El-Sayed Tries to Rewrite History on Sordid Record of Antisemitism

Almost immediately following his primary election victory last week, Michigan Democrat Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed attempted to pull an astonishing 180 in his approach toward Jewish voters. After months of bashing Israel and excusing violence against Jews, El-Sayed, a Muslim who campaigns with notorious antisemite Hasan Piker, suddenly proclaimed himself to be a great ally of the Jewish people.

El-Sayed, dubbed the “Mamdani of Michigan,” eked out a primary victory on August 4 over Rep. Haley Stevens to become the Democrat nominee. He will face off against Republican Mike Rogers in November to replace Democrat Gary Peters, who is retiring. The primary battle was close, with El-Sayed winning by just one percentage point. Some polls had him winning by almost 20 points.

During his victory speech, El-Sayed specifically addressed Jewish Michiganders.

“To all of my sisters and brothers of the Jewish faith, or any faith at all, or no faith at all: I want you to know that my commitment to your safety, my commitment to Jewish safety, is the same commitment that I have to the safety of my own daughters,” he said.

He also condemned “antisemitism” and said he wants to talk about “how we bring people together.”

That rhetoric proves that El-Sayed is indeed a savvy politician. But a few words in one speech are difficult to square with more than a year of open hostility toward Israel and a disturbing indifference toward violence against Jews.

Take, for instance, El-Sayed’s response to an antisemitic terrorist attack in West Bloomfield, Michigan, earlier this year. In that attack, a 41-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen from Lebanon rammed his truck through the doors and into a hallway of a synagogue while roughly 140 preschool children and staff were inside. The attacker then exchanged gunfire with security. By the grace of God, no children or staff were injured.

Following this horrific incident, statements condemning the attack and supporting the Jewish community poured in from Republicans and Democrats. But not from El-Sayed. While he did issue a canned condemnation of antisemitism, he also appallingly sympathized with the attacker.

“I also think it’s just critical for us to understand that hurt people do hurt people, and the circumstances happening 6,000 miles away can affect the lives that we live here, and if we stand against violence, we’ve got to stand against violence, all violence,” he said. He repeated the “hurt people hurt people” line two more times in what was clearly a scripted video. He then repeated the phrase again a month later.

El-Sayed also frequently turned every campaign issue into an excuse to attack Israel, which many Jewish groups see as a subtle way of attacking Jews themselves. As the Free Beacon noted in its coverage of a July primary debate: “[El-Sayed] blamed the Jewish state for problems ranging from U.S. artificial intelligence policy to the national debt to the state of the Democratic Party under Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.”

Perhaps most shockingly of all, El-Sayed refused to take a public stance on the death of former Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei, a ruthless dictator who waged a decades-long campaign to kill Jews and Americans. “I also want to remind you guys that there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad today,” El-Sayed said in leaked audio. “So, like, I just don't want to comment on Khamenei at all. Like, I don’t think it’s worth even touching that.”

And of course, there is El-Sayed’s close relationship with Piker, an online left-wing influencer known for his violent rants against Jews and capitalism. Piker has demonized Orthodox Jews as “inbred,” called a Jewish man a “bloodthirsty pig dog,” and said he has “no issue” with Hezbollah. Piker has also said explicitly that the United States “deserved 9/11” and called for his followers to murder Republican politicians and landlords “in the streets.”

The day before the primary election, El-Sayed was spotted talking with Piker at a pool party. Piker has also appeared on stage at multiple El-Sayed campaign stops. When asked to condemn Piker following his primary victory, El-Sayed instead demurred, saying that he’s “more focused on who I’m campaigning to” than who he’s campaigning with.

This long record of hostility toward Jews makes El-Sayed’s recent claim to care about their well-being rather difficult to believe. Moreover, this pivot isn’t unique – fellow Muslim socialist Zohran Mamdani attempted to pull the same maneuver during his campaign for mayor last year.

Like El-Sayed, Mamdani allied himself with Piker and even equated Hamas’s brutal October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel with Israeli defensive actions. Once Mamdani won the primary, however, he made a big show of appearing alongside Jewish community leaders – without actually making any real commitments to their safety amid an alarming rise in antisemitic violence in New York City.

Voters shouldn’t be fooled by El-Sayed’s about-face. A politician who spends the primary courting the most radical elements of his party cannot erase that record with a few carefully chosen words once the general election begins. Jewish voters — and all Michiganders — should judge El-Sayed not by the conciliatory rhetoric he has suddenly adopted, but by the allies he has embraced, the excuses he has made, and the positions he held when he thought they would help him win.