GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed’s marketing campaign has collected greater than $115,000 from people who work for or have held management roles with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has been designated a terrorist group by the United Arab Emirates and formally designated or labeled as such in Florida and Texas.
A Fox Information Digital evaluate discovered that El-Sayed, who has made getting “cash out of politics” a central marketing campaign rallying cry, has accepted donations from not less than 41 people who both work for CAIR, previously labored for CAIR, or have served in management positions with the group.
The donor checklist contains a number of of CAIR’s highest-ranking officers, together with nationwide Board Chair Manal Fakhoury, nationwide Board Treasurer Eyas Abdeen, nationwide Vice Chair Emad Sabbah, and CAIR-Michigan board member Jukaku Tayeb, El-Sayed’s father-in-law.
Tayeb has been one of many largest monetary backers of the tremendous PAC supporting El-Sayed’s marketing campaign and can also be a part of the founding committee of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), a gaggle linked to Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood funding, Washington Free Beacon first reported.
One donor, CAIR Government Director Nihad Awad, listed in FEC information beneath the title Nehad Hammad, drew nationwide condemnation after saying he was “comfortable” to see Hamas escape of Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, and arguing Israel “doesn’t have the best to self-defense” as an occupying energy.
The contributions weren’t restricted to Michigan. Fox Information Digital recognized donations from CAIR nationwide leaders and officers affiliated with chapters in California, Arizona, Texas, Georgia, Washington, Illinois, Minnesota and Ohio, amongst different states, illustrating the breadth of assist El-Sayed acquired from throughout the group’s management ranks.
Different names on the donor checklist embrace CAIR-California Governance Board Treasurer Rubina Alvi, CAIR-California Governance Board Chair Asaad Traina, CAIR-Michigan board member Muzammil Ahmed, who contributed $11,600 to El-Sayed’s marketing campaign, CAIR-California Governance Board member Atef Ibrahim, CAIR-California Governance Board member Dina Ezzeddine, and former CAIR Nationwide Board Chair Roula Allouch.
El-Sayed has maintained ties to CAIR past marketing campaign fundraising. In 2022, he appeared at a CAIR occasion and was paid for a talking engagement, the place he criticized Oklahoma’s ban on Sharia regulation and in contrast it to the Path of Tears, Washington Free Beacon reported.
CAIR has lengthy been the topic of controversy over its alleged ties to Hamas. In 2007, federal prosecutors named the group an unindicted co-conspirator within the Holy Land Basis terrorism financing case, the most important terrorism financing prosecution in US historical past.
Though CAIR was by no means charged with a criminal offense, federal prosecutors argued the group was a part of a community created to assist Hamas in america. CAIR has denied the allegations and has challenged its inclusion as an unindicted co-conspirator.
In recent times, Florida and Texas have formally designated or labeled CAIR a terrorist group, whereas the United Arab Emirates designated the group a terrorist group in 2014 which is extensively understood to stem from the UAE’s view that CAIR has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
In response to Fox Information Digital’s request for remark, CAIR denied allegations that it has ties to terrorism, citing its “Dispelling Rumors About CAIR” webpage, a memorandum stating it has “repeatedly condemned antisemitism all through our 30 years of existence” and “for many years” condemned terrorist assaults by Hamas and different designated terrorist teams, in addition to a 2009 assertion saying, “We unequivocally condemn all acts of terrorism, whether or not carried out by al-Qa’ida, the Actual IRA, FARC, Hamas, ETA, or some other group designated by the US Division of State as a ‘International Terrorist Group.”
CAIR additionally cited a Nationwide Board assertion condemning antisemitism and the Oct. 7, 2023, assaults, and a 2023 editorial wherein Nationwide Government Director Nihad Awad mentioned he agreed with the group’s condemnation of assaults on civilians.
Fox Information Digital reached out to the El-Sayed marketing campaign for remark.
El-Sayed has repeatedly drawn criticism from Republicans and pro-Israel advocates over his associations and feedback associated to the Center East, together with campaigning with far-left streamer Hasan Piker, his response to an assault concentrating on a Detroit synagogue, and declining to touch upon the demise of Iran’s supreme chief, citing constituents in Dearborn who have been mourning.
El-Sayed defeated Dem. Rep. Haley Stevens within the Democratic Senate major on Tuesday evening in a race that was a lot nearer than most pundits anticipated. El-Sayed will face off in opposition to Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman, in November.
