DEARBORN, Michigan (The Thursday Times) — Anti-Muslim attacks on Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for the US Senate in Michigan, have escalated in the final week of the campaign, with President Donald Trump calling him a “jihadist” and Muslim community leaders saying hostility has reached its highest level since the September 11 attacks.
El-Sayed, a Michigan-born doctor of Egyptian descent who holds a medical degree and a doctorate in public health, is in a close race with Republican Mike Rogers ahead of next week’s midterm elections. Trump has repeatedly mocked his name and, at a rally for Rogers in Port Huron on Sunday, spent much of a nearly two-hour speech attacking him.
Rogers has accused El-Sayed, without evidence, of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, and last month agreed with a social media post calling him a “terrorist”. “This is not about the way you pray; it’s the way you think,” Rogers told reporters after their debate this month. Senator Ted Cruz has called El-Sayed a “jihadist leprechaun”.
‘Post 9/11 look like a walk in the park’
“They make immediately post 9/11 look like a walk in the park for us,” said Suehaila Amen, a prominent Arab and Muslim advocate in the Detroit area. Outside a Detroit rally featuring Barack Obama, the far-right activist Jake Lang shouted anti-Muslim abuse through a bullhorn while associates in crusader-themed gear held Rogers campaign signs.
Abdullah Hammoud, the mayor of Dearborn, home to a large Arab and Muslim community, said threats against the city had increased in recent months. “The best response”, he said, was to send El-Sayed to the Senate.
A test for voters
El-Sayed has largely avoided engaging with the attacks, calling them “deflections and deceptions”. It is unclear how they will affect the race: in a Michigan State University survey, about 38 per cent of potential voters said a candidate being Muslim would make them less likely to support them.
