Michigan GOP U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers would not let his opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, play the victim during a debate Wednesday night after raising the issue of the Democratic nominee’s connection to the Muslim Brotherhood.
A debate moderator asked Rogers what he would do to make Michigan safer. The former congressman noted that he had previously worked in the FBI fighting crime. He then cited the federal and state cooperation seen in cities like Memphis to bring the crime rate down under the Trump administration.
Rogers then contrasted his view with El-Sayed, who called for defunding the police in 2020 and has expressed positive views about the Muslim Brotherhood.
In a Detroit Public Radio interview that year, he said, “I believe we need to defund the police insofar as defunding the police is disinvesting in the means of incarcerating someone or killing them on the streets, and investing more in the means of educating and empowering, engaging communities with the means of being able to take on systemic poverty,” according to Bridge Michigan.
CNN reported in November 2025 that El-Sayed deleted social media posts calling for defunding the police.
The candidate tried to explain to The Detroit News that same month, “I actually never, never called for defunding. My goal in that conversation was to help everybody to understand what we were talking about.”
Which issue do you think is more important for Michigan voters to consider?
Defunding the police policies
3% (1 vote)
Muslim Brotherhood connections
58% (21 votes)
Crime rates and safety
39% (14 votes)
But Rogers asked during the debate, “Why would you take all of that time to delete all of the material: X, videos, comments, podcasts? Why? Because he was passionate about defunding the police. As a matter of fact, he asked the new Muslim Brotherhood’s head, [Mohamad] Morsi, in Egypt to defund the police there, too. I mean, it’s unbelievable.”
Abdul El-Sayed on Muslim Brotherhood accusations: “It’s actually really quite beneath you, Mike. To call into question my loyalty to the Constitution…I’m talking.”
Mike Rogers: “Own up to it.”
El-Sayed: “To bring into question my commitment to the Constitution is really beneath you. I am proud of America. I’m proud to be an American. I’m proud of our Constitution that guarantees all of us the right to pray as we choose to pray and the question that you would ask that I think is actually really quite shameful.”
Rogers: “I wore the uniform of the United States proudly…so you can pray any way you want. I know you want to make this about you being a victim. This is about an ideology that’s banned in five Muslim countries…”
Credit: WXYZ/SCRIPPS
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 22, 2026
In 2012, El-Sayed signed a letter by 46 Egyptian leaders in the U.S. in support of then Egyptian President Mohamad Morsi, a senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, to “purge the media and police.”
Morsi granted himself broad powers shortly after taking power, The Washington Free Beacon noted. He was ultimately deposed by the Egyptian military in 2013, having served just over one year as president.
In a 2011 piece for the Huffington Post, El-Sayed wrote that Americans have nothing to fear from the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.
“Even if the Muslim Brotherhood were to take power [in Egypt], there are several reasons why the ensuing state would look nothing like Iran,” El-Sayed insisted, adding that the Muslim Brotherhood definitely would not resemble Hamas.
El-Sayed was accused of lying earlier this month during an interview with NBC “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker when he claimed his family had no ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
However, his half-sister Eman Abdelhadi, a University of Chicago assistant professor, proudly boasted in 2012, days after Morsi took office, “My family has long been MB.”
“Their mother, Fatten Elkomy, was active in the Brotherhood in college in Egypt in the 1970s, Abdelhadi said,” according to The Free Beacon.
El-Sayed said during Wednesday’s debate that Rogers “keeps raising this question about this organization that I’ve never been a part of. Because of my mom, who’s a nurse in Missouri. It’s really quite beneath you, Mike.”
“To bring into question my commitment to the Constitution is really beneath you,” he continued. “I am proud of America. I’m proud to be an American. I’m proud of our Constitution, that guarantees all of us the right to pray as we choose to pray and the question that you would ask, I think, is actually really quite shameful.”
Rogers responded, “I wore the uniform of the United States proudly … so you could pray any way you want. I know you want to make this about you being a victim. This is about an ideology that’s banned in five Muslim countries …” The candidate served as an officer in the U.S. Army in the 1980s.
Rogers is right. The issue with El-Sayed is not that he is a Muslim; it’s the policies he advocates.
His views, at least, are the embodiment of the Red-Green Alliance — socialists/communists with Muslims — that is wreaking havoc in France right now.
Michigan would be wise to vote for law and order with Rogers and keep El-Sayed out of the halls of power in Washington.
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