A 2012 Arabic-language statement bearing the name of Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed praised Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s sweeping power grab and urged him to “purge the media and the police,” according to a report by the Washington Free Beacon.
The letter, published by the Egyptian news site Al-Ahram Gate in November 2012, appeared just days after Morsi — a senior figure in the Muslim Brotherhood — issued a constitutional declaration granting himself broad new powers. Forty-six people identified as leaders of the Egyptian-American community signed the document, which described Morsi’s move as “revolutionary” and attacked critics who wanted the United States and Europe to intervene.
Signature number 33 on the statement belonged to “Dr. Abdul Rahman El-Sayed” of New York. At the time, the future candidate was a medical student at Columbia University, according to the Free Beacon, which reported that sources familiar with Arabic-language media identified the signatory as the same man now running for Senate. Conservative commentator Laura Loomer also reported on the document in April.
Campaign silent on the letter
The El-Sayed campaign did not respond to a request for comment from the Free Beacon.
Morsi’s November 2012 decree was widely condemned at the time. One liberal Egyptian lawmaker called it outright tyranny, and Human Rights Watch warned that it gutted the rule of law, the report noted.
Over the following months, journalists faced court proceedings on allegations of insulting Islam and the president, and critical coverage was removed from Egyptian websites, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists — developments that followed the call to purge the media and police.
Morsi’s tenure ended in 2013 when the military removed him from power. Egypt subsequently banned the Muslim Brotherhood and designated it a terrorist organization.
Earlier defenses of the Brotherhood
The 2012 letter was not the first time El-Sayed defended the Islamist movement, according to the Free Beacon. In 2011 pieces published by the Huffington Post and The Guardian, he told American readers not to fear a Brotherhood takeover, arguing that its governance would look nothing like Iran or Hamas.
The report also points to El-Sayed’s father-in-law, who helps lead an Islamic group that federal officials have linked to the Brotherhood and is a major donor to a super PAC supporting the candidate’s campaign.
“This should raise serious questions,” Mariam Wahba of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told the Free Beacon, referring to both the 2012 letter and El-Sayed’s past advocacy for the Brotherhood.
Brotherhood’s contested record
Critics have long argued that the Brotherhood functions as a radicalizing force. A 2025 research memo from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies described the group as a “gateway” to terrorism, one that incubates ideas among members who later break off to commit violence. Hamas describes itself as the Brotherhood’s Palestinian branch in its original charter.
“In Egypt, the Brotherhood’s original branch gave rise to Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), which assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981 after he made peace with Israel,” the FDD memo states. “In 1993, Brotherhood alumnus Ayman al-Zawahiri took the reins of EIJ and merged it into al-Qaeda.”
More recent episodes are also cited: Jordanian authorities in 2025 broke up Brotherhood-linked cells accused of producing rockets and drones, then banned the organization. In Lebanon, an affiliate claimed multiple rocket attacks on northern Israel alongside Hezbollah. In Yemen, a co-founder of the Brotherhood-aligned Islah party was sanctioned by the Treasury Department over ties to Osama bin Laden. In the United States, Brotherhood affiliates have been convicted of financing Hamas and al-Qaeda, according to FDD.
The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy has identified four main areas where the Brotherhood seeks influence: government and politics, colleges and students, the legal system, and media narratives.
The U.S. government has recently moved against the group. The Treasury Department imposed terrorism designations on the Brotherhood’s Egyptian and Jordanian branches in January, as The Daily Wire reported. In July, the Trump administration sanctioned a senior Egyptian Brotherhood official accused of supporting fundraising for Hamas-linked entities already designated by OFAC and of working with Brotherhood groups to provide financial assistance to Hamas.
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/el-sayed-urged-egypts-muslim-brotherhood-president-to-purge-police-media