Michigan Democrats picked a Senate nominee this month who's now defending his ties to Louis Farrakhan's inner circle.
This week a resurfaced interview forced his campaign to answer a much bigger question.
His campaign could have denied it, and instead they answered a different way.
Spokeswoman Roxie Richner Answers the Question Free Beacon Asked
The Washington Free Beacon found a 2009 interview Abdul El-Sayed gave to The New York Times.
In it, a 24-year-old El-Sayed explained why he structured his first home purchase as a Sharia-compliant mortgage.
He framed the choice as one he'd have to answer for before God someday.
"Not because of fear but because of obligation," he said.
Not preference. Not background. Not culture.
Obligation – a lifelong commitment to live under Sharia law, all the way until he meets his maker.
Reporters put the obvious question to his campaign this week: does that still apply today.
Spokeswoman Roxie Richner did not say no.
She told the Free Beacon that El-Sayed still complies with Sharia law in his personal life.
Still. Complies. Today. As a nominee for the United States Senate.
What He Actually Pledged Obligation To
El-Sayed's campaign wants this filed under mortgage technicality.
That framing leaves out what Sharia law actually is.
Sharia law traditionally prescribes death for people who leave Islam.
It places severe restrictions on what women can do.
It has historically permitted child marriage.
Those are the documented provisions of the system El-Sayed told the nation's biggest newspaper he feels bound to follow.
And when Oklahoma voters tried to keep that system out of American courtrooms in 2010, El-Sayed went on a speaking tour comparing the ban to the Trail of Tears and the Tulsa massacre.
"You cannot understand the challenges we face today without understanding white supremacy," he told a CAIR gathering in 2022.
Keeping Sharia out of American courts is now white supremacy, in his telling.
Nation of Islam Photos Surface From His Own Election Night
The Farrakhan question doesn't stop with El-Sayed's own words.
El-Sayed proudly touts the endorsement of Detroit pastor Horace Sheffield III.
In 2013, Sheffield introduced Louis Farrakhan to a room of religious leaders as a man who would "give us direction."
Farrakhan is the man who called Jews "termites" and said White people are "the skunk of the planet earth."
El-Sayed called Sheffield's endorsement an honor.
The Free Beacon also found a photo of Benton Harbor mayor Marcus Muhammad, a Nation of Islam student minister, posing arm-in-arm with El-Sayed at his own election night party.
Troy Muhammad, who runs the Nation of Islam's Detroit chapter, posted his own photo of a solidarity handshake with El-Sayed at a Detroit event.
Nobody forced these photos to happen.
Rogers Was Already Ahead Before Any of This Broke
Mike Rogers was already leading El-Sayed by three points in EPIC-MRA polling before this story broke.
That poll was taken before voters knew the word "obligation" was in play.
Rogers lost the 2024 Michigan Senate race by 0.34 percent and spent two years preparing for a rematch.
He ran unopposed in his own primary this cycle.
El-Sayed, meanwhile, survived a bitter three-way Democratic primary and immediately walked into a week of Sharia headlines and Farrakhan photos.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wouldn't even endorse him.
Democrats picked him anyway.
Mike Rogers should send the Michigan Democratic Party a thank-you note.
Sources:
- Andrew Kerr and Jessica Schwalb, "El-Sayed Proclaimed 'Obligation' to Follow Sharia Law Until the Day He Dies," Washington Free Beacon, August 11, 2026.
- Robert Schmad, "Unearthed Interview Reveals El-Sayed's Sharia 'Obligation': 'Not Because of Fear,'" Fox News, August 12, 2026.
- Staff, "El-Sayed Campaign: He Still Follows Sharia Law," Breitbart, August 12, 2026.
- Staff, "Photos Show Grinning Abdul El-Sayed Buddying Up with Nation of Islam Ministers," Washington Free Beacon, August 12, 2026.
- Robert Schmad, "El-Sayed Touts Endorsement from Pastor Who Praised Notorious Antisemite Infamous for Calling Jews 'Termites,'" Fox News, August 2026.
- Staff, "Michigan Senate Race – Rogers vs. El-Sayed Poll," EPIC-MRA via PollingSource, July 31, 2026.
