The Disavowal Game

By Abe Greenwald

At a town hall this past weekend, a young man named Tommy stood up and asked Abdul El-Sayed whether he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed responded, “Yes, absolutely,” and then turned the question on his questioner:

El-Sayed: But I want to ask the question that you’re asking. Why are you asking the question?

Tommy: Well, because they’re a terrorist group.

El-Sayed: Okay. No, no, but what are you implying? Do you assume that I wouldn’t?

Tommy: Yes.

El-Sayed: Why not?

Tommy: Because I have not heard you disavow them yet.

El-Sayed pointed out that he had just disavowed the Brotherhood and framed the entire question as an expression of Islamophobic bigotry. 

It wasn’t exactly a win for El-Sayed, but it was a loss for truth and clarity. That’s what happens when the wrong people ask the right questions. 

There’s a stronger response to El-Sayed’s “Why are you asking me?” jiu-jitsu, and it goes like this: 

Well, Abdul—may I call you Abdul?—to begin with, there are the verified Brotherhood, Islamist, and terrorist connections of most of your immediate family. 

Your father-in-law, Tayeb Jukaku, the largest individual donor to your campaign, is a member of the Islamic Society of North America and a founder and board director at the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Both groups are unindicted coconspirators in the USA v. Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development case, in which Holy Land Foundation leaders were convicted of terrorism-related charges. Federal prosecutors also linked both groups to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Your half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, delivered an October 7 “blessing” on Instagram, one year after the Hamas massacre in Israel. “I want to say, Allahu Akbar," she began. "That phrase means God is greater, and it's an important phrase in the Muslim tradition. It's one that I've been thinking about a lot over the last year, because it's a phrase that reminds us that no matter how great the brutality, the oppression, the intensity of what we're going through, the horizon of justice is just around the corner." There was not a word about October 7 itself or the slaughter of Jews. But she urged viewers to “grieve all the siblings that we’ve lost over the past year.” 

According to social media posts from this same half-sister, your mother, Fatten Fathy Elkomy, had been involved in the Muslim Brotherhood, and many other family members continue to be active in the organization. Additionally, your mother worked for the Islamic American Relief Agency, which was designated by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2004 for financially supporting Osama bin Laden and various terrorist organizations.

Your sister-in-law, Mariam Jukaku, was reportedly placed on a federal terrorism watchlist during the Obama administration. She joined a lawsuit to get her name taken off the list and, despite your claims, did not win. 

Of course, it’s not fair to pass judgment on someone based solely on the sins of his family. Which is why I’ll now turn to you. I’d imagine that it would be traumatic for a non-extremist Muslim to find himself in a family of committed Islamists and terrorist enablers. I’d think you’d make a point of distancing yourself from their extremism. And yet, you speak and act as if you’re in their camp. 

In 2012, you signed a letter of support for Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader, urging him to purge the country’s dissenting media and police. You empathized with the terrorist who tried to blow up the Temple Israel Synagogue and day school in March. “Hurt people,” you explained, “hurt people.” You continually refuse to renounce the theocratic Iranian regime. Nor have you said whether Iran or Israel poses a greater threat to the United States. You’ve defended the existence of shariah law in the U.S. You’ve boasted, to select audiences, that you’re actually an Egyptian immigrant. Why? Your friend Hasan Piker is a supporter of every Brotherhood terrorist offshoot I can think of. And you’ve not denounced him either.  

So that’s why I asked you about the Muslim Brotherhood. Now, what is it you thought was behind my question?

And if you want to know why I don’t believe El-Sayed’s 11th-hour disavowal, just reread the above.

Abe Greenwald is the executive editor of COMMENTARY.