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Michigan Senate Nominee’s Oklahoma Sharia Law Comparison Fuels Heated Political Debate
By Drooid · · How we work
El-Sayed’s Oklahoma Sharia Law Comparison
During a 2022 speech at a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) event, Democratic Senate nominee Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed linked Oklahoma’s recent constitutional amendment banning Sharia law to historic acts of oppression, including the forced removal of Native peoples, the 1921 Tulsa race massacre that destroyed Black Wall Street, and the Oklahoma City bombing. He questioned the meaning of the voter-approved ban and suggested that the same forces behind those past tragedies were “alive and well today.”
Republican Opposition and Campaign-Finance Allegations
Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers labeled El-Sayed “an extremist” and accused him of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, seeking to empty prisons, and advocating large tax increases. Rogers’ campaign cited roughly $130,000 in contributions from more than 40 CAIR staff and board members, plus at least $300,000 from El-Sayed’s father-in-law, who allegedly held a leadership role in an organization linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Progressive Endorsements
El-Sayed received public backing from several progressive lawmakers, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rep. Ilhan Omar. At a July rally in Detroit, Ocasio-Cortez praised him as “the politics of the future” and urged voters to elect him to the Senate.
Official Statements & Responses
) to argue that Muslims organizing politically do not seek to impose religious law on others.
Verbatim Quotes
- “When the state of Oklahoma voted in a referendum to amend the constitution to ban Sharia law. What does that mean? I don’t know. And yet the voters banned it anyway,” — Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed
- “You all sitting in this room, in this town, we’re sitting in a space, in a time when I don’t have to tell you that the same exact forces that drove Native peoples from their land two centuries ago, destroyed Black Wall Street a century ago, bombed a building decades ago, and tried to ban Sharia law not a decade ago,” — Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed
- “Islamism likewise produces murder and oppression, from the forced wearing of hijabs to the stoning of rape victims, from the systematic murder of homosexuals to honor killings and the barbarism of October 7 and 9/11,” — Sen. Ted Cruz
- “Abdul isn’t just another liberal. He’s an extremist,” — Mike Rogers
- “Jesus, peace and blessings be upon him, was considered radical in his time too. And there is a radical nature to being willing to stand forthright in a time of corruption.” — Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed