Health in Berkley, Michigan, and was educated in Cairo.
El-Sayed was among 46 community leaders in the United States whose names appeared on the Arabic letter published on Nov. 25, 2012. “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,” it read.
El-Sayed has never explained why he signed the letter and has repeatedly ignored Free Beacon inquiries, while his campaign declined to discuss it with the New York Times. Five of the six signers did not immediately respond, and the United States formally classified large Muslim Brotherhood branches as terrorist groups in 2025 and 2026.