DETROIT — Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Michigan, delivered an impassioned address Saturday at an Islamic convention that has drawn scrutiny over its decision to feature several speakers who have promoted or entertained conspiracy theories about the Sept. 11 attacks, just days before the 25th anniversary of the tragedy.
El-Sayed appeared Saturday night at the Islamic Society of North America’s annual convention in Detroit, sharing the stage with “The Young Turks” founder Cenk Uygur and Muslim cleric Zaid Shakir. Both men have previously cast doubt on the official government account of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The Michigan Senate hopeful had already come under criticism earlier in the week after an old Sept. 11, 2021, post resurfaced. In the since-deleted tweet, El-Sayed commemorated those killed on 9/11 while also sharply criticizing the United States.
On Saturday, however, El-Sayed did not address the controversy directly. Instead, he used his appearance before the convention audience to speak broadly about anti-Muslim discrimination and the challenges facing Muslim Americans nationwide.
“We found ourselves in a moment now where, as people point to us, Muslim Americans, they want to tell us that we don’t belong,” El-Sayed told the crowd, estimated at roughly 1,000 attendees.
“They want to tell us that this country is not ours. They want to tell us that because of our names or how we pray, that somehow we are less than.”
The Senate candidate also praised Michigan voters, saying his experience on the campaign trail has shown him a state less concerned with religious identity than with shared priorities and values.
“Michiganders don’t care how you pray; they care what you pray for and what you hope for,” he said.
“They don’t care what your name is; they care if you care to know their name. Good-hearted people, open-minded, big-hearted, asking how we can come together beyond our differences.”
While El-Sayed remained tight-lipped to avoid making any controversial statements, his fellow panelists were more fired up and made several anti-Israel comments.
Uygur criticized the US’s support for Israel, saying, “it is unbearable to me as an American,” and referred to the horrifying October 7 attacks in a rather flippant way.
“‘Oh my god, on October 7, the worst thing since the Holocaust,’” he snarked about the mainstream media’s coverage of the attacks on Israel.
“They make it sound like the Palestinians are occupying the Israelis rather than the other way around,” Uygur claimed. “No, I’m not going to let them get away with that anymore.”
“None of us are going to let them get away with that anymore,” the controversial speaker warned. “But they’re going to have to come through me first.”
Uygur, who is the uncle of notorious streamer Hasan Piker, is no stranger to making outlandish statements, sharing in February that “I no longer believe [the] official 9/11 story,” in a shocking X post.
“Two paper passports did not burn and were found on the rubble but it was so hot WTC7 burned down across the street. Nonsense,” he wrote.
Similarly, Shakir has previously argued that there are “glaring weaknesses and inconsistencies” with the official account of what happened in the 9/11 attacks.
He complained in an article that “9/11 has been used by both the government and a significant segment of the Christian Right in this country, along with their allies, to launch a war on Islam.”
