Abdul El-Sayed is running for Senate in Michigan. He wants voters to think he has no ties to radical Islam. The story on the trail is clean. The story at home is different. He campaigns with a white stepmother. But he stays close to his birth mother, who has ties to terror groups.
El-Sayed tells NBC Nightly News he was not raised by his birth mother. While attempting to become the first Muslim senator in US history, he stated this. The New York Post reports he has built a family story for voters that leaves out his "ummi." That is the Arabic word for mother. He replaces her with his stepmom, Jacqueline Johnson. The campaign uses videos of her and her parents for fundraising. They are far more palatable to Michigan voters, per the New York Post.
His birth mother is Fatten Elkomy. She is 66 years old. She is a psychiatric nurse in Columbia, Missouri. She was born in Egypt. Federal court documents from 2010 name her as a former worker for the Islamic American Relief Agency. That group is a designated terrorist organization, according to the New York Post.
Elkomy was also an activist with the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1970s. That is a terror-designated political movement. Her own daughter, Eman Abdelhadi, shared this on social media. Despite the campaign narrative, Elkomy has stayed close to her son. She attended his 2014 graduation from Columbia Medical School. Photos show them sharing a beaming smile. In his 2020 book, "Healing Politics: A Doctor's Journey into the Heart of Our Political Epidemic," El-Sayed characterized her as "loving" and "devoted."
He even praised her "uncompromising... way of doing things." This is the same woman the campaign tries to erase. The contrast is stark. One mother is on stage. The other is in the background, but still in his life.
The scrutiny goes deeper. It involves his sister-in-law, Mariam Jukaku. She landed on the federal terrorist watch list. Former President Barack Obama was still occupying the White House when this occurred. El-Sayed confirmed this to Fox News senior correspondent Mike Tobin. The list is officially known as the Terrorist Screening Dataset.
El-Sayed admitted Jukaku was on the list. He said, "Yeah," according to a report by Fox News. He claimed she did nothing wrong. He argued the system is "guilty until proven innocent." He blamed the infrastructure set up by his rival, former Rep. Mike Rogers. "She did nothing wrong and was captured on that and then sued and got off," El-Sayed stated.
But the facts tell a different story. A 2016 lawsuit said Jukaku was selected for extra airport screening. She was not told why. She believed she was removed by 2016. Fox News Digital reported that a ruling in her favor was overturned in 2021. A separate lawsuit for damages was dismissed in 2017. The Daily Wire notes El-Sayed claims she "sued and got off," but the courts did not agree.
El-Sayed plans to campaign with Obama in Michigan on October 24. The timing is awkward. Apparently, the Obama administration placed his sister-in-law on the list. The candidate tries to spin the system as broken.