WASHINGTON — Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive Michigan Senate candidate, is defending his sister-in-law after reports that she was allegedly placed on a federal terrorist watchlist during the Obama administration more than a decade ago.
Mariam Jukaku, the sister of El-Sayed’s wife, was among more than a dozen plaintiffs in a 2016 lawsuit involving individuals allegedly listed in the federal Terrorism Screening Database.
“She did nothing wrong and was captured on that and then sued and got off,” El-Sayed told Fox News on Saturday night when asked about the matter.
The federal government generally does not confirm or deny whether a person is on a terrorism watchlist—or explain why. Jukaku, however, was a plaintiff in a lawsuit supported by attorneys from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR.
According to the lawsuit, Jukaku was trying to board a flight from Detroit Metropolitan Airport in 2012 when her boarding pass was marked “SSSS,” the designation for Secondary Security Screening Selection. The suit said the notation indicated she had been identified as a “known or suspected terrorist.”
“While passing through security, she was subjected to extensive searches, pat-downs and chemical testing,” she added.
Placement on a terrorism watchlist does not, by itself, mean that an individual has committed a crime.
The precise reason for Jukaku’s alleged inclusion in the Terrorism Screening Database was not disclosed. The Los Angeles Times and the Daily Bruin reported that she had worked as an editor at UCLA’s Al-Talib.
According to those reports, federal authorities allegedly “shut down” three major advertisers of the publication because of suspected terrorist connections. Jukaku was described as having spoken out about the issue at the time.
Jukaku also encountered law enforcement in 2007 while attending graduate school at Syracuse University after photographing federal facilities, The Federalist reported.
The 2016 case was a class-action lawsuit against the federal government seeking monetary damages. The parties agreed to dismiss it in 2017. A separate lawsuit sought an injunction against the government and initially resulted in a victory for the plaintiffs, but the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that ruling in 2021.
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The Post was unable to reach Jukaku for comment. It also contacted the attorneys involved in the case and El-Sayed’s campaign.
“You’ve got this system where folks are guilty until proven innocent because they’ve got different kinds of names, because of the infrastructure that people like Mike Rogers set up,” El-Sayed told Fox News, referring to his Republican opponent.
Several prominent officials have also appeared on comparable lists. Former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, for example, was placed on the Transportation Security Administration’s “Quiet Skies” watchlist, allegedly because of her international travel patterns.
Critics contend that terrorism watchlists frequently provide little or no meaningful due process, while many of the people listed remain unaware that they are being monitored.
El-Sayed’s family connections to various Islamic organizations have drawn scrutiny during his contentious campaign against Rogers.
Tweets from 2012 showed that El-Sayed’s half-sister, University of Chicago professor Eman Abdelhadi, said their family supported the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which has radical offshoots including Hamas, is designated a terrorist organization by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, but not by the United States.
El-Sayed was also challenged Saturday by a voter identified as Tommy, who asked whether he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood.
“Sure. Yeah, absolutely,” El-Sayed responded before criticizing the premise of the question.
“You assume, Tommy, that because I am Muslim, that somehow, I would have allegiance to something that is not our Constitution,” he said. “That’s implicit in the question.”
The Michigan Senate hopeful invoked the skepticism that John F. Kennedy faced over his Catholic faith when he ran for president in 1960.
El-Sayed is set to debate Rogers on Wednesday and then stump with former President Barack Obama on Saturday.
