Previously, I have written two blog posts about Islamophobia (in January 2016 and May 2013). But this month that phobia has reared its ugly head again, so I decided to change my planned blog post for today in order to write about Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and the recent Islamophobic attacks upon him.
On August 4, Abdul
El-Sayed won the primary election for the U.S. Senate in Michigan. Even
though he was opposed by the Democratic “establishment,” which spent big bucks
to oppose him in favor of their preferred candidate, El-Sayed (b. 1984)
narrowly won the election. I had been pulling for him, mainly because of his
progressive views.
In addition, I think it is only fair
that U.S. citizens whose religion is Islam have a person of their faith in the
Senate—and there never has been a Muslim Senator to this point. There are at
least 1.1% of U.S. citizens whose religion is Islam, so 1% of the Senate being
Muslim seems fair to me. (At present, there are four House members who are
Muslim, slightly over 0.9%.)
El-Sayed holds an MD degree from
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He was also a Rhodes
Scholar and has a Doctorate (DPhil) in Public Health from Oxford
University. Following graduation, he chose a career in public health, academia,
and government. He self-identifies
as a public health physician and epidemiologist.
El-Sayed’s political views deserve
widespread support by progressives. I encourage you to read the excellent New
York Times interview with the Michigan politician posted on August 7 (see
here; the image at the head of this post is from the photo in that article,
taken by Nick Hagen for the Times).
Among other things, Tim Balk, the interviewer, said to
the Muslim candidate, “There are Jewish folks in Michigan who say they’re
anxious about some of your comments. They’re anxious that they could make them
less safe in Michigan. What’s your message to them?”
I was impressed by Abdul’s response: “My commitment to
Jewish safety is the same as my commitment to the safety of my own daughters.
Antisemitism is a scourge.”
This also is noteworthy: a
Religion News Service piece on his Senate primary win reports that El-Sayed
has said he believes in the fundamental separation of church and state, adding
that he wants to protect the kind of America where everybody can pray how they
choose to pray, or choose not to pray at all.
Some Republican politicians have unfairly
pilloried El-Sayed. Despite
what Abdul has said and the full support he has from even the Democrats who opposed
his election, Republican leaders such as the POTUS and Ted Cruz have spoken out
strongly and untruthfully about him.
In his Truth Social post on Wednesday (Aug. 5), Trump leveled
a series of attacks on El-Sayed. According to Time magazine, the POTUS
called the Michigan politician ‘a man of hate’ who was ‘full of sh‑t.’ Ted
Cruz’s invective was even harsher.
On that same Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Cruz (R-Texas) used
the authority of his Judiciary subcommittee of the United States Senate to hold
a hearing purporting to demonstrate that there has been a decades-long Muslim
conspiracy, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, to undermine and control the United
States. He stated that El-Sayed is “the crowning achievement of that
conspiracy.”
In addition to the unseemly Islamophobic attacks, Abdul
is also being attacked for being a Communist, as seen in Trump and his MAGA
supporters, and renounced for being a Marxist.
Gary Bauer, a conservative evangelical commentator who
writes the American Values daily email newsletter, also posted this on
Aug. 5: “All of the socialist leaders were celebrating today. Bernie Sanders,
AOC, Mamdani and Marxist professors on every U.S. university faculty see the
future looking more like Marx and less like Jefferson.”
That is the sort of criticism coming from the
Religious Right, who are mostly MAGA supporters and agree with Trump’s recent
screed against Communism. And that is even though El-Sayed declares that he is
a capitalist and won’t even self-identify as a democratic socialist.
I fully support the senatorial
candidacy of El-Sayed, a Muslim, as well as that of Adam Hamilton, a widely
known and highly respected Methodist pastor in Kansas, and of James Talarico, a
recent seminary graduate in Texas.
What a difference it will make when Abdul, Adam, and
James take their Senate seats in January of next year! (It’s OK to have high
hopes, isn’t it?)
