The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest Hamas financing prosecution in American history.
Now the Democrat running for Michigan's open Senate seat just took hundreds of thousands of dollars from their network – and said nothing.
But Mike Rogers just handed El-Sayed a public demand he cannot ignore – and a clock.
Rogers Spent His Career Fighting These Organizations
Rogers knows exactly who CAIR is.
As a former FBI agent and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, he spent years tracking the networks that funnel money to Hamas.
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That's what makes his statement Tuesday so devastating.
"I guess when Abdul claims he wants 'money out of politics,' he doesn't count terrorist organizations," Rogers said. "As a former Army officer and House Intelligence Chair, I spent my life fighting to defeat terrorist organizations. Abdul cashes checks from them."
Rogers called it "absolutely disqualifying and an insult to the brave men and women who've risked their lives in service to this great country."
Then he said the obvious thing El-Sayed refuses to do: "Abdul – return the money."
The Money Trail Is Not a Small Story
El-Sayed's campaign pulled in more than $115,000 from at least 41 people who work for or have held leadership positions at CAIR – a group the United Arab Emirates has designated a terrorist organization and that Florida and Texas have formally labeled as such.
That donor list includes CAIR's national board chair, its national treasurer, and its national vice chair.
CAIR was not some distant bystander in American terrorism financing.
Federal prosecutors named it an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007 Holy Land Foundation trial – the most significant Hamas financing prosecution ever brought on American soil.
The Holy Land Foundation's leadership was convicted on all 108 criminal counts for funneling millions to Hamas.
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CAIR's own executive director, Nihad Awad, attended the 1993 Philadelphia meeting where Muslim Brotherhood members planned how to keep funding Hamas without appearing to be terrorists.
And CAIR's affiliated political arm gave $175,000 to a super PAC created specifically to elect El-Sayed – after Awad publicly said he was "happy" to see Hamas break out of Gaza on October 7.
El-Sayed said nothing about that either.
It Gets Closer Than That
El-Sayed's father-in-law, Tayeb Jukaku, has donated at least $300,000 to the pro-El-Sayed super PAC.
Jukaku is a top leader of Muslim Brotherhood-linked organizations and serves as president of CAIR Michigan.
He also sits on the governing boards of two Islamic organizations that federal prosecutors named as unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation case.
In August, a Senate Judiciary hearing examined the Muslim Brotherhood's influence in America.
Sen. Ted Cruz asked counterterrorism analyst Kyle Shideler directly: "Does Abdul El-Sayed's candidacy for Senator in Michigan concern you?"
Shideler's answer: "Yes."
Then there are El-Sayed's own words.
On September 11, 2021 – he later deleted the tweet – El-Sayed wrote that after mourning the 3,000 lives lost on 9/11, he would mourn the roughly one million lives lost in the wars that followed, framing America's response to the worst terrorist attack in its history as morally equivalent to the attack itself.
A man who thinks like that is now the Democrat running for a Michigan Senate seat.
This Is Not an Isolated Candidacy
Democrats want you to see El-Sayed as a local story about Michigan politics.
It isn't.
This is the same playbook that produced Zohran Mamdani – the socialist who won New York City's Democrat mayoral primary while championing Hamas and running against capitalism.
The radical left has figured out that charismatic, credentialed candidates can normalize positions that Democrats would have disqualified 20 years ago.
El-Sayed has a medical degree and a smooth delivery, and he talks about healthcare and economic justice in language that sounds reasonable.
But the money behind him is not reasonable – and he knows where it comes from.
El-Sayed can return the money or he can keep it.
But Michigan voters now know who wrote the checks – and what those organizations have done.
Sources:
- Andrew Miller and Kiera McDonald, "El-Sayed Campaign Backed by Over $100,000 From Dozens of Members of Group With Alleged Terror Ties," Fox News, August 5, 2026.
- Washington Free Beacon Staff, "El-Sayed Campaign Gets a $175,000 Boost From CAIR, Whose Leader Was 'Happy' About Oct. 7," Washington Free Beacon, July 2026.
- Washington Examiner Staff, "El Sayed's Father-in-Law Holds Leadership Roles at Islamic Organizations Named in Terrorism Financing Case," Washington Examiner, August 7, 2026.
- "Mike Rogers, Abdul El-Sayed Waste No Time Going on the Attack as November Looms," Fox 2 Detroit, August 2026.
- "MORNING GLORY: Rogers Versus El-Sayed Is a Referendum on the Future of America," Fox News, August 2026.
- Daily Wire Staff, "Mike Rogers Allies Urge AIPAC to Stay Out of Michigan Senate Race," Daily Wire, August 2026.
- "Abdul El-Sayed Claims U.S. Response to 9/11 'Scarred Millions of Other People,'" New York Post, September 8, 2026.