Video recordings show the Democratic Senate nominee requesting ballot signatures during a Ramadan service and receiving endorsements from religious leaders whose separate sermons included statements against Jews, Israel and the United States.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is facing questions about campaign activities at tax-exempt Islamic institutions after recordings showed him soliciting ballot-access signatures during religious services and prominent clerics urging congregations to support his candidacy ahead of the November election.
An investigation published Thursday, Oct. 29, by Just the News, drawing on research by the Middle East Forum, examined video recordings from Islamic centers in Michigan where El-Sayed appeared or received endorsements. The review identified sermons containing calls for divine punishment against Jews and Zionists, expressions of support for armed groups fighting Israel, and statements characterizing the United States as the “House of Shaitan,” or House of Satan.
The findings have prompted questions about whether some religious organizations violated federal restrictions on political campaign activity by institutions operating under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The allegations concern activities conducted at religious facilities, not evidence that El-Sayed personally endorsed the controversial statements made during separate services.
El-Sayed faces former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers in Michigan’s closely contested open U.S. Senate race, with Election Day scheduled for Nov. 3. The controversy comes after President Donald Trump criticized the Democratic nominee as a “terrorist sympathizer” and questioned his political associations, according to previous reporting by Just the News.
The criticism has also focused on El-Sayed’s association with political commentator and Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, whose statements about American foreign policy and terrorism have drawn controversy. Piker previously argued that the United States “deserved” the Sept. 11 attacks and compared the U.S. military’s actions to those of al-Qaeda.
El-Sayed’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment from Just the News. The candidate has previously rejected allegations concerning family connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and associations with radical Islam. Former President Barack Obama, who has publicly supported El-Sayed’s candidacy, has characterized some criticism surrounding the candidate’s Muslim background as “Islamophobic.”
One of the recordings examined by investigators came from a March Ramadan gathering at the Islamic Center of Detroit, a nonprofit religious and charitable organization. A mosque leader introduced El-Sayed as “our beloved brother Dr. Abdulrahman,” using the candidate’s full first name, before allowing him to address worshippers.
During the recorded religious gathering, El-Sayed requested signatures necessary to qualify for Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary.
“I have to get on the ballot to be able to get your vote, inshallah [God willing]. So my team is here in the back. You’ll see us on the outside […] If you’re a registered voter in the state of Michigan, we need your signature to get on the ballot, so I ask that you’ll give us a signature,” El-Sayed told the congregation. “Please don’t leave here without doing that.”
Later in the same livestream, a religious leader delivered an Arabic closing prayer that included appeals for divine punishment against Zionists. It remains unclear whether El-Sayed was present when the prayer occurred.
“O our Lord, the Zionists have spread corruption in the land. Your forbearance has deceived them, so show them Your power, O Compeller. They killed our brothers and sisters, so take the worst revenge upon them,” the leader said, according to a translation prepared by the Middle East Forum and checked by Just the News using Google’s translation software.
“Lie in wait for them, our Lord. Raise no banner for them in the lands of the Muslims […] and foil their plans in every time and place,” the prayer continued.
The Islamic Center of Detroit did not respond to an inquiry submitted through its website.
The candidate’s appearance has drawn attention because federal tax law generally prohibits organizations recognized under Section 501(c)(3), including religious institutions, from directly or indirectly participating in political campaigns on behalf of candidates.
The Internal Revenue Service’s rules governing candidate appearances distinguish between nonpartisan voter engagement and activities that favor a particular candidate. Religious organizations may invite candidates to speak under specified conditions, including providing equal opportunities to competing candidates and refraining from institutional endorsements.
Whether the Detroit event violated those requirements would depend on the circumstances, including the institution’s role in arranging the appearance and whether comparable opportunities were available to other candidates.
Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, previously asked federal authorities to investigate a separate Michigan nonprofit, the Islamic Society of North America, over allegations that it hosted campaign fundraising activity benefiting El-Sayed.
“The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) reportedly engaged in prohibited activity on behalf of Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed,” Self wrote in a public statement. “I sent a letter to @SecScottBessent requesting the IRS investigate and complete a full review of ISNA’s tax-exempt status.”
J. Christian Adams, a former Justice Department civil rights and elections attorney who now leads the Public Interest Legal Foundation, said candidate endorsements or partisan campaign activity conducted during religious services can create potential legal problems for tax-exempt organizations.
“You get a c3, or you get a religious exemption from paying taxes because you don’t engage in partisan politics. But if you’re bringing in federal candidates and encouraging your worshippers to vote for these federal candidates in the mosque, that’s a problem. You’re jeopardizing your tax status,” Adams told Just the News.
Gregg Roman, executive director of the Middle East Forum, said his organization reviewed recordings from approximately three dozen Michigan mosques and Islamic centers and cataloged 938 statements it classified as “extremist.”
“We found $45 million in taxpayer funding that went to nine of these institutions that we identified,” Roman said. “And we also were able to find 41 officials from local, county, state, and even the federal government who went to community events at these centers. So one day they’re hosting the mayor of Dearborn; the next, the speaker’s calling for killing Jews. It’s just a juxtaposition that shouldn’t work in our democracy.”
The organization’s classifications and funding calculations are its own findings; the presence of an elected official at a religious event does not independently establish endorsement of statements delivered at other times.
The Middle East Forum’s research also identified earlier statements by religious speakers at the Islamic Center of Detroit, where El-Sayed later solicited ballot signatures. In March 2024, a religious leader delivered a prayer asking for divine assistance to armed groups fighting Israel.
“O Allah, grant victory to your soldiers, the mujahideen, everywhere. O Allah, grant victory to our oppressed brothers in Gaza,” the speaker said, according to a translation published in the Middle East Forum’s documentation of the center.
Other recorded prayers from March 2024 included an appeal for Allah to “count [the Zionist aggressors] one by one and kill them all, scattering them, and leave not one of them.” Another speaker asked God to “Tear them apart” “with every tearing with which You have torn Your enemies, in support of Your allies.”
In January 2025, Islamic scholar Zulfiqar Shah addressed the congregation during a sermon about Muslim identity and American history. Shah referred to the United States as the “House of Shaitan,” using the Arabic term for Satan.
“So my respected brothers and sisters, I request you, as Muslims living here in America, in the house of Shaitan […]” Shah said during the recorded address.
Shah encouraged worshippers to “reclaim the narrative” concerning America’s founding documents, arguing that the country’s constitutional principles were rooted in Islamic rather than Judeo-Christian traditions.
“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. It was built actually against it. It was built upon the Islamic ideology,” Shah said.
Shah previously served as president of the Islamic Circle of North America. In 2009, the Investigative Project on Terrorism reported that Shah had participated in a 2001 conference chant declaring, “Our way, our way, is jihad, jihad,” and had advocated violence in Kashmir. Just the News reported finding no subsequent correction or retraction of that account.
Another institution examined in the investigation was the Muslim Educational Community Center of America, known as MECCA, a tax-exempt organization established in Canton, Michigan, in 2022 by Imam Sayed Saleh Qazwini.
During a July 24 sermon, 11 days before Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, Qazwini accused the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and Zionists of exercising extensive control over American politics and involvement in U.S. military interventions.
“Who was it that pushed for the war with Iraq? Who was it that pushed for the war with Libya? Who is it that pushed for the wars all over the Middle East? AIPAC and the Zionists that are in full control of the government here. Full control of the government here,” Qazwini said.
“The only way to stop this is to remove from power, to elect to power those that are not associated with Zionism, those that are not associated with AIPAC,” he continued.
Shortly afterward, Qazwini specifically identified El-Sayed and urged worshippers to participate in the election.
“One of the things that we have to do is that we have to participate in the elections,” Qazwini said. “Today in Michigan, we have a chance at bringing the first Muslim anti-war senator that does not take money from foreign lobbies. And this is Abdul El-Sayed, who is running in the primary.”
“AIPAC has spent over $30 million so far on the election here. Meaning that this is the most expensive election for them because they know there’s a big chance that this man will win. And this is why we have to all come out in numbers,” he added.
The spending figure was Qazwini’s assertion and was not independently substantiated in the reporting.
A week later, Qazwini made another appeal supporting El-Sayed’s candidacy. According to a recording published by the Middle East Media Research Institute, the imam told worshippers that “it’s mandatory to go and to elect brother Abdul El-Sayed because at least we know he’s a Muslim.”
El-Sayed won the Democratic primary Aug. 4 by fewer than 14,000 votes. During Friday prayers three days later, Qazwini again discussed the election, alleging that AIPAC had invested substantial resources to defeat the candidate.
In the Aug. 7 livestream, Qazwini claimed that AIPAC had spent “70 to 80 million” during the primary “just so Abdul El-Sayed does not get elected.”
“Today Israel and the Zionists, they killed hundreds and thousands of children. They bombed hundreds and thousands of homes, and that is something that is not popular. And you can’t come and pay people money to view something unpopular as popular,” Qazwini said.
“This is just the primary. There is the general election, and now they’re probably going to be spending much more,” he continued. “But as long as people are alert, as long as people are awake, as long as people participate in the election, people go out and vote and exercise their right to vote, then they will not be able to steal the election.”
El-Sayed also appeared alongside Qazwini at an August news conference at Christ Episcopal Church in Dearborn, where participants addressed anti-Muslim rhetoric surrounding the Senate race.
MECCA did not respond to an emailed request for comment from Just the News.
The Middle East Forum separately compiled a catalog of 27 statements from MECCA services, including prayers referring to armed organizations involved in conflicts with Israel.
In July 2024, an imam concluded a sermon with a prayer for “our brothers, the mujahideen, in Gaza and in southern Lebanon, in Yemen, in Iraq.” At the time, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran-backed Iraqi militias were engaged in hostilities involving Israel.
The same prayer included language explicitly directed against Jews and Zionists.
“O Allah, send down Your anger, Your vengeance, and Your punishment upon the Jews, upon these criminal Zionists. O Allah, take the worst vengeance upon them, O Allah,” the cleric said, according to the Middle East Forum’s translation.
Hamas and Hezbollah are designated foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department. The Trump administration also redesignated the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization in 2025.
During another MECCA sermon in June 2026, less than two months before the Michigan Democratic primary, an imam prayed, “O Allah, take revenge on Israel and those who help it. O Allah, send down upon them Your wrath and punishment this very hour.”
Qazwini also praised Iran’s late supreme leader during a March 1, 2026, religious service, describing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as having died a martyr.
“Sayyid al-Khamenei […] became a shaheed [martyr] in the way of Allah,” Qazwini said.
The recordings have added to scrutiny of campaign-related activities at religious institutions, although statements made by clerics during separate services do not establish that El-Sayed personally approved of those remarks or was present when they were delivered.
The central legal questions concern whether religious organizations provided institutional support to a political campaign, whether candidates received preferential access to congregations and whether explicit endorsements were made during official religious functions.
Under IRS rules governing tax-exempt organizations, churches, mosques and other qualifying nonprofit institutions are generally prohibited from participating in political campaigns on behalf of candidates. The restrictions do not prevent religious leaders from expressing personal political opinions outside their institutional roles or organizations from conducting genuinely nonpartisan voter education and registration activities.
Violations can result in financial penalties or the loss of tax-exempt status, depending on the circumstances. The recordings and allegations do not, by themselves, establish that the institutions committed federal tax violations, and no IRS determination concerning the specific activities described has been identified.
The controversy comes during the final days of a Senate race in which El-Sayed’s political associations, religious background and positions on U.S. foreign policy have become recurring subjects of debate.
The Middle East Forum’s investigation and the recordings examined by Just the News raise separate questions about campaign endorsements, the conduct of religious leaders and the legal obligations of nonprofit institutions involved in election-related activities.
Whether those activities warrant federal investigation or enforcement action remains undetermined as Michigan voters prepare to choose between El-Sayed and Rogers on Nov. 3.
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