El Sayed courted voters inside at least five Islamic centers that have a history of ultraviolent rhetoric.
(Credit: YouTube / Islamic Center of Detroit)
Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed courted voters inside at least five Islamic centers that have a history of ultraviolent rhetoric that include branding the United States “the House of Satan” and calling for “the final annihilation of Jews,” The Post has learned.
El-Sayed visited the Islamic Center of Detroit in March 2026 to shore up support, addressing the packed room of men during a Ramadan prayer gathering and soliciting signatures to qualify for the Michigan Democratic primary.
“I have to get on the ballot to be able to get your vote, inshallah. So, my team is here in the back … we need your signature to get on the ballot,” El-Sayed told the congregation, after he was welcomed to the pulpit by a mosque leader who introduced him as “our beloved brother Dr. Abdulrahman.”
“Please don’t leave here without doing that,” he urged, according to a video on the center’s YouTube channel reviewed by The Post.
During the same service, a leader read a closing prayer in Arabic, which called for Allah to take the “worst revenge” upon Zionists.
“The Zionists have spread corruption in the land. Your forbearance has deceived them, so show them your power … They killed our brothers and sisters, so take the worst revenge upon them,” the leader sang, according to the footage.
(…) Last year, an Islamic scholar told the congregation that as Muslims they were “living here in America, in the house of Satan,” before making a wild claim that the US Constitution was based on Islam.
“I’m expecting some rough time during the next four years, so it is important for us to be able and ready to say no, this is not a Christian country, this was not built by the Judeo-Christian tradition,” proclaimed Dr. Zulfiqar Shah in January 2025 in a taped service.
(…) It’s not the only tax-exempt Islamic center where he campaigned that has a history of hateful speech.
El Sayed also spoke at the Islamic Organization of North America in Warren, which has hosted speakers who have called for “the final annihilation of Jews.”
The Senate hopeful visited in September, when his campaign operated a booth soliciting donations and volunteers, while circulating campaign flyers.
“They will be exterminated. … And actually, this greater Israel would become their greater graveyard. And it has been established to drag all the Israelis from all the corners of the world to their graveyard. And here they will perish,” said a speaker in 2013.