Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed is facing new scrutiny after a report revealed that his mother worked for an Islamic charity that was later designated by the U.S. government as a supporter of terrorism over its ties to Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, Hamas and other terrorist organizations, reported our friends at Big League Politics.
Fatten Fathy Elkomy, El-Sayed’s mother, reportedly worked for the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA), also known as the Islamic African Relief Agency, from 1999 through at least 2004.
The organization presented itself as an international charity providing humanitarian assistance, operating more than 40 offices around the world.
But in October 2004, the U.S. Treasury Department designated IARA’s worldwide network and five senior officials as Specially Designated Global Terrorists under Executive Order 13224. Treasury said the organization’s international offices were providing financial support to Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, Hamas and other terrorist groups.
Treasury officials later testified that IARA had provided hundreds of thousands of dollars to bin Laden.
The revelation puts a new spotlight on El-Sayed’s family background as the far-left Democrat campaigns for a U.S. Senate seat in Michigan because his mother’s involvement in an organization funding Osama bin Laden is not the family’s only ties to Muslim terrorism.
El-Sayed’s campaign has collected more than $115,000 from individuals who work for or have held leadership roles with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has been designated a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates and formally designated or labeled as such in Florida and Texas.
A Fox News Digital review found that El-Sayed, who has made getting "money out of politics" a central campaign rallying cry, has accepted donations from at least 41 individuals, including Tayeb, who have been tied to CAIR in one form or another.
Counter-terrorism expert Kyle Shideler of the Center for Security Policy testified to a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee that the Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed’s candidacy raises homeland security concerns because of family ties to Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups.
Mr. Shideler told the subcommittee that El-Sayed’s father-in-law has connections to Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups.
"This includes being the president at one time of CAIR-Michigan," Shideler said of nephrologist Jukaku Tayeb. "Also, his presence on the Islamic Society of North America Founders Committee, which is only for those most exclusively devoted to ISNA and provide significant amounts of funding."
But it gets worse.
El-Sayed’s half-sister, Eman Adbelhadi who works as an associate professor at the University of Chicago's Department of Comparative Human Development, and has a years-long history of landing in the national spotlight for her association with Islamic organizations and her own terrorist acts, including assaulting a police officer, is an especially nasty piece of work.
Last fall, as leftist zealots spent months protesting, sometimes violently, outside an ICE detention facility in suburban Chicago, Abdelhadi was booked after allegedly spitting on an Illinois state trooper. She was charged on Oct. 3 with two counts of aggravated battery to a government employee, a Class 3 felony, and two counts of resisting/obstructing peace, a Class A misdemeanor, reported Fox News.
The pair share a mother — Fatten Elkomy — who works as a psychiatric nurse practitioner and lives in Missouri. That's where Abelhadi was raised, while El-Sayed was raised by his Egyptian-born father and American stepmother in the Detroit suburbs.
According to reporting cited by Townhall, federal court records from the government’s prosecution of IARA reference Elkomy numerous times in connection with the organization’s activities.
A government exhibit list reportedly references Elkomy 14 times and includes records involving eight wire transfers and five recorded telephone calls between 1999 and 2002. One transfer-request form bearing her name allegedly sought $24,607.34 for IARA’s Iraq office, while other records reportedly connected her to additional Iraq-related transfer correspondence.
Reports have all been quick to note that Elkomy was never charged with a crime or named as a co-conspirator, and the reporting does not establish that she participated in or knew about IARA’s alleged support for terrorist organizations.
The organization itself, however, ultimately admitted to serious federal crimes.
In 2016, IARA pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, conspiracy to commit money laundering and obstruction of the administration of federal tax laws. The Justice Department said the organization secretly transferred nearly $1.4 million to Iraq in violation of U.S. sanctions.
Several IARA officials and employees were also convicted or pleaded guilty in the federal investigation. Executive Director Mubarak Hamed admitted conspiring to illegally transfer more than $1 million to Iraq and obstructing federal tax laws. Former board member Ali Mohamed Bagegni also pleaded guilty for his role in the sanctions conspiracy.
The organization eventually agreed to permanently dissolve.
Elkomy publicly defended her work after the Treasury designation in 2004, telling the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that she had worked there helping orphans and children who had lost at least one parent.
El-Sayed has spoken publicly about his mother, including while promoting his Medicare for All proposal, describing her as a psychiatric nurse practitioner.
The latest report adds another controversial tie to Muslim terrorism to the Democratic nominee’s campaign as he prepares to face Republican Mike Rogers in November.
We urge all CHQ readers and friends to share this important information widely. Forward this message to your family, friends, neighbors, church and civic club mailing lists and encourage them to contact their friends and family in Michigan to alert them to the danger posed by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Man in Michigan, Democrat Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
George Rasley is editor of Richard Viguerie's ConservativeHQ.com and is a veteran of over 300 political campaigns. A member of American MENSA, he served on the staff of Vice President Dan Quayle, as Director of Policy and Communication for former Congressman Adam Putnam (FL-12) then Vice Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee's Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, and as spokesman for retired Rep. Mac Thornberry formerly a member of the House Intelligence Committee and Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
