Counterterrorism expert warns Abdul El-Sayed Senate bid raises homeland security concerns
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Video Abdul El-Sayed's candidacy leaves Homeland Security expert concerned Homeland Security analyst Kyle Shideler testifies before Sen. Ted Cruz on threats including potentially from the candidacy of Abdul El-Sayed.
A Senate counterterrorism expert testified that Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed’s candidacy raises homeland security concerns because of family ties to Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups and connections to a Midwest voter-engagement organization the expert said is tied to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
During a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on Muslim Brotherhood threats in the U.S. that was boycotted by all Democrats assigned to the panel, Sen. Ted Cruz , R-Texas, asked Center for Security Policy counterterrorism analyst Kyle Shideler if El-Sayed’s bid raised such concerns.
"Yessir, it does," Shideler told Cruz, explaining that El-Sayed’s father-in-law allegedly has connections to Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups.
"This includes being the president at one time of CAIR-Michigan," Shideler said of nephrologist Jukaku Tayeb. "Also his presence on the Islamic Society of North America Founders Committee, which is only for those most exclusively devoted to ISNA and provide significant amounts of funding."
Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive candidate in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan, speaks during a primary election night event Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026, at the Majestic Theatre in Detroit. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo)
"There are other known [Muslim B]rotherhood members on that committee. I would also look at El-Sayed's ties to a group called Emgage, which purports to be a Muslim sort of get out the vote or candidate recruitment organization, but it has close ties to CAIR," Shideler testified.
The official bio for Emgage founding member and attorney Khurrum Wahid said the group "works to empower emerging majority communities, with a focus on Muslim Americans, to participate more in public and community and public service."
"[Emgage] was created by a former CAIR member who at one time was on a terror watchlist, and was also a consultant to convicted terrorist Sami al-Arian," Shideler said.
In 2006, Al-Arian, a former University of South Florida professor who was born in Kuwait, pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to provide services to federally designated terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
Fox News Digital reached out to Wahid's law firm and to El-Sayed's campaign for comment.
During the hearing, Cruz also pressed Shideler about the "Red-Green Alliance," and the prevalence of geopolitical ties between Radical Islam and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
"Does the Muslim Brotherhood also partner with political groups such as the Democratic Socialists of America?" Cruz asked.
When Cruz said the Red-Green Alliance shares hatred of Western civilization, democracy and capitalism, Shideler said he should go farther:
"It's also united around a revolutionary objective advocating for the overthrow of the U.S. Constitution."
Shideler also affirmed that the Muslim Brotherhood has active chapters or cells within the U.S.
El-Sayed has been criticized for ties to radical voices like far-left streamer Hasan Piker — who said the U.S. deserved the September 11, 2001, terror attacks — and notably declined to comment on the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei because of neighbors in heavily Muslim Dearborn who were in mourning.
A Fox News Digital review found that El-Sayed, who has made getting "money out of politics" a central campaign rallying cry, has accepted donations from at least 41 individuals including Tayeb who have been tied to CAIR in one form or another.
Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller and Kiera McDonald contributed to this report.
Born and raised in Allentown, Pennsylvania, worked in both the New York and Washington bureaus for Fox News since 2013.
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